The Comparative Study On The Design Of Grammar Section In The Two Sets Of Textbooks For Junior High School

What is known to all is that English grammar plays an important role in the whole process of English learning.The textbook,as the main resource and tool for grammar teaching and learning,is of great significance in actual teaching.In recent years,with the rapid development of foreign language teaching and the increasing flourishing of foreign textbooks,more and more textbooks appear in the market.In this case,only a scientific evaluation of the textbooks is conducted,can it be helpful for people to choose better textbooks.Therefore,under the circumstances,the comparative research on the textbooks is quite important and necessary.Based on the theory of textbook analysis,three-dimensional grammar framework and task-based language teaching,this thesis firstly conducts the comparative research on the arrangement of grammar items and the design of grammar exercises for the two sets of textbooks,which are Oxford English and Go for it.Besides,120 teachers from Jincheng City and Changzhi City were investigated by the means of questionnaires and interviews,which are mainly consisted of three aspects: basic information of the teachers,their evaluation on the textbooks and using conditions of the two sets of textbooks.According to the internal and external evaluation,this thesis aims to explore the following questions:(1)How are the grammar items presented in the two sets of textbooks? What are their distinctive characteristics?(2)As to the arrangement of grammar items,which set of the textbook is more beneficial to actual teaching?(3)As to the design of grammar exercises,which set of the textbook is more beneficial to actual teaching?According to the analysis of the survey,the results are as follows:(1)The independent section of grammar contents is designed in the two sets oftextbooks and both of them own their distinctive characteristics in the presenting ways of grammar items.In Oxford English,it firstly introduces the forms and meanings of grammar items,and then the typical sentence patterns related to the grammar items are extracted from the reading passages and the brief explanations of the sentences are provided in English technical terms.In doing so,students can have a preliminary understanding of the grammar items.In addition,a section named “Work out the rule” is designed to guide students to summarize the grammar points by themselves.At the same time,a section titled “Things to remember” is also designed to have students grasp the important and difficult points.In Go for it,a column called “Grammar Focus” is designed to present the key points of each unit in the form of sentence patterns and dialogues.In the appendixes of textbooks,they provide clear explanations and conclusions of the grammar items in Chinese.(2)The two sets of textbooks both adopt circulating presentation on grammar items.Comparatively speaking,Oxford English emphasizes that the grammar items should be arranged in the center of topics,so there are many grammar items in each unit,which are a little messy and unsystematic.While the grammar items,In Go for it,are intensively presented,and the breadth and depth is gradually increased.They are also arranged like a circle from easy to difficult,which is systematic and in line with students' cognitive rules.Therefore,the arrangement of grammar items in Go for it is more beneficial to actual teaching.(3)Diverse exercises are designed in both sets of textbooks after the presentation of grammar items.In Oxford English,the exercises are diverse in category and moderate in difficulty,and they are closely connected to students' actual life.However,the amount of exercise is not adequate and more are written exercises and the oral exercises are comparatively less,so it is quite necessary for teachers to add extra exercises.In Go for it,there are not only adequate written exercises for students but also oral ones,especially there is at least one open-ended oral exercise in the section of 3c for each unit,which enables students to apply what they have learnt into communicative context.At the same time,not only the exercises focusing on language form but also the exercises focusing on language meaning are designed.In this case,these exercises provide more room for teachers to adjust.Therefore,the design of grammar exercises in Go for it is more beneficial to actual teaching.In conclusion,the design of grammar section in Go for it is more suitable to actual teaching.At last,according to the results of analysis,the writer of this thesis points outthe shortcomings and proposes some suggestions for editors and users so that the textbook writers can further improve textbooks and the textbook users can use the textbooks better.