A Comparative Study On Practice System Between American And Chinese Higher Grade Primary Students' Language Textbooks

As an important part of language textbook,practice system plays an important role in the implementation and effectiveness of language teaching.The scientific and reasonable practice system cannot only deepen the students' understandings to the text contents,strengthen the knowledge they have learned,but also improve students' language abilities and develop students' language literacy.The senior years in primary school which is considered as a link between primary period and junior period is an important foundation stage for the further study and development.So both the high qualified language textbooks and scientific and reasonable practice system can have an important influence on students' language learning and language abilities.However,the practice system has been played a subsidiary role in Chinese teaching materials for a long time,and no more attention is paid on practice system.Although after the continuous reform,the practice contents are enriched and the practice types are increased gradually in primary language textbooks of Chinese version.There are still some deficiencies in the practice system which are worth to be carried out in a comprehensive and deep way.On the basis of the comparison between Chinese and American textbooks,this paper did an analysis and a comparison of practice system in Chinese and American textbooks through text analysis method and comparative method.The author chose two kinds of textbooks as the data,the primary Chinese textbooks published by language press and Reading Wonders published by Mc Graw-Hill,both of these two textbooks are used by grade five or six students in primary school.The author did a comparison between these two sets of textbooks from the practice amounts,practice contents,practice types,practice tables,cognitive levels and moral connotations.It is found that there are some deficiencies in the practice design of Chinese textbooks,such as the fewer practice and single forms;emphasis on language studying ratherthan learning methods;emphasis on reading and writing rather than speaking and listening;single practice tables.So according to these deficiencies,the paper proposed some countermeasures and suggestions which can improve the practice system:increasing the amount of practice appropriately;enriching the practice types;paying attention on guiding;strengthening the instruction of learning strategies and methods;focusing on the problem solving;promoting students' active learning;focusing on the training of students' thinking abilities;training creative thinking;improving the design of practice tables;making a full use of the auxiliary teaching.