An Evaluation Of Reading Section In Advance With English

Coursebooks play an important part in language teaching for it not only provides a great deal of language input, but also gives practical references for the practices in class.As reading takes a large proportion in daily English teaching and examinations,improving students'reading ability has been the focus of English teaching all the time,thus the reading sections of a coursebook are obviously the most essential part. But if teachers have a misunderstanding of the reading section and pay little attention to reading strategy training, the teaching and learning effectiveness will be influenced. So it is necessary to evaluate the reading section of coursebooks.The thesis attempts to make a static and dynamic evaluation of the reading section of Advance with English used in Jiangsu Province, aiming to answer the following questions:1) What's the main content and functions of the reading section of Advance with English?And to what extent the reading section meets the requirements of the NECS? 2) To what extent the reading section of Advance with English satisfies the needs of teachers and students in Jiangsu? 3) What are the characteristics of the reading section of Advance with English? What kind of adjustment should be made if Advance with English continues to be used? After an overview the theoretical bases of compilation and related research on coursebook evaluation, based on coursebook evaluation approaches proposed by Cunningsworth, Grant and Cheng, the approach to evaluation of the reading section of Advance with English is put forward. To be more specific, this research first makes a static evaluation in the way of textual analysis in order to check the suitability to the NECS and then have a dynamic evaluation of the usage in Jiangsu by questionnaires and interviews,the data of which are analyzed quantitatively by Excel in order to check the suitability to the teaching and learning needs of teachers and students in Jiangsu and explore the characteristics and room for improvement.The findings are summarized as follows: 1) The reading section of Advance with English consists of reading materials and reading activities, which is the focus of English teaching, and it satisfies the requirements of the NECS. 2) It basically meets the needs of teachers and students. 3) The section has the following features: abundant topics and various genres, authentic language, integration of language skills, reading strategies provided in every unit and so on. However, it still can be improved by refreshing the topics,expanding the levels of questions and cultivating students' critical thinking and intercultural awareness.Based on the results of the research, this thesis recommends some implications for compilers. The compilers should take into consideration adding classical works, updating reading materials, electing attractive texts, designing various reading activities and high-level questions and paying attention to cultivating students' critical thinking ability and intercultural awareness.