A Study Of Reading Tasks In College English Integrated Coursebook: New Goal (Trial Edition)

As the ever-changing situation has made new demands on college English teaching,a new round of college English reform has started and developed rapidly.In order to adapt to the new English teaching requirement,a new set of college English integrated coursebooks--the New Goal English has been compiled by H.University.Since reading is an important method for students to extend knowledge,reading task design plays an essential role in guaranteeing the quality of teaching materials as well as the teaching efficiency.Given the importance of reading and task design in teaching materials,the reading task design in New Goal English is studied based on David Nunan's task evaluation theory.The study aims to answer the following two questions:1.How are the reading tasks designed in the College English Integrated Coursebook:New Goal(Trial Edition)?2.To what extent are teachers and students satisfied with the reading tasks designed in College English Integrated Coursebook:New Goal(Trial Edition).Both quantitative and qualitative methods are applied in this study.All the reading tasks designed in four books are analyzed to see how the reading tasks designed in College English Integrated Coursebook:New Goal(Trial Edition).235 non-English majored freshmen and sophomores and 22 college English teachers are invited to show their opinions towards the reading tasks in terms of student questionnaire and teacher's checklist respectively.After the data analysis,the findings are shown as follows:1.The reading goals are explicitly presented,skill-based and easy to handle;Diversified task input is provided;Task organizations are highly-structured;Reading task design combines receptive skills with productive skills well.2.Both teachers and students are satisfied with the reading tasks designed in New Goal English overall.They hold positive attitudes towards interest degree of task,authenticity degree of material used in the tasks,degree of goal attainability,convenience degree of self-assessment and self-study.However,the majority of the students claim that reading tasks designed are comparatively difficult.Meanwhile,the limitation and implication of this study are discussed;some suggestions are made for the reading task design in College English Integrated Coursebook:New Goal(Trial Edition).