Comparing Original Teacher’s Guides With Their Versions In China

More and more students and teachers are using original English books.Some original teacher’s guides have particular versions in China.What are the differences and similarities between them?Why?How do English teachers in China think of the teacher’s guides they are using?This paper takes the teacher’s guides of "Sunshine English Graded Books" as an example and compares its two versions mainly by content analysis,interviews and questionnaires.The research questions studied are:1.What are the similarities and differences between Sunshine’s two versions of teacher’s guides and why?2.What are Chinese teachers’ perceptions of the two versions?This study found that both versions have something in common.Their teaching goals both focus on improving students’ language skills.And their teaching procedures both include activities before,during and after reading.But there are many differences,too.From the perspectives of main structure,Sunshine’s original teacher’s guides provide only teaching plans,while Sunshine’s teacher’s guides in China provide much more.They have general introduction to the series of books and rationale of the teacher’ s guides.They explain in detail the five common reading activities:Picture Walk,Jigsaw,Sustained Silent Reading,Reading Circles and Mind Mapping.And they also have worksheets.From the perspective of teaching goals,the former put more emphasis on word study and fluency,while the latter attach more importance to cultivating students’ language knowledge,emotions and attitudes,learning strategies,and cultural awareness.And the Chinese version provides more support for teachers to understand the text.Then by interviews this study found that a Chinese version is extremely necessary mainly for two reasons.The first is to meet the needs of Chinese audience and employ locally appropriate methodology and address local concerns,because the students,the teachers,the class sizes and the exam system all differ in both countries.Second,it is to provide teachers with more convenience and efficiency,such as mind maps and text analysis,and being more eye friendly.The questionnaire survey shows that all the scores of the 22 criteria items of Chinese version are higher than those of the original version,indicating that the former meets the needs of Chinese English teachers more.At last this study gives suggestions on designing teacher’s guides.Always put teachers’ needs in the first place;have a richer structure;keep pace with latest teaching theories;provide a deeper text analysis;set up goals in accordance with the curriculum;suggest appropriate assessment methods of teaching and learning.All of these are essential for a high-quality teacher’s guide.