Research On The First Volume Of Secondary Vocational English Textbooks Of ESPH Version And FLTRP Version In Cultivating 3+2 Segmental Students' Reading Ability

As an important part of English textbook for secondary vocational school,reading material plays an important role in cultivating the English reading comprehension ability of the 3+2 segments vocational students.The selection and design of reading materials in the textbooks should not only take the actual situations of students' learning and teachers' teaching into consideration,but also follow the principles of variety,selectivity and high quality of teaching materials set in the English curriculum standards for the secondary vocational school(2011 edition)(hereinafter curriculum standards)and meet the outline of English academic level test for secondary vocational school students in Fujian Province(2017 edition)(hereinafter academic test)as well.Two versions of textbooks widely used in Fujian Province have been compared in this study,including English(Educational Science Publishing House Press,hereinafter ESPH)and English Textbook(Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,hereinafter FLTRP).Through comparative analysis of the content and external teaching experiment of the reading materials in ESPH and FLTRP,the study aims to find out which version of the textbook is more conducive to the cultivation of the English reading comprehension ability of 3+2 segmental students.This study is to determine the answers to the following two questions:1.Based on Cunningsworth's content evaluation framework,reading materials in which version of the textbook are more various and selective in genre,topic selection,length and vocabulary,linguistic features and post-reading exercises?2.Combined with teaching experiment and questionnaires,which version of textbook can better adapt to the students and thus reflects the higher quality in its reading materials?The results of content evaluation show that the reading materials in ESPH and FLTRP to some extent meet the requirements of the curriculum standards.In genre,both ESPH and FLTRP have shown the variety and ESPH is more acceptable to students with its form of dialogue.In topic selection,both versions share much variety and selectivity.In terms of length and vocabulary,reading materials in FLTRP are usually longer and the quantity of keywords and the number of words beyond the teaching syllabus is bigger than that in ESPH.With view to linguistic features,the variety and quantity of compound sentences in FLTRP are richer than those in ESPH.ESPH emphasizes more the understanding of meanings of the reading materials while FLTRP pays more attention to the cultivation of students' logical thinking.In post-reading exercises,both versions have shown variety,selectivity and evaluation and additionally FLTRP conforms to the requirements of academic test to a greater extent.Besides,the consequences of teaching experiment and questionnaires show that the students' performances in reading test have obviously improved and students show more adaptability to the FLTRP,which means FLTRP enjoys higher quality than ESPH in reading materials.In summary,compared to ESPH,FLTRP is more aligned with the principles of variety,selectivity and higher quality stated in the curriculum standards and the requirements of academic test.The author hopes this study will provide 3+2 segmental education in secondary school with suggestions for reference in selecting and designing the reading materials in English textbooks.