论文部分内容阅读
Abstract: In China, English has become one of the compulsory courses in the National Tertiary Curriculum. There are plenty of English teaching materials available in the market. Faced with this mass of teaching materials, teachers should consider which one is most suitable for certain target students. However, most teachers are just given the textbooks and then teach them. Some teachers seldom evaluate whether the textbook is good or not. In addition, most teachers may not have been adequately trained on how to evaluate a textbook, and may be unaware of how to judge which textbooks best suit their students. Nunan (1991) states that materials are an important factor in the curriculum; they are a tangible and visible aspect of the curriculum. Therefore, it is vital that the teacher should consider the importance of the teaching material they choose and then effectively match textbooks with the teaching objective.In this essay, I am going to evaluate New College English (1999) which is published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Key Words: curriculum, evaluation, effectiveness, appropriateness, genre, 1.
1.Description of the textbook
New College English (1999) is a students - centered textbook for non-English major students. There are four parts in each unit: Preparation, Listening-Centered activities, Reading-Centered Activities, and Further Development. Each part of the activities is closely linked with each other in such a way that the students can relate new language to what they already know and build up their knowledge of English by adding new language to their existing body of English.
2. Evaluation Principles
2.1 Relate to the aim of national curriculum
The College English Teaching Syllabus for non-English majors has already set the aim of English teaching, which is to cultivate students’ strong ability in reading, and certain abilities in listening, speaking, writing and translation, so that can enhance students’ communicative competence.
2.2 Effectiveness
‘The real aim of language teaching is to bring the learner to a point where he can use the language for his own purpose’ (Cunningsworth 1984, p. 6). The textbook should help students understand how English is used to convey a particular function and develop the student’s ability to express his/her feelings or attitudes about real things or events to people.
2.3 Motivation
Motivation plays a vital importance role in language-learning success; without it, students may lose their interest or enthusiasms in English learning. If the content of textbook is interesting enough and contains a variety of meaningful activities, the students’ learning motivation will increase greatly. Their motivation will in turn push them to pay much effort on English learning. 2.4 Appropriateness
In determining appropriateness, the teacher should consider whether vocabulary has a high frequency of use in students’ life, whether the content in the textbook is up-to-date, whether the reading passages are suitable for students to understand, and whether the activities are meaningful enough to increase students’ communicative abilities.
3. Critical Analysis of the New College English
In order to illustrate the principles mentioned above, I will apply the principles in practice, and see how the textbook can enhance the students’ English level.
3.1 Aims
There are three main features of this textbook: first, it is easy for students to engage in all kinds of activities. Second, it integrates listening with speaking into one part. In this way, students’ learning motivation will improve, because students can express or speak with his or her partner immediately after listening to the certain passage. The sense of accomplishment will increase their motivation which in turn stimulates their learning enthusiasm.
3.2 Content
Genre
‘The term ‘genre’ refers to a purposeful, socially-constructed, communicative event’ (Nunan 1991, p.44). Different genres have different communicative functions. In the New College English (1999), most topics are related to campus life and social life. This familiarity can increase the students’ learning interest and have certain effectiveness, because students could apply what they have learned into their real life. It is easy for students express and share their feelings and ideas to each other since the topics are related to their normal life.
Skills
In view of skills of English, the New College English provides the learners with pretty good strategies in the fields of speaking, reading; however, it is little weak on vocabulary. First, the textbook integrates listening with speaking, which is an effective way to let students express their own opinions basing on what they have listened to. Such exercises ensure students’ interaction in English, and have effectiveness in cultivating their communicative competence.
In regard to reading, each unit has an in-class reading passage. Before reading the passage, there are some pre-reading questions which need students discuss in pairs, the questions are clues which can help them using their background knowledge to guess or infer the meaning of the reading. It is an effective way to train students’ reading ability. As for vocabulary, there are not many strategies to introduce to the students in this book; however, vocabulary is a big question for most students. Some students often complain they remember the new word today, and forget totally the next day. So some word-building methods should be contained in the textbook, such as prefixes, suffixes.
Linguistic Focus
The vocabulary in this textbook has certain appropriateness because the words are functional, high frequent used, and current. Moreover, the topics cover a wide range of fields, so the students will use these words frequently in the process of language learning.
As for grammar, there is not much emphasis on it since it is designed based on cultivating communicative competence. For some tertiary students, they will confuse some grammar usage. In this case, when they express their opinions either in form of oral or in writing, the sentence patterns lack variety, and most students feel disappointment when they cannot write or speak perfect English sentences. In order to continue to motivate students’ the communicative activities, it needs to be complemented by a more explicit focus on grammar.
Cultural Value
In the New College English (1999), it very much depends on the topic of each unit. These textbooks are genre-oriented textbooks, so culture may seem difficult to include. However, if the topics under each genre were related to other countries’ cultures, students would be introduced to cultural background knowledge of the target culture.
4. Methodology
In teaching New College English, teachers are using CLT in the class. For many years, students have become accustomed to taking notes and solely listening to what the teacher says in the class. It might be helpful if the book could give more explicit instructions on how to make CLT more suitable for Chinese students.
5. Assessment
For tertiary students they need to pass CET 4 (College English Test Band 4) which is a national test. This test is to guarantee the teaching quality and to raise students’ English level. The CET 4 has great power in China, so students would pay much attention to preparing for it. Therefore, to be able to meet students’ needs for the test, teachers have to devote more class time to teach test-taking skills and grammar points during the class.
6. Questions
The aim of New College English is student-centered, so the activities are designed to improve students’ communicative abilities. However, the end term test and CET-4 do not test students’ communicative competence, only the ones who get over 80 in CET-4 have a speaking test. In addition, CET-4 has much power to show a student’s English level, so most teachers and students will lose their initial enthusiasm and go back to the traditional teaching methods. In this case, students are still playing much emphasis on the examinations and ignoring communicative abilities. 7. Recommendations for improvement
The New College English has already tried to help students’ communicative abilities in many aspects. However, there are some recommendations for improvement.
Clear and Concise Grammatical Explanations
New College English places much emphasis on communicative abilities, so many classroom activities are designed for increasing students’ communicative competence. However, grammar is an important factor in speaking, and writing, because it can strengthen a student’s English level. Most students only use quite simple sentence structure both in speaking and writing. If a student’s English sentences are quite simple and lack variety, they themselves will feel discouraged. Hence, if there are grammar summary tables listed as appendices, students would be convinced to reinforce their own knowledge.
Conclusion
‘A good textbook is indispensable to a successful syllabus…’ (Xu 2002, p. 14). The quality of the textbook will influence the students’ learning outcomes. Hence, it is necessary for teachers to be well-equipped with the skills to decide which textbooks are appropriate for their students’ needs and ensure that students are using the highest quality textbooks possible and that their language ability is enhanced.
References
Cunningsworth, A. (1984). Evaluating and Selecting EFL Teaching Materials. Great Britain: Biddles Ltd.
Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching: A guide for teachers and trainers. Great Britain: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology: A textbook for teachers. Great Britain: Redwood Books, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Xu, X. (2002). English language in tertiary education in China: current perspective. ALM Articles.
Ying, H. (1999). New College English. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Key Words: curriculum, evaluation, effectiveness, appropriateness, genre, 1.
1.Description of the textbook
New College English (1999) is a students - centered textbook for non-English major students. There are four parts in each unit: Preparation, Listening-Centered activities, Reading-Centered Activities, and Further Development. Each part of the activities is closely linked with each other in such a way that the students can relate new language to what they already know and build up their knowledge of English by adding new language to their existing body of English.
2. Evaluation Principles
2.1 Relate to the aim of national curriculum
The College English Teaching Syllabus for non-English majors has already set the aim of English teaching, which is to cultivate students’ strong ability in reading, and certain abilities in listening, speaking, writing and translation, so that can enhance students’ communicative competence.
2.2 Effectiveness
‘The real aim of language teaching is to bring the learner to a point where he can use the language for his own purpose’ (Cunningsworth 1984, p. 6). The textbook should help students understand how English is used to convey a particular function and develop the student’s ability to express his/her feelings or attitudes about real things or events to people.
2.3 Motivation
Motivation plays a vital importance role in language-learning success; without it, students may lose their interest or enthusiasms in English learning. If the content of textbook is interesting enough and contains a variety of meaningful activities, the students’ learning motivation will increase greatly. Their motivation will in turn push them to pay much effort on English learning. 2.4 Appropriateness
In determining appropriateness, the teacher should consider whether vocabulary has a high frequency of use in students’ life, whether the content in the textbook is up-to-date, whether the reading passages are suitable for students to understand, and whether the activities are meaningful enough to increase students’ communicative abilities.
3. Critical Analysis of the New College English
In order to illustrate the principles mentioned above, I will apply the principles in practice, and see how the textbook can enhance the students’ English level.
3.1 Aims
There are three main features of this textbook: first, it is easy for students to engage in all kinds of activities. Second, it integrates listening with speaking into one part. In this way, students’ learning motivation will improve, because students can express or speak with his or her partner immediately after listening to the certain passage. The sense of accomplishment will increase their motivation which in turn stimulates their learning enthusiasm.
3.2 Content
Genre
‘The term ‘genre’ refers to a purposeful, socially-constructed, communicative event’ (Nunan 1991, p.44). Different genres have different communicative functions. In the New College English (1999), most topics are related to campus life and social life. This familiarity can increase the students’ learning interest and have certain effectiveness, because students could apply what they have learned into their real life. It is easy for students express and share their feelings and ideas to each other since the topics are related to their normal life.
Skills
In view of skills of English, the New College English provides the learners with pretty good strategies in the fields of speaking, reading; however, it is little weak on vocabulary. First, the textbook integrates listening with speaking, which is an effective way to let students express their own opinions basing on what they have listened to. Such exercises ensure students’ interaction in English, and have effectiveness in cultivating their communicative competence.
In regard to reading, each unit has an in-class reading passage. Before reading the passage, there are some pre-reading questions which need students discuss in pairs, the questions are clues which can help them using their background knowledge to guess or infer the meaning of the reading. It is an effective way to train students’ reading ability. As for vocabulary, there are not many strategies to introduce to the students in this book; however, vocabulary is a big question for most students. Some students often complain they remember the new word today, and forget totally the next day. So some word-building methods should be contained in the textbook, such as prefixes, suffixes.
Linguistic Focus
The vocabulary in this textbook has certain appropriateness because the words are functional, high frequent used, and current. Moreover, the topics cover a wide range of fields, so the students will use these words frequently in the process of language learning.
As for grammar, there is not much emphasis on it since it is designed based on cultivating communicative competence. For some tertiary students, they will confuse some grammar usage. In this case, when they express their opinions either in form of oral or in writing, the sentence patterns lack variety, and most students feel disappointment when they cannot write or speak perfect English sentences. In order to continue to motivate students’ the communicative activities, it needs to be complemented by a more explicit focus on grammar.
Cultural Value
In the New College English (1999), it very much depends on the topic of each unit. These textbooks are genre-oriented textbooks, so culture may seem difficult to include. However, if the topics under each genre were related to other countries’ cultures, students would be introduced to cultural background knowledge of the target culture.
4. Methodology
In teaching New College English, teachers are using CLT in the class. For many years, students have become accustomed to taking notes and solely listening to what the teacher says in the class. It might be helpful if the book could give more explicit instructions on how to make CLT more suitable for Chinese students.
5. Assessment
For tertiary students they need to pass CET 4 (College English Test Band 4) which is a national test. This test is to guarantee the teaching quality and to raise students’ English level. The CET 4 has great power in China, so students would pay much attention to preparing for it. Therefore, to be able to meet students’ needs for the test, teachers have to devote more class time to teach test-taking skills and grammar points during the class.
6. Questions
The aim of New College English is student-centered, so the activities are designed to improve students’ communicative abilities. However, the end term test and CET-4 do not test students’ communicative competence, only the ones who get over 80 in CET-4 have a speaking test. In addition, CET-4 has much power to show a student’s English level, so most teachers and students will lose their initial enthusiasm and go back to the traditional teaching methods. In this case, students are still playing much emphasis on the examinations and ignoring communicative abilities. 7. Recommendations for improvement
The New College English has already tried to help students’ communicative abilities in many aspects. However, there are some recommendations for improvement.
Clear and Concise Grammatical Explanations
New College English places much emphasis on communicative abilities, so many classroom activities are designed for increasing students’ communicative competence. However, grammar is an important factor in speaking, and writing, because it can strengthen a student’s English level. Most students only use quite simple sentence structure both in speaking and writing. If a student’s English sentences are quite simple and lack variety, they themselves will feel discouraged. Hence, if there are grammar summary tables listed as appendices, students would be convinced to reinforce their own knowledge.
Conclusion
‘A good textbook is indispensable to a successful syllabus…’ (Xu 2002, p. 14). The quality of the textbook will influence the students’ learning outcomes. Hence, it is necessary for teachers to be well-equipped with the skills to decide which textbooks are appropriate for their students’ needs and ensure that students are using the highest quality textbooks possible and that their language ability is enhanced.
References
Cunningsworth, A. (1984). Evaluating and Selecting EFL Teaching Materials. Great Britain: Biddles Ltd.
Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching: A guide for teachers and trainers. Great Britain: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology: A textbook for teachers. Great Britain: Redwood Books, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Xu, X. (2002). English language in tertiary education in China: current perspective. ALM Articles.
Ying, H. (1999). New College English. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.