| Much attention has been paid to the study of the theories and approaches of EFL teaching from the perspective of constructivism. However there are relatively few researches applying constructivism to study its teaching contents, especially the course-books, failing to match the rapid development of EFL course-books. As constructivism is gaining increasing popularity in EFL classrooms, including that of business English (BE), the author believes that it is of practical significance to study BE course-books from the perspective of constructivism. This thesis proposes a tentative checklist of BE course-books from the perspective of constructivism. Taking the newly-developed checklist as the standard, the author conducted descriptions and evaluations on BE course-books currently used in China. Three research questions were put forward:(1) Is it possible to develop a specific checklist of constructivist views on business English course-books? If yes, what could it be?(2) Evaluated via the constructivism-based checklist developed in question (1), what is the status quo of BE writing course-books being used in China?(3) What are the major strengths and problems of BE writing course-books in China? What are the possible reasons for the problems?Based on the requirements of constructivist teaching theory and taking into consideration the three characteristics of BE teaching, namely authentic material, purpose-related orientation, and self-direction, the current research draws on constructivist theories of teaching materials put forward by previous researchers and proposes the constructivist view of business English (BE) writing course-books: BE writing course-books developed based on Constructivism should possess the following five qualities: well-balanced contents; diversified contexts; authenticity; stereoscopic components; collaborative-learning promoting activities.Then the author selected 8 BE writing course-books for undergraduates and examined them via the constructivist checklist mentioned above to see whether BE writing course-books could meet the requirements of constructivism. Through data analysis, this thesis got the following results and findings:The 8 target course-books boast reasonable integration of language knowledge, writing knowledge, and business knowledge as requested by the constructivist views on BE course-books. However, problems existed mainly in three aspects: inadequacy in authenticity, lack of collaborative learning promotion, and insufficient stereoscopic materials. Interviews were conducted to five BE writing teachers to find out the possible reasons for the problems. According to the results of the interviews, major reasons lying behind these problems included the influence imposed by test-oriented education on BE course-book development, reluctance of teachers to adopt novel course-books, and writers’unfamiliarity with relevant theories of course-book development.Based on the above study, the author proposes several suggestions for future BE writing course-book development. First of all, course-book development should be use-oriented instead of test-oriented. Furthermore, teachers’book of each course-book should be provided to equip teachers with up-to-date teaching methodologies and theories. Last but not least, BE course-book development should employ new teaching methodologies and theories. |
PDF Full Text Request