| As a major component in the implementation of English teaching, English coursebook plays an important role in both accomplishing the teaching content andachieving the teaching objectives. At the same time, the quality of course bookdepends, to a large degree, on that of the tasks because task is the essential of thewhole course book. Nowadays New Practical English (NPE)(the second edition)published by Higher Education Press is widely used by a lot of higher vocationalcolleges. Are the tasks of the course books qualified or not? To get the answer, it isnecessary to do research on its tasks. In addition, English writing teaching has alwaysbeen a difficult point in the process of English teaching. Things become much harderin case of learners in higher vocational colleges and big problem exists in theirEnglish writing. Therefore, the author chooses the writing task design of NPE（Books1and2）to conduct investigation and evaluation.To facilitate the task evaluation process in this study, the author adoptedLittlejohn’s definition of “task”, which has been broadened to incorporate bothcommunicative tasks and traditional exercises. Taking David Nunan’s task evaluationtheory as theoretical basis, with the help of Hutchinson&Waters’ framework oflearning needs analysis, this thesis evaluated the writing task design in NPE to checkwhether the writing task design in NPE can satisfy their learners’ learning needs. Thisstudy related evaluation of the writing task design to learning needs analysis and putforward three questions:1. What are the learning needs of NPE learners?2. What is the status quo of the writing task design in NPE in terms of taskevaluation? To what extent does the writing task design in NPE match learners’learning needs?3. What are the major strengths and problems of the writing task design in NPE?What are the possible reasons for the problems?This study used both quantitative and qualitative designs to analyze learners’learning need and teachers’ opinions and suggestions on the writing task design inNPE. In the quantitative part, it examined170non-English major learners from ahigher vocational college, Hengyang Financial and Industrial College throughquestionnaire. In the qualitative part, it was used to examine7English teachers therethrough interview. Through the data analysis and evaluation on the writing task design in NPE, this thesis got results and findings as follows:First, learners’ main learning needs are to grasp basic English knowledge,writing techniques and principles to improve their comprehensive skills and realizecommunicative purposes.Second, in terms of task evaluation, the status quo of the writing task design inNPE could basically satisfy the learning needs of learners.Third, the strengths of the writing task design in NPE were mainly reflected in:obvious goals of the writing tasks with considering both real-world rationale andpedagogic rationale; rich, various and authentic input; paying attention to the “taskcontinuity” principles in a unit and development of integrated skills. The problemsexisted in: lack of cooperative learning, high difficulty level of some tasks and lack ofassessment and evaluation in some tasks itself. Major possible reasons for theseproblems included the characteristics of writing itself, learners’ poor Englishbackgrounds and the lack of sufficient learning needs analysis in writing task design.Based on the above study, several implications are brought out. The teachersthemselves should increase the awareness and design their own activities based on theready-made writing tasks to involve learners in pair or team work. The learners shouldadequately prepare for the study of the tasks. When designing the writing task,learning needs analysis should be done sufficiently. Editors should experience theteaching of learners in higher vocational colleges, or some teachers who really teachNPE should be included. It is hoped that this study can have some value for the futureteaching and compilation of the writing tasks in NPE. |
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