| For the past20years, task-based language teaching (TBLT) has gained popularity in the field of language teaching, meanwhile, significant curriculum developers, educationalists, teacher trainers and language teachers worldwide have all joined the discussion and increased the amount of analytical studies on the issue. Nevertheless, despite the fact that task-based approach (TBA) has been adopted into the English curricula of a variety of elementary and secondary schools around the world, the real picture of its implementation remains uncertain and vague.The present research is under the guidance of Prof. Zou Weicheng, from East China Normal University, who is conducting a National Key Social Science Research Project, covering the international comparative studies on English curriculum system and coursebook difficulty of elementary and secondary schools, concerning seven countries and region around the world, i.e., mainland China, Brazil, Russia, Japan, Korea, China Taiwan and France. The research is part of this project, which focuses on the difficulty levels of English coursebooks for senior high schools, specifically, the complexity levels of language learning activities in these coursebooks.The research adopts the methodology of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Initially, a self-constructed evaluation instrument the Framework of Cognitive Complexity of Activities (the FCCA) was proposed with the aim of estimating the complexity levels of specific activities presented in the ten sets of coursebooks which are widely used in the seven countries and region. The validation of the instrument was carried out subsequently by a questionnaire survey in which173informants were involved.177raters were then allocated to rate the complexity levels of approximately ten thousand language learning activities in the ten sets of coursebooks by using the validated instrument as well as to classify all the activities into three types, i.e. focus-on-form activities (FOF), focus-on-forms activities (FOFs) and comprehension-based activities (COMP). A correlational research methodology was adopted to validate the collected data with the additional process of re-allocation and re-rating. Finally, ten sets of data corresponding to ten sets of coursebooks were collected, including the respective amounts of three types of activities and their specific rating results.Based on the quantitative analysis into the complexity levels of specific language learning activities, the study has explored the underlying compiling ideologies and principles of activity design of each set of coursebooks so as to provide a general overview of coursebooks for senior high schools in the target seven countries and region, without taking the conditions of language activities implementation, ability variables of the learners and instructions of the teachers into consideration. The research indicates that the activities of the highest cognitive demands for learners (FOF) account for the least proportion of the amount while FOFs activities constitute the main activity form in each set of coursebooks. It is inferred that form teaching is of high priority in classroom practice in most of the coursebooks for senior high schools in these countries and region.The study also argues that the advocacy of the communicative approach, especially the TBLT approach does not seem to be well manifested in the activity design of these coursebooks. Actually, most of the countries under comparison adopt the topic-based and function-structure integrated approach as the guiding principle of compiling these English coursebooks with only a few countries following a multi-curriculum approach by implementing communicative and task-based approaches in their activity design process.The results of this research contribute to guiding language teachers to reflect on their teaching styles and methods towards the three types of activities as well as offering implications to coursebook compilers and ELT policy makers. |
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