| Writing is an important way of language output and a vital part of senior high Englishlearning. However, there have been problems with the English course books of senior highwhich were put into use in the new curriculum reform that started in2004, especially in writingteaching. The course books have been found failing to assist senior writing teaching in keepingpace with the time, arousing students’ interest in writing, integrating the key skills of listening,speaking, reading with writing, presenting procedural knowledge or instructions on writing anddeveloping various abilities of students. As we all know, the English course book, as a valuablecarrier of teaching, has a direct influence on students’ English study. Therefore, we shouldattach great importance to enhancing the writing part of senior high English course books andtaking all kinds of effective means of teaching to better our writing teaching classes. Therefore,this paper analyzes the compilation system and the presentation of knowledge of HodderEnglish Gold published by Hodder&Stoughton in order to figure out the characteristics of thecourse book and to promote senior high writing teaching methods.Hodder English Gold has been compiled in accordance with the National Curriculum ofEngland and has become a beloved course book of the teachers in England. In this course book,large quantities of teaching materials and cases are offered to English teachers, who can choosesome of the content or use the whole set directly according to their need in teaching. HodderEnglish Gold is a set of three course books. This paper analyzes the framework and the contentsystem of each course book. As for the latter system, the paper discusses the text system,help-reading system, knowledge system and operating system. And based on the analysis,conclusions are drawn about the characteristics of the course books of being:1) focusing onprocedural knowledge,2) integrating writing and other key skills,3) enhancing the readabilityand making a difference with all sorts of illustrations, and4) being student-oriented incompilation. In addition, with the conclusions on the characteristics and merits of HodderEnglish Gold, especially those on the well-designed writing part, implications for senior highEnglish writing teaching are reached as:1) promoting the design and application of proceduralknowledge in writing teaching,2) improving writing teaching by combining other key skills,3)making use of appealing and effective teaching means, and4) encouraging students to get fullyinvolved under teachers’ guidance. On the basis of the analysis of the course book, its characteristics and the implications onsenior high writing teaching, the researcher hopes to apply the results of the implications topractical writing teaching. Therefore, the researcher conducts a questionnaire among thestudents and interviews with the teachers so as to find out if there is a need to improve writingteaching. After positive answers are given, the researcher does an experiment on her two classeswhich are quite close to each other in writing level, taking advantage of various effective waysconcluded from the analysis. The experiment lasts for nearly five months and finally proves theeffectiveness of the teaching methods.The main research methods employed in this thesis are the literature research, the caseanalysis, the questionnaire survey, the interview and class observation. Besides, relevanttheories are referred to in the thesis for support. Hopefully, this paper will be helpful to theimprovement of our senior English course books and writing teaching. |
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