Evaluation Of Forward English For Practical Purposes Based On Learners’ Needs Analysis

Among various elements of the higher vocational English teaching,textbooks hold the extremely important status.Forward English for Practical Purposes was first published in June 2012.So far,no evaluations or analysis of this textbook have been conducted.Therefore,this study proposes that it is quite necessary to do a survey whether the textbook meets students’ needs or not.With the tools of questionnaire and interview,the present study investigates 230 non-English majors in Guilin Tourism College.The author checked the 230 questionnaires carefully after they were collected,220 of which were measured as valid.The questionnaires are designed with reference to Hutchinson and Waters,framework for analyzing learning needs,Cunningsworth’s checklist for textbook evaluation and textbook selection and Grant’s questionnaires to evaluate the textbook Forward English for Practical Purposes.The two research questions addressed in the present study are:(1)What are the basic needs for higher vocational college students to learn English?(2)Does the textbook Forward English for Practical Purposes meet the needs of learners?The findings illustrate that(1)students from Guilin Tourism College students want to learn English to pass the exam and to find a job.(2)Students think that the skills of listening and speaking are important.(3)They realize that learning English is very important but their enthusiasm for English is not high.(4)They prefer to study English with others and enjoy some interesting classroom activities like role play and group discussion.The teachers and students involved in this research hold generally positive attitudes towards Forward English for Practical Purposes.(1)They think that the pictures and layout of the textbook are well illustrated.The package and website resources for students’ self-learning are available.Their attitude towards content,especially the vocabulary and exercise in the textbook is positive.(2)The textbook attaches great attention to fostering the ability of listening and speaking.The special resources are video clips from famous movies.Those movies clips meet the students’needs of learning native and authentic English.(3)The cohesion between units and volumes should be improved.Based on these findings,some implications are put forward for textbook compilers and teachers.For the textbook compilers,they need to balance the difficulty levels among units and lower the difficulty level between Volume 1,2 and Volume 3,4.The composition and cohesion of the contents of every unit should also be improved.Moreover,they need to enlarge the vocabulary of each text,enrich some knowledge of Chinese culture and western culture in the texts and provide various forms of exercises for speaking.For teachers,they should use the textbook effectively based on students’ learning needs.Besides,teachers can introduce some creative and practical topics concerning their students’ life and needs.And teachers should make full use of the content about listening and speaking in the textbook to improve students’ listeaning and speaking skills.