A Study On Middle School English Textbooks In The Framework Of Core Competency

With the continuous development of English teaching,the Ministry of Education promulgated the latest edition of English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools in 2017(herein after referred to as "The Standards"),which puts forward the framework of core competencies of the subject of English.They include linguistic abilities,cultural consciousness,thinking qualities and learning abilities.English textbooks are not only the materials for English teaching but also the carrier of fostering students’ core competencies of English subject Therefore,textbook evaluation is particularly important.This study takes Advance with English as an example to verify to what extent the compilation system of Advance with English meets the educational objectives of the English subject core competencies.Specifically,the study attempts to verify four major questions:(1)To what extent does Advance with English meet the objectives of linguistic abilities?(2)To what extent does Advance with English meet the objective of cultural consciousness?(3)To what extent does Advance with English meet the objectives of thinking qualities?(4)To what extent does Advance with English meet the objectives of learning abilities?This research is conducted mainly through documentation review and textual analysis of the concerned English textbooks.Starting with the spirit of the new round of curriculum reform and taking advantage of the framework of core competencies illustrated in English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(2017),this research formulated four basic criteria with specific analytical items for senior high school English textbook evaluation.A qualitative analysis of Advance with English is conducted based on the evaluation criteria.All 15 units(module 1 to 5)of Advance with English are analyzed in detail with all the related analytical items figured out and calculated.The calculating procedures are as follows.First,analyze the teaching requirements in each of the 7 parts constituting a whole unit in Advance with English.A task or question with clear teaching requirements will be counted as one analytical item.Then categorize each analytical item as oriented towards one of the core competencies of the subject of English.Lastly,the matching degree between the textbooks and the training objectives of core competencies will be evaluated mainly through the qualitative analysis.Detailed qualitative analysis yields the final findings as follows:1)Out of the seven parts of Advance with English,mainly the Reading,Word Power.Task and Grammar and Usage parts focus on the cultivation of students’ linguistic abilities.The textbook emphasizes the presentation of language knowledge and the training of language skills.However,reading and writing contents designed in the textbook are a bit idealistic,and the phonetic learning materials and grammar learning have not been presented systematically.These are not conducive to students’ language use in real conditions.2)Out of the seven parts of Advance with English,mainly the Welcome to the Unit,Word Power and Task parts focus on the cultivation of students’ cultural consciousness.The focus of the textbook is to briefly introduce the cultural phenomena in China,Britain and other countries.However,the spread of Chinese excellent culture and the comparison between Chinese culture and Western one are inadequate,which is not conducive to shaping cultural self-confidence and cultural position.3)Out of the seven parts of Advance with English,mainly the Welcome to the Unit and Task parts focus on the cultivation of students’ thinking qualities.The textbook focuses on the cultivation of students" logical thinking ability,while the cultivation of students’innovative thinking ability only focuses on students’ divergent thinking ability and lacks some contents to systematically cultivate students’ critical thinking ability,which is not conducive to the overall improvement of students’ thinking qualities.4)Out of the seven parts of Advance with English,mainly the Reading,Task and Self-assessment parts focus on the cultivation of students’ learning abilities.However,the training methods of students’ cooperative learning ability are relatively monotonous and the cultivation of students’ reflective learning abilities lacks scientific guidance.The problems existing in the textbooks by reference to the framework of core competencies suggest the necessary improvement of the textbooks in the background of implementing The Standards.The study still has some limitations.Firstly,the scope of textbook analysis is limited to 5 compulsory textbooks.Secondly,questionnaire surveys and interviews,if conducted,might have provided further evidence for the conclusion of this thesis.