A Comparative Study Of The Grammar Items In English Textbooks Used In China And Japan’s Junior High School

English grammar is important in English learning and language use.Textbooks are the main materials for students to acquire systematic knowledge in school,and also the main basis for teachers to carry out teaching activities.The choice of grammar content,ways of presentation and the design of grammar exercises in teaching materials perform a pivotal function in the quality of English grammar teaching.There are some comparative studies on grammar items in different editions of English textbooks used in China,but few on grammar items in different textbooks used in China and other countries.There are similarities between China and Japan when it comes to cultural background and implementation of foreign language education.That’s why this thesis chooses two sets of textbooks in China and Japan:English(Yilin edition)and New Crown English SeriesBased on the English curriculum standards of two countries,Dual Coding Theory and Three-dimensional Grammar Framework,the author compares and analyzes the selection of grammar content,ways of grammar presentation and grammar exercises design in the two sets of textbooks used in two countries.This research mainly adopts the literature analysis method,the text analysis method and the comparative analysis method,mainly to answer the following questions:(1)What explicit grammar knowledge is supplied in two textbooks according to English Curriculum Standards and Junior high school English Syllabus?(2)How are the two sets of English textbooks’ grammar sections presented according to the Dual Coding Theory?(3)How do the two sets of English textbooks follow the three dimensions of grammar in grammar design?The major findings from this study are as follows:With regard to the grammar knowledge provided in the two textbooks,it is found that the grammar knowledge involved in the two textbooks conforms to their respective English curriculum standards.And there is much overlapping grammar knowledge in the two sets of textbooks,but the grammar items in Yilin edition are more difficult and comprehensive than those in New Crown English SeriesThe theory of dual coding is used in the two sets of textbooks and it is used in applicable ways:such as knowledge visualization,resource correlation and so on.According to the theory of dual coding,when providing information to learners,considering both non-speech and speech forms can help learners improve their understanding and memory.There are three dimensions about the grammar exercises design in the two sets of textbooks.There are three or four grammar exercises along with each grammar item.Both sets of textbooks pay more attention to grammar exercises of form dimension,and ignore the exercises of meaning dimension and use dimension,which may lead to the imbalance of three-dimensional grammar framework.This paper provides some suggestions for the users(teachers)and the compilers.Teachers should give full play to the role of Dual Coding Theory,so as to make students interested in grammar learning.The compilers of the textbook should pay attention to the span of grammar and lower the level of difficulty of learning grammar.This paper also has some limitations.Firstly,due to limited time and ability,the research method in this paper is only textual research.Secondly,this paper only selects two sets of comprehensive junior high school English textbooks as the object of study,so the analysis results obtained have certain limitations.