A Study On The Application Of Production-oriented Approach In The Use Of English Teaching Materials For Senior High School

Teaching materials are the leading carrier of teaching content and vital resources for teaching and educating.In recent years,foreign language teaching materials research has gradually shifted from content and production to use.In 2017,Professor Wen Qiufang put forward the theoretical framework for using and evaluating POA-based teaching materials based on the theoretical system of production-oriented approach（POA）for the problems of materials use by foreign language teachers in the universities,which provides a new perspective for the use and evaluation of teaching materials.The theoretical framework has been applied to the university’s foreign language teaching and attracted some positive reactions.There are also some problems in senior high school English teaching,such as teachers’ over-dependence on the materials,which is not conducive to improving classroom learning efficiency（Wen,2017a）.Based on this,this study applies the POA theory to senior high school English teaching materials use in order to explore the effectiveness of materials use,verify the effectiveness of the theory,and provide a practical reference for senior high school English teachers on how to use teaching materials efficiently.The following three research questions are answered: 1.After the application of the POA theory to the teaching materials use for senior high school,what are the changes in students’ engagement? 2.After the application of the POA theory to the teaching materials use for senior high school,what are the aspects of students’ sense of fulfillment? 3.After the application of the POA theory to the teaching materials use for senior high school,what are the changes in students’ writing production quality? Participants were an English teacher and two parallel classes in the first grade of a senior high school in Panjin City,Liaoning Province.One class is the experimental class（EC）,which was taught based on the POA-based materials use philosophy,and the other is the control class（CC）,which was taught based on the materials-transmission philosophy.The teaching materials used in this study were Compulsory one of New Standard English（2019 Edition）for Senior High Schools,among which Unit3-5 were selected in the 6-week teaching practice.During the experiment,the research instruments such as questionnaires,classroom observation,interviews,and students’ production analysis were used for data collection,and the data were analyzed by SPSS 25.0 and Nvivo 11.The results showed that: 1)the overall engagement of students in the EC showed a positive change: in behavioral engagement,students’ concentration and digging-into were generally improved,but the status quo of the active speech and note-taking were not significantly improved;in cognitive engagement,students’ surface strategy and dependence strategy were significantly reduced,but their deep strategy was not significantly improved;in emotional engagement,students’ sense of enjoyment and accomplishment increased significantly,while their sense of anxiety and boredom decreased significantly;2)students’ sense of fulfillment was mainly reflected in four aspects: learning ability,language ability,thinking capacity and cultural awareness,among which,students’ feedback on learning ability and language ability was the most;3)in the EC,the overall quality of the production and the quality in each dimension（language,ideas and structure）significantly improved;compared with the CC,there was no significant difference in the overall quality,ideas and structure quality,“marginally” significant difference in the language quality and significant difference in the type of target language items,the quality of which was high.Overall,the effectiveness of using teaching materials based on the POA theory was relatively positive.However,there were some problems in teaching practice,such as students’ maladjustment to new methods,the mismatch between the productive objectives and the students’ level,and students’ excessive worry about the examination.Therefore,teachers need to introduce the rationale behind teaching methods,realize the inter-subjectivity between teachers and students,and adjust the evaluation content and methods.This study has limitations in the research period and the evaluation criteria.Further studies on the current topic can use diachronic research and more comprehensively and deeply explore the effectiveness of senior high school English teaching materials use from the perspectives of teachers and students.