A Study On The Learning-orientation Of The Advanced Comprehensive Chinese Textbooks Based On Scaffolding Theory

The concept of "learning-material" emerged during the educational reform of Japan in the 1980 s.Compared with the traditional perspective that textbooks should serve the teachers,this concept emphasizes the serving of the students.With the wide acceptance of the learner-centered educational view,and the growing demand for independent and personalized learning,textbooks are urged to make corresponding adjustments to their function and embark on the road of "learning-materialization" or "learning-orientation",so as not to be eliminated.Based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and the concept of zone of proximal development,the scaffolding theory of constructivism advocates that the social environment provides a "scaffold" for individuals to achieve their personal development.In language teaching,it provides guidance not only for the teacher-student and studentstudent interaction in class,but also the compilation of teaching materials.As scaffolding learners to develop their language ability through the compilation of textbooks happens to meet the demands of the "learning-material" concept,the learning-orientation of textbooks can be achieved by scaffolding appropriately.Under the guidance of the scaffolding theory,by looking into the learning-assisting system,an integrated part of the textbook that carries the scaffolds,this study explores the learning-orientation of advanced comprehensive Chinese textbooks.Choosing the advanced stage of The Advanced Tutorial of Modern Chinese,The Road to Success: A Series of Progressive Chinese Textbooks for Foreigners,Developing Chinese,Boya Chinese,Contemporary Chinese,and New Concept Mandarin,six of the commonly used advanced comprehensive Chinese textbooks,as its objects,the study analyzes the learningassisting system of the textbooks from the dimensions of objective,elicitor,annotation,use of multimedia,exercise,and learning evaluation.The study supplements the scaffolding theory summarizing the types of scaffolds in textbooks and carrying out evaluations considering the scaffolding process.As is observed,no obvious learning-orientation or trend of learning-orientation can be seen in those commonly used advanced comprehensive Chinese textbooks for certain reasons.Reviewing such condition,suggestions for improvement and attempts putting learning-orientation into the practice of textbook compilation are made to set up ideas and examples for the optimization of advanced comprehensive Chinese textbooks.