Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background of the research

English has gained more and more attention since China adopted the Opening Upand Reform policy in 1978. From then on, English teaching has also become a hotresearch area. For example, in 1986，China Education Committee issued a documentnamed "English Teaching Syllabus for Full-time Middle School” and made an innovationboth in junior and senior high middle school in our country. Then in 1992 and 1996, thecommittee published another two English teaching syllabuses for junior middle schooland senior high school. These documents made great contribution to the promotion of thedevelopment of English teaching in our country, including the quality of the teaching,teachers and even English teaching materials and so on.In this period, in contrast with the much emphasis given to English teachingmaterials for junior high schools, English teaching materials for senior high school weregiven less attention(Cheng Xiaotang, 2002:1). This is because English was not a subjectrequested in the law of compulsory education and besides, English subject in high schoolwas not widely carried out in senior middle school. The dominance of several nationallyused middle school English teaching materials include “Book I and 2 for High MiddleSchool (trial /，and “The temporary English Book for the Third Grade of High School”which was the first set of English teaching materials for middle school after the CulturalRevolution and was adopted in the whole country, so it played an important role in thespread and development of English teaching (Zhang Xianchen, 2010). “English Book forSenior High Middle School" was also published in this period by People's EducationPress and was adopted from the year 1983 to 1998 and lasted more than 15 years.

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1.2 Research Significance

Teaching materials can provide systematic knowledge for students and teachers. Aset of good materials is very useful for students' study and teachers' teaching. Thus, theevaluation and analysis work of teaching materials is important for learning as well asteaching.Nowadays, high school English teaching materials which are used in our countrymainly include New Senior English Book for China, New Standard English, OxfordEnglish and the other several sets of materials. Each set of materials have its own shiningpoints while its shortcomings can not be avoided. Making an analysis and evaluation onmaterials can find out its advantages and disadvantages as well as provide someimplications for its further improvement and its use. Thus，by evaluating the New SeniorEnglish Book for China 2003 which is short for NSEFC 2003 from the perspectives ofstudents and teachers and finding out its advantages and disadvantages, the author tries toprovide helpful opinions and suggestions for textbook writers and policy makers as wellas the users of textbook, which is the significance of the research. The whole dissertation is divided into five parts. The first part is the introduction ofthe research，which is about the background^ significance, objective of the research andthe organization of the dissertation. The second part is the literature review, whichgeneralizes and analyzes the current research achievements and shortcomings of theresearch in the field of materials evaluation. The third part is research methodology,including an introduction to the NSEFC 2003 from the angles of its teaching aims,teaching methods, the selection and arrangement of teaching contents and so on. Thefourth part is the presentation of the results and the discussion of them. The last part ofthe dissertation is conclusion，including the major findings that are discovered from theanalysis of the data results and the implications for textbook writers and policy makers aswell teachers.

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 The definitions of teaching materials and materials evaluation

Brian Seaton (1982: 40) gave the definition for teaching materials in one of hisbooks： there should be provision for practice of all skills，revision should be built in andthe design of the text should be attractive and easy to read. Most coursebooks haveaccompanying recorded material，which should serve to consolidate what is beinglearned with the teacher from the coursebook. His definition for teaching materials justbased on students' demands and needs while teachers' demands are not taken intoconsideration, which is not comprehensive.Brian Tomlinson (1998) pointed out that English teaching materials refer toanything that is used by teachers or students to facilitate the learning of language (quotedfrom Li Jianjun, 2010). In his definition, the factors of both teachers and students areconsidered into the definition, whose scope is very broad since it refers to any kinds ofmaterials that are good for the learning of language.In China, most scholars made the definition of teaching materials with theconsideration of its fimction which can be reflected by its medium role (Wang Jinjun,2010: 5). The medium refers to the bridge flinction between students and knowledge. Thedefinition of teaching materials is divided into narrow and broad sense by most scholars.

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2.2 Research abroad

The teaching materials evaluation work at abroad started in 1980s. Many scholarsmake great achievements which are very helpful for the later scholars in this field. In thissection, the author will make a brief introduction of the main achievements. The earliest book about foreign language teaching materials evaluation wasEvaluating and Selecting EFL Teaching Materials, written by Cunningworth (1984). Inthe book he put forward four principles for the evaluation of foreign language teachingmaterials: Guideline one: coursebooks should correspond to learners' needs. They shouldmatch the aims and objectives of the language-learning program. Guideline two:coursebooks should reflect the uses (present or future) which learners will make of thelanguage. Guideline three: coursebooks should take account of the students' needs aslearners and should facilitate their learning processes，without dogmatically imposing a rigid “method，,. Guideline four: coursebooks should have a clear role as a support forlearning. Cunningworth's four guidelines are very general and broad. He tried to takelearners' every kind of needs for learning into consideration. Besides, he made concreterequirements for the writing of materials from the selection of small language items tothe future language needs of learners, which was very complicated. It was very difficultfor the evaluators to take every requirement into account and some aspects of the fourprinciples may be neglected.

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Chapter 3 Research Methodology .........  11

3.1 Textbook under investigation......... 11

3.2 Research purposes .........19

3.3 Research methods......... 19

3.3.1 Questionnaires .........19

3.3.2 Interviews .........21

3.4 The participants .........    22

3.5 Data collection and analysis procedure.........   22

Chapter 4 Results and Discussion .........23

4.1 Results from students' questionnaire......... 23

4.2 Results from teachers' questionnaire......... 28

4.2.1 Teachers' overall impression of NSEFC 2003 .........  28

4.2.2 Teachers' opinions on the aims of NSEFC 2003 .........  29

4.2.3 Teachers' opinions on the contents of NSEFC 2003.........   31

4.3 Results from interviews......... 32

4.4 Summary of the results .........35

4.5 Discussion .........  37

Chapter 5 Conclusion......... 41

5.1 Major findings......... 41

5.2 Implications..........     42

5.3 Limitations of the study......... 45

Chapter 4 Results and Discussion

4.1 Results from students' questionnaire

A divergence of students' opinions on the design of NSEFC 2003 was found : only10.9% students say they don't like the design of NSEFC 2003，while about 90% studentshold the opposite idea. As for the difiBculty degree and the capacity of NSEFC 2003,more than 80% students feel the (Ufficulty level of the textbook can fit their currentEnglish level well and more than 73% students agree the capacity of textbook isappropriate to them. However, there are still more than 15% students think the difficultydegree is not suitable for their current English level and more than 20% students feel thecapacity of textbook is large. Therefore, the difficulty degree and capacity of NSEFC2003 can fit most students' current level, however, they are still beyond some students'receptivity.When students are asked whether they are satisfied with NSEFC 2003, about 91%students like the textbook they used in varying degrees. Only 0.9% students extremelylike it and 8.2% students do not like it. Therefore, NSEFC 2003 is liked by most studentsbut only 0.9% students extremely like it. The result is consistent to the result of last twoquestions.

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Conclusion

By the research, advantages and disadvantages of NSEFC 2003 and the problemsteachers and students meet are discovered.The advantages of NSEFC 2003 are:Firstly, NSEFC 2003 puts learners' needs of age，interests and characters intoconsideration; secondly, NSEFC 2003 can meet the demands of the New Curriculum2013 and it pays attention to the development of students' integrated English skills andcomprehensive development; thirdly, it is successfully and scientifically designedgenerally，especially the parts of grammar items, speaking, writing and the selection ofreading materials; nextly，the exercises are various in type and helpful to students,especially to communication skills; fifthly, NSEFC 2003 offers teachers great freedom topick up the teaching methods they needed, lastly, the attached materials, especially theappendixes are well designed, because they are very necessary and beneficial to students.

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Reference (omitted)