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UM E-Theses Collection (澳門大學電子學位論文庫)

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Title

An empirical study of Chinese university EFL textbooks

English Abstract

Textbook is of great importance in teaching in that it serves as a convenient aid for teachers and the learners. In the recent decade, the research on textbook evaluation develops rapidly. However, few studies have been conducted to analyze college English textbooks except those analyzing middle school textbooks. This study analyzes two sets of widely used university EFL textbooks in China published by Higher Education Press: New Century English and Experiencing English. This study examines the textual feature and the characteristics of activities of the above two sets of textbooks. To be more specific, text type and topic of the texts in two sets of textbooks, text readability of texts in two sets of textbooks and texts in CET 6, vocabulary coverage of the wordlists proposed by National College English Teaching Syllabus, and the distribution of activities in two sets of textbooks are examined. A mix methods approach is used in this study. The results show that: 1) the distribution of text type in two sets of textbooks is not balanced with fewer texts belonging to argumentative text; 2) the topics of the texts in two sets of textbooks are closely related to the students’ life experience thus making it easy for university students to understand; 3) the texts in two sets of textbooks are easier to read than CET6 texts, and the texts within each volume of the two sets of textbooks share similar readability level, which violates Krashen’s input hypothesis (1985); 4) both of the two sets of textbooks cannot meet vocabulary coverage requirement proposed by the National College English Teaching Syllabuses; 5) the distribution of activities in two sets of textbooks is also unbalanced. The V results of this study provide a better understanding of the textual features and activity features of Chinese university English textbooks, and provides empirical basis for textbook selection, textbook compiling, and textbook usage.

Chinese Abstract

教材在教学过程中起至关重要的作用,教材评估为教材选择、编写,以及教 师与学生对现有教材进行调整和补充提供了重要依据。目前,国内的教材评估 主要针对初中和高中教材的评估,对大学英语教材的评估比较少。许多对大学 英语教材的评估都缺乏实证性分析。基于此,本研究将以 Cunningsworth(2003) 与 Krippendrcoff(2012)的评估理论为依据,参照《大学英语课程教学要求》标 准,对国内两套被广泛使用的教材:《体验英语》和《新世纪大学英语》从篇章 特征和活动设计这两点进行分析与评估。 在篇章特征方面,本研究分析了课文文章的体裁,文章主题,文章的难度, 以及文章中的词汇覆盖率这四点。在活动设计方面,本研究将教材中的活动分 为无交际目的的练习、交际语言练习和真实语境下的交际任务,并计算了这三 种活动在教材中出现的比例。本研究得出如下结论:1)文章体裁分配不平均, 文章以记叙文和说明文居多,议论文数量太少;2)文章的主题与学生的日常生 活紧密联系,容易引起学生的共鸣从而激发学生的学习兴趣;3)与大学英语六 级的阅读文章相比,《新世纪大学英语》和《体验英语》的阅读难度偏低,且《体 验英语》文章难度编排不符合学生由易到难的认知规律;4)两本教科书的词汇 覆盖率均偏低,未能达到《大学英语课程教学要求》提出的词汇标准;5)教科 书的活动设计上,真实语境下的交际任务较少。 上述发现为编者编写教材、教师选择和使用教材提供了实证依据,并为日后 的教材研究提供了建议。 关键词:外语教材分析与评估;大学英语教材;篇章特征;活动设计

Issue date

2016.

Author

Xie, Zi Ying

Faculty

Faculty of Education

Degree

M.Ed.

Subject

English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- China

Supervisor

Gan, Zheng Dong

Files In This Item

Full-text (Intranet only)

Location
1/F Zone C
Library URL
991001967629706306