英语AContrastingReviewofAdvancedEnglishTextbooks.docx

英语AContrastingReviewofAdvancedEnglishTextbooks.docx

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英语AContrastingReviewofAdvancedEnglishTextbooks

【关键字】英语

AContrastingReviewofAdvancedEnglishTextbooks

Abstract：

Readingmaterialsplayaveryimportantroleinlanguagelearningbecausetheyarethemajorsourceforprovidinginputtolearnersinaforeignlanguageenvironment.Thisthesisexaminestwotextbooks,AdvancedEnglishbyZhangHanxipublishedbyForeignLanguageTeachingandResearchPressin1995,andIntegratedSkillsofEnglishbyZouWeichengpublishedbyHigherEducationPressin2002.Thepurposeofthiscomparisonistoevaluatewhichtextbookismorehelpfultolearnersofthe21-century.Bydiscussingcriteriaofgoodinputandoutput,bycontrastiveanalysisofthetwobooksinthesetwoaspects,thewriterfoundthateventhoughAEcontainssomeclassicreading,thecontentisoutofdateanditslanguageisnotpractical.Incontrast,ISEprovidesmuchbetterinputintermsofitsrelevancetotargetlanguage,suitablenessforlearners’levelofdifficulty,itsauthenticityinlanguage,anditsintensiveinformationofculturalandacademiccontents.Withregardtoexercises,AEtrainsthestudentsinisolationfromtherealworldandonlyfocusesoncontentandlanguage,whileISErequirescommunicativeandinquiry-basedskillswithpracticallanguagetraining.Finally,thispapercomestotheconclusionthatIntegratedSkillsofEnglishfitstheneedsofmodernstudentsbetter.

Keywords:

inputoutputAdvancedEnglishIntegratedSkillsofEnglish

高级英语教材对比分析

摘要：

阅读材料在语言学习中起着举足轻重的作用，因为外语学习者主要靠它们获得输入信息，创造语言环境。

本文研究分析了外语教学与研究出版社1995年出版的张汉熙先生主编的《高级英语》和高等教育出版社2002年出版的邹为诚先生主编的《综合英语教程》这两套教材，目的在于评价出哪一套教材更适合21世纪的英语学习者。

通过讨论优秀的输入输出的评价标准，以及以此标准对两套教材进行的对比分析，作者得出以下结论：

尽管《高级英语》包含了很多典范的文章，但是其内容过于陈旧、语言不够实用。

相对而言，《综合英语教程》目标语针对性强、难度适宜、语言地道、文化学术信息丰富，在输入信息的提供上表现得更为出色。

在练习题方面，《高级英语》侧重于文章内容和语言的训练，大部分为学生独立完成的题目。

反观《综合英语教程》，它的练习通常为交际型、探索型任务和实用型语言的训练。

通过讨论分析，本文认为《综合英语教程》更加适应现代学生英语学习的需求。

关键词：

输入输出《高级英语》《综合英语教程》

1.Introduction

TextbooksplayacrucialroleinEnglishteachingasaforeignlanguage,becauseitisthemajorsourceforstudentstoreceiveinput.However,qualitytextbooksarescarceinChina.EventhoughtheNationalstandardshavebeensetupwithregardtotheeducationalgoals,butnotenoughgoodtextbookshavebeenproducedtomeetthegoals,whichputsagreatdealofemphasisonstudents’communicativecompetence.

Itcertainlybringsproblems:

afewoutdatedpopulartextbookswerealwayspublishedmorethantenyearsago.Althoughtheywererevisedwhenreprinted,theydidnotchangealot.Undoubtedly,thesetextbookswereoncepopularandhadplayedasignificantrole,butwithtimeadvancedtoanewage,theydonotmeetlearners’needsanymore.Textbooksmustchangewithtime.Mosttextbooksofcertaindaysonlyrepresenttheconceptandmethodofteachinginthatcertainperiod.Therefore,modernstudentsneedthekindoftextbooksthatcanreflectandmatchthechangingworld,soastomeettheneedsofourage.NowwithChina’smodernizationonfullswing,andwithglobalizationmakingtheworldsmaller,weneedbooksthatcanbestinformandpreparestudentsforthechange.Studentswillneedtheskillsofthelanguagefortheirfuturejob,whichshouldbetakencareofwhenprofessionalsdesigntextbooks.Newtextbooksthatappearmorerecentlyusuallyusecommunicativeprinciplesandtasksthattraintheirlanguagecompetenceandthereforepreparestudentsbetterfortheirlanguageandcommunicativeskillsfortheirfuturejob.

AmongthefewadvancedEnglishtextbooksusedinChina,twostandout:

AdvancedEnglishandIntegratedSkillsofEnglish.AdvancedEnglish（AE）wascompiledbyZhangHanxi,firstpublishedinApril,1980,byForeignLanguageTeachingandResearchPressinBeijing.Itisauthoritativeandclassical,onceusedbythousandsofEnglishmajorsinChinaandhaddominatedthetextbookmarketofthisfieldforabout12years.Itcontainsmanyclassicalarticles.TheIntegratedSkillsofEnglish（ISE）appearedmuchlater.ItwaspublishedinJulyof2002,byHigherEducationPressinBeijing,andcompiledbyZouWeicheng.Thearticlesinitarethemebased,withcommunicativeandinquirybasedprinciples,andthebookhasbeenwidelyusedinChinainthepastfiveorsixyears.Thisthesisistoexaminethetwotextbooksbyacontrastiveanalysisandtodiscusswhatkindsoftextbooksaremorehelpfultolearnersofthe21-century.

2.Literaturereview

Generallyspeaking,agoodEnglishtextbookisembodiedinthreeaspects:

goodinput,goodsoutputandflexibility.Inthischapter,Iwillfirstreviewtheimportanceofreading,andreadingmaterials;thenIwilllookintothecriteriaofagoodtextbookconcerningthesethreeaspectsrespectively.

2.1Theimportanceofreadingandthereadingmaterials

Readingisdefinedasaprocessduringwhichareaderdrawsinformationfromatext,andcombinesitwiththeinformationandknowledgethathe/shealreadypossessestoformanunderstandingofthetext（Grabe&Stoller,2001）.Readingisveryimportantforafewreasons.Firstofall,beingabletoreadthewrittenformofalanguageisthesignofliteracy,whichisimportantforalmostallEFLlearnerswhostudyEnglishforacademicpurpose.Secondly,readingistheprinciplemeansforindependentstudy,withwhichonedoesnothavetodependonotherpeopleorothermeansinachievinghis/heracademicgoals.ItisespeciallytruetoEFLlearnerswhoareseriouslylackoftargetlanguageinputinaL1environment.WhileESLlearnerscangetabundantinputoutsideofclassroomfromvariousmedia,thewaymoreaccessibletoEFLlearnersisthroughreadingmaterialsaboutthetargetlanguage.（Wang,2004）.Therefore,readingcourseisconsideredasthemostimportantoneinaforeignlanguagecurriculum.

Readingmaterialsarecrucialforlearningtotakeplacebecausetheyprovidelearnerswithtargetlanguageinput.Avarietyofsourceshavebeenusedastextintoday’sclassrooms.Textisdefinedas“wordsofsomethingwrittenorprinted;asinglesentence,aparagraph,apassageofseveralparagraphs,achapterorabook…thatrepresentsetsofpotentialmeanings（Vacca&Vacca,2002,p.34）.”Themajortypesofreadingtextincludetextbooks,tradebooks,pamphlets,articlesfromnewspapers,journalsandmagazines,aswellaselectronictexts.Textbooksaccountformostofthetextsusedintheclassrooms,especiallyinEFL（Englishasaforeignlanguage）programs.Tradebooks,whicharepublishedbooks,suchasfictions,nonfictionsandpicturebooks,distributedtogeneralpublicthroughpublishers,arealsowidelyusedandrecommendedforthereasonsthattheyofferavarietyofchoicesthatcanmatchlearners’abilityandinterestlevels;thattheyhaveinformingandentertainingcontentswithengagingformatsandwritingstyles;thattheyarerelevanttolearners’experienceandpriorknowledge,andthattheycanbetterhelplearnerstomakesenseanddevelopconcepts（McGowan&Guzzetti,1991）.Electronictextisanotherverypromisingsourceforreadingmaterials.Similartotradebooks,thisnewmediumrendersreadingvariety,interest,relevanceandcomprehensibility.Butbetterthantradebooks,itprovidesinadditionamultimediaenvironment,inwhichstudentsextendtheircomprehensionswiththeassistanceofimages,andsound.

2.2Criteriaforgoodinput

Thenouninputhasbeenusedasatechnicaltermforaboutacenturyinfieldssuchasphysicsandelectricalengineering,butitsrecentpopularitygrowsoutofitsuseincomputerscience,whereitreferstodataorsignalsenteredintoasystemforprocessingortransmission.（/input）Ingeneraldiscourseinputisnowwidelyusedtorefertothetransmissionofinformationandopinion.InTESOL（TeachingEnglishtoSpeakersofOtherLanguages）,itisdefinedasthesourcesoftargetlanguage.Itisself-evidentthatthequalityandquantityoftheinputareextremelyimportanttotheacquisitionofthetargetlanguage.Thecriteriaofthegoodinputarecitedasfollow:

（Wang,2004,p.199）

1）Itprovidesintendedtargetlanguageinput,whetheritisstructureorvocabulary.

2）Itfitslearners’levelofdifficultyinthesensethatitisneithertoomuchabovenortoomuchbelowtheirintellectuallevels.Theinputitprovidesshouldbecomprehensive,just“slightlymoreadvancedthanthelearners’currentlevelofgrammaticalknowledge（Gass&Selinker,2001,p.452）”

3）Itisauthentic,thereallanguageusedbynativespeakerssothatlearnershavetheopportunitytouseandcopewiththereallanguage.Itmaynotalwaysbepossibleforbeginnerstoreadtheoriginal.Forthem,simplifiedtextstunedtotheirlevelandneedshouldworkbetter,butitcanserveasagoalsincetheultimatepurposeoflearningthelanguageistoreadtheoriginaltext.

4）Itisinformativeaboutculture,societyand/orscience.

5）Itisinteresting.

2.3Factorsthatpromotegoodoutput

Justliketheinput,thewordoutputnowiswidelyusedinmanyfields,especiallytheComputerScience,inwhichitmeansthatinformationinaformsuitablefortransmissionfrominternaltoexternalunitsofacomputer,ortoanoutsidemedium.（/output）InTESOL,outputsarethethingsthatlearnersproducethroughspeakingandwriting.Itiswidelyagreedthatthefollowingfactors,intheexerciseofatextbook,canincitegoodoutputfromthelearners,namelyitscommunicativeness;whetheritisinquiryandtaskbased,andwhetherithastheconsolidationpractice.

Firstofall,theoutputtasksthatatextbookprovidesshouldbecommunicative.Specifiedasgrammaticalcompetence,discoursecompetence,socioculturalcompetenceandstrategiccompetence,communicativecompetencerequirealearnernotonlybeingabletouse（notnecessarilyconsciouslyknow）thelinguisticaspectsofalanguag