A Contrasting Review of Advanced English Textbooks.docx

a contrasting review of advanced english textbooksabstract：reading materials play a very important role in language learning because they are the major source for providing input to learners in a foreign language environment. this thesis examines two textbooks, advanced english by zhang hanxi published by foreign language teaching and research press in 1995, and integrated skills of english by zou weicheng published by higher education press in 2002. the purpose of this comparison is to evaluate which textbook is more helpful to learners of the 21-century. by discussing criteria of good input and output, by contrastive analysis of the two books in these two aspects, the writer found that even though ae contains some classic reading, the content is out of date and its language is not practical. in contrast, ise provides much better input in terms of its relevance to target language, suitableness for learners level of difficulty, its authenticity in language, and its intensive information of cultural and academic contents. with regard to exercises, ae trains the students in isolation from the real world and only focuses on content and language, while ise requires communicative and inquiry-based skills with practical language training. finally, this paper comes to the conclusion that integrated skills of english fits the needs of modern students better.key words: input output advanced english integrated skills of english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经典的文章，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. introductiontextbooks play a crucial role in english teaching as a foreign language, because it is the major source for students to receive input. however, quality textbooks are scarce in china. even though the national standards have been set up with regard to the educational goals, but not enough good textbooks have been produced to meet the goals, which puts a great deal of emphasis on students communicative competence.it certainly brings problems: a few outdated popular textbooks were always published more than ten years ago. although they were revised when reprinted, they did not change a lot. undoubtedly, these textbooks were once popular and had played a significant role, but with time advanced to a new age, they do not meet learners needs any more. textbooks must change with time. most textbooks of certain days only represent the concept and method of teaching in that certain period. therefore, modern students need the kind of textbooks that can reflect and match the changing world, so as to meet the needs of our age. now with chinas modernization on full swing, and with globalization making the world smaller, we need books that can best inform and prepare students for the change. students will need the skills of the language for their future job, which should be taken care of when professionals design textbooks. new textbooks that appear more recently usually use communicative principles and tasks that train their language competence and therefore prepare students better for their language and communicative skills for their future job.among the few advanced english textbooks used in china, two stand out: advanced english and integrated skills of english. advanced english (ae) was compiled by zhang hanxi, first published in april, 1980, by foreign language teaching and research press in beijing. it is authoritative and classical, once used by thousands of english majors in china and had dominated the textbook market of this field for about 12 years. it contains many classical articles. the integrated skills of english (ise) appeared much later. it was published in july of 2002, by higher education press in beijing, and compiled by zou weicheng. the articles in it are theme based, with communicative and inquiry based principles, and the book has been widely used in china in the past five or six years. this thesis is to examine the two textbooks by a contrastive analysis and to discuss what kinds of textbooks are more helpful to learners of the 21-century. 2. literature reviewgenerally speaking, a good english textbook is embodied in three aspects: good input, goods output and flexibility. in this chapter, i will first review the importance of reading, and reading materials; then i will look into the criteria of a good textbook concerning these three aspects respectively.2.1 the importance of reading and the reading materialsreading is defined as a process during which a reader draws information from a text, and combines it with the information and knowledge that he / she already possesses to form an understanding of the text (grabe & stoller, 2001). reading is very important for a few reasons. first of all, being able to read the written form of a language is the sign of literacy, which is important for almost all efl learners who study english for academic purpose. secondly, reading is the principle means for independent study, with which one does not have to depend on other people or other means in achieving his / her academic goals. it is especially true to efl learners who are seriously lack of target language input in a l1 environment. while esl learners can get abundant input outside of classroom from various media, the way more accessible to efl learners is through reading materials about the target language. (wang, 2004). therefore, reading course is considered as the most important one in a foreign language curriculum.reading materials are crucial for learning to take place because they provide learners with target language input. a variety of sources have been used as text in todays classrooms. text is defined as “words of something written or printed; a single sentence, a paragraph, a passage of several paragraphs, a chapter or a book that represent sets of potential meanings (vacca & vacca, 2002, p. 34).” the major types of reading text include textbooks, trade books, pamphlets, articles from newspapers, journals and magazines, as well as electronic texts. textbooks account for most of the texts used in the classrooms, especially in efl (english as a foreign language) programs. trade books, which are published books, such as fictions, nonfictions and picture books, distributed to general public through publishers, are also widely used and recommended for the reasons that they offer a variety of choices that can match learners ability and interest levels; that they have informing and entertaining contents with engaging formats and writing styles; that they are relevant to learners experience and prior knowledge, and that they can better help learners to make sense and develop concepts (mcgowan & guzzetti, 1991). electronic text is another very promising source for reading materials. similar to trade books, this new medium renders reading variety, interest, relevance and comprehensibility. but better than trade books, it provides in addition a multimedia environment, in which students extend their comprehensions with the assistance of images, and sound. 2.2 criteria for good inputthe noun input has been used as a technical term for about a century in fields such as physics and electrical engineering, but its recent popularity grows out of its use in computer science, where it refers to data or signals entered into a system for processing or transmission. (/browse/input) in general discourse input is now widely used to refer to the transmission of information and opinion. in tesol (teaching english to speakers of other languages), it is defined as the sources of target language. it is self-evident that the quality and quantity of the input are extremely important to the acquisition of the target language. the criteria of the good input are cited as follow: (wang, 2004, p. 199)1) it provides intended target language input, whether it is structure or vocabulary.2) it fits learners level of difficulty in the sense that it is neither too much above nor too much below their intellectual levels. the input it provides should be comprehensive, just “slightly more advanced than the learners current level of grammatical knowledge (gass & selinker, 2001, p. 452)”3) it is authentic, the real language used by native speakers so that learners have the opportunity to use and cope with the real language. it may not always be possible for beginners to read the original. for them, simplified texts tuned to their level and need should work better, but it can serve as a goal since the ultimate purpose of learning the language is to read the original text.4) it is informative about culture, society and / or science.5) it is interesting.2.3 factors that promote good outputjust like the input, the word output now is widely used in many fields, especially the computer science, in which it means that information in a form suitable for transmission from internal to external units of a computer, or to an outside medium. (/browse/output) in tesol, outputs are the things that learners produce through speaking and writing. it is widely agreed that the following factors, in the exercise of a textbook, can incite good output from the learners, namely its communicativeness; whether it is inquiry and task based, and whether it has the consolidation practice.first of all, the output tasks that a textbook provides should be communicative. specified as grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociocultural competence and strategic competence, communicative competence require a learner not only being able to use (not necessarily consciously know) the linguistic aspects of a languageits phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic featuresto express himself / herself and to negotiate meaning at a discourse level, but also being able to use them appropriately to a given social and cultural context. (wang, 2004). following the concept of clt (communicative language teaching), materials should be authentic. clt considers it very important to choose study materials that are authentic from the target language community for the reason that it renders the opportunity for learners to cope with the target language as it is actually used.another important factor is whether the task is inquiry and task based. inquiry is defined as a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge - seeking information by questioning. individuals carry on the process of inquiry from the time they are born until they die. this is true even though they might not reflect upon the process. infants begin to make sense of the world by inquiring. from birth, babies observe faces that come near, they grasp objects, they put things in their mouths, and they turn toward voices. the process of inquiring begins with gathering information and data through applying the human senses - seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. (http:/ /edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index.html)inquiry-based learning is not a new techniquein fact, it goes back to education philosopher john deweybut it does stand in contrast to the more structured, curriculum-centered framework of todays schools. (/ learning /approach/inquiry.asp) inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit learners to seek resolutions to questions and issues while they construct new knowledge.memorizing facts and information is not the most important skill in todays world. facts change, and information is readily available - whats needed is an understanding of how to get and make sense of the mass of data. therefore, tasks designers must understand that learners need to go beyond data and information accumulation and move toward the generation of useful and applicable knowledge. through the process of inquiry, individuals construct much of their understanding of the natural and human-designed worlds. inquiry implies a need or want to know premise. inquiry is not so much seeking the right answer - because often there is none - but rather seeking appropriate resolutions to questions and issues. for educators, inquiry implies emphasis on the development of inquiry skills and the nurturing of inquiring attitudes or habits of mind that will enable individuals to continue the quest for knowledge throughout life. (/edonline/ concept2class/inquiry/index.html)asking questions is at the heart of inquiry-based learning. the goal is not to ask just any questions, of course, but ones that learners honestly care about. the inquiry designers role is to guide the learners in finding the answers themselves and encourage them to ask new questions along the way. (/ learning /approach/inquiry.asp)1) the purpose of the tasks should be delivering / expressing ideas.2) tasks should be of informative disparity, containing questions that require communication when learners are solving them.3) tasks should be of authenticity, which means they are the real questions existing in the real world.4) tasks should be of the procedure of accomplishing and the performance of the learners should be evaluative.finally, a good textbook should provide exercises to help learners in language consolidation. to point out the highlights of structures used in the reading materials can give learners a chance to discuss when and where they may use these structures appropriately. its mainly concerned with exercises. a good textbook should provide good language exercises, which help learners to consolidate what theyve learned about the target language. 2.4 flexibilitythe flexibility of a textbook means it can provide the room of re-creation for the users. it is important for a good textbook to provide not only a large quantity of adaptable input and output tasks but also relevant resources, because every textbook is limited in size and contents. in this ever-changing world, to broaden the sight of the learners, textbooks should provide the possibility of re-creation in order for the input and tasks provided to be easily adapted for the needs of learners by their teachers. (wang, 2004). 3. contrasting and discussion3.1 on input: ae vs. iseae contains many classical articles in different styles or literary forms. they are authoritative and authentic, involving many fields. in book 1, the short story everyday use, written by a female pulitzer prize winner alice walker, shows the cultural conflicts between black elders and youngsters. it introduces the african american culture to the learners. argentia bay in book 1 is also written by a pulitzer prize winner whose name is herman wouk. inaugural address by john f. kennedy is powerful in contents and superb in language, representing the condition and characteristics of the usa at the time. however, although most of the articles are classical and authentic, they are out of date. most of the articles in these two books are written and published in 1960s. the middle eastern bazaar in book 1 is taken from a book published in 1962. john f. kennedys inaugural address is delivered on january 20, 1961. the sad young men by rod w. horton and herbert w. edwards is from their book backgrounds of american literary thought published in 1967. all these can only bring learners a better comprehension and a higher accomplishment of literature. they help nothing in practice, as well as in modern thoughts and ideas. it is understandable that ae chooses so many outdated articles, because it was compiled 26 years ago when new and modern materials were not yet written and thus not available. even though the book has been revised in 1995, the readings remained the same and still outdated. up to this year, 12 years has passed by. moreover, there is not much change in exercises, either. therefore, the revised book still cannot meet the needs of modern learners. in contrast, ise, in each of its two books, consists of four subjects that are logically organized and full of informative inputs in each of its book. it provides an environment very close to esl both in language and contents. it chooses articles sticking to the subject. take subject 2 in book 6 for example. with the theme of globalization, it provides readings on history, basic knowledge, basic issues, representative point of views, ideas of personages and chinas chances. throughout the 70 pages, it comprehensively introduces relevant information with one listening material and nine articles, among which there is no lack of world-wide influential ideas and writings. for instance, the lexus and the oliver tree in unit 5 is written by thomas friedman, a famous journalist in new york times who won the pulitzer price for three times. on difficulty control, ise has a clearly arranged pattern. generally speaking, the discussion section and research section, which offer good intensive reading materials, are much more difficult than other sections in both language and contents. whereas, some materials, such as the listening part at the very beginning of each topic, are simple in language and give background introduction of relevant subject as supplementary information in contents. these articles can be self-studied and can be used for speed-read training. through the entire book, the difficulty of reading in language is at the level of daily communication of native speakers. the vocabulary of this book is practical, abundant and comprehensive, covering society, economics and politics. it provides a diversity of