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1.1 Research Background
In EFL settings, textbook is seen as an authority for learners' learning and eventeachers' teaching. The New English Curriculum Standards (2011) also highlights theimportance of textbooks in English course and suggests that teachers should usetextbooks flexibly and creatively. China，with the population of 1.3 billion, has the largest number of EFL learners inthe world. There are about 300 million EFL learners in China and this number is stillincreasing. Despite the large proportion of EFL learners, the learning environment inChina is not so satisfying: EFL learners have little access to English outside class andnon-native English teachers outnumber native English teachers. Lacking of targetlanguage environment and being short of native English teachers, textbook has alwaysbeen viewed as authority in Chinese settings. It is the major source for teachers toorganize teaching activities and also the main source for students to leara English.Cunningsworth (2002) points out that textbook plays an important role in Englishlanguage learning, particularly in English as a foreign language where textbookprovides the primary (perhaps only) form of language input. Textbook plays anirreplaceable role in teaching and is regarded as “the visible heart of any ELT program”(Sheldon, 1988: 237). It is true that in China textbook has a great influence on whatteachers teach and how they teach it.Previously, most English textbooks published by Chinese Education system werecompiled by experienced English educators together with some native English experts.Once a textbook was published, it would be promoted nationwide and viewed as theonly reliable authority of teaching material. For example, “the popular College English,first published in 1989 by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, has beenadopted by almost all universities around China and remained unchanged for over tenyears. It has influenced generations of English learners” (Meng, 2006: 7-8). In recentyears, more and more EFL/ESL textbooks published abroad have been introduced intoChina and more textbooks compiled by Chinese educators have been published in themarket. Chinese teachers have had much more choices of teaching materials, but someteachers still stick to one textbook. Reasons are varied: for some novice teachers, theyare not so professional and don not have much experience, so they have to rely ontextbooks to guide their teaching; while for some experienced teachers, their teachingconcepts are behind the times, they can not catch up with the new teaching concepts orthey simply do not want any changes since they are educated in such a way, too.
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1.2 Research Purpose
A good textbook plays an important role in implementing the curriculum. It is theembodiment of the contents and aims of the curriculum. As Seaton (1982: 40) writes,the textbook "acts as a visual record of process and can thus be a psychological supportto the students. It is also useful as a memory aid and for consolidation of class work athome; at the same time the textbook can be a syllabus for the teacher”（qtd. in Li, 2011: There are a great number of textbooks existing in the market, which makes thepurpose of textbook evaluation clear and apparent. Through evaluation of a newlypublished textbook, we can find out whether it is suitable for specific 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。