English Language Teaching Materials Evaluation on Go for It Grade 7 Book 1

1. Introduction

Teaching materials are the main foundation in teaching and learning activities.In order to use them properly and flexibly， it is necessary for us to research and evaluate the coursebooks we make use of carefully so as to promote English teaching and learning qualities.This paper will makes an critically evaluation on Go for It Grade 7 Book1 from following aspects： layout and design， general appearance， language contents， topic and activity contents， methodology， teaching method and assessment.

2. Theories of English language teaching materials evaluation

Before this assessment， we need to realize some relevant language learning and teaching theories.Krashen （1985） considers only when the learners contact witcomprehensive input” which is slightly higher than his current language level， and he can focus on the meaning rather than the form of the information， learning really takes place.McDonough and Shaw （2003） expound the evaluation details consist of two parts： the external evaluation and the internal evaluation.Conningsworth （2002） provieds four guidelines for evaluation. Teacher should guide students to complete of specific tasks to learn how to use language for communication（English Curriculum Standards， 2003；Middle school English curriculum standards and teaching analysis， 2014）.

I concentrate particularly on frame suggested by expert Cunningworth.Furthermore I condense them into principles which help me evaluate Go for It grade 7 book 1.

3. Brief introduction to Go for It Grade 7 Book 1

Go for it Grade 7 Book 1 is one of the Compulsory Education Curriculum Standard Experimental Textbooks used nationwide.It is co-authored by the Institute of Curriculum Materials， English Course Materials Research and Development Center and the United States Thomson Learning Publishing Group.

4. Results of Evaluation

4.1 Strengths

Go for It Grade 7 Book1is beautifully designed and full of rich， colorful， cartoon-like pictures.Each graph has English-Chinese bilingual language objectives.These pictures help students better understanding the contents of learning and attract the children’s attention. While they also give learner the motivations to further explore.The design of the tasks tries to provide students with real language materials， and create a real context environment， so that the students exists in a natural， and true condition to simulate and understand how to use the target language.The topic is defined as the main line， using the task-based language teaching model and taking into account the study containing the communicative function and the structure of language knowledge .It guides students learn to use English to do things purposefully in a life-like way.“Go for it”involves the skills of listening， speaking， reading and writing and especially focuses on listening and speaking. In the course book， the editors design a large number of listening and speaking activities. Through listening and speaking tasks， students can master language， grammar points and remember the sentence structures and related words. It facilitates students’ comprehensive ability and improve students’ communicative competence.

4.2 Weaknesses

The amount of vocabulary exercises is too heavy， and is easy for students to produce fear towards to learning. There are plenty of language points that need students to realize and master in each unit which leads to heavy burden on students.

5. Conclusion， implications and suggestion

The main conclusion that can be drawn is that although the new target English teaching materials still have some shortcomings， but reflects the learner-centered educational theory and model.Learning language should be accordance with the regulars of physical and mental development of the students.At the same time， in the basic education of language knowledge， the teacher should develop students’ learning strategies as well as language competences which are used in actual linguistic environment.

References：

[1]Cameron，L.（2001）.Teaching Language to Young Learners.Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.

[2]Cunningworth，A.（1995）.Choosing your coursebook.Oxford：Heinmann.

[3]Education Department.（2011）.English Curriculum Standards.Beijing：People’s Education.

[4]教育部基A教育司英语课程标准研制组.英语课程标准[M].北京：人民教育出版社，2011.

[5]Krashen，S.（1985）.The Input Hypothesis.London：Longman.

[6]Krashen，S.（2009）.Language education：past，present and future.RELC Journal 39（2）：178-87.

[7]Yan，C.M.and Wen，B.and Li，Z.L.（2014）.Middle School English Curriculum Standards and Textbook Analysis.Beijing：Science Press.（闫春梅，文斌，李正林.中学英语课程标准与教材分析[M].北京：科学出版社，2014.）