学科教学（英语） 谷义苗
Chapter Three Evaluating ELT Materials
----A Sample of New Horizon College English 4
In this chapter, it mainly focuses on the two complementary stages: External evaluation and Internal Evaluation, external evaluation provides us an overview of the organizational principles, internal evaluation of materials gives us a detailed information about evaluation, and finally there is an overall evaluation in order to make an overall assessment as to the ability of the materials. So as to practice the related evaluating criteria, I will evaluate the book “New Horizon College English 4” by using the criteria I have learned. (1) The External Evaluation
At first, we will evaluate the book from external aspect, our aim is to exam the organization of the materials. The following are some claims of evaluation:
? The intended audience. This book is the college materials, it is used to teach the college students. It is suitable for college students not for other levels.
? The proficiency level. This book aims to teach the ordinary students, it means that it is suitable for majority learners’ levels.
? The context in which the materials are to be used. The materials are for teaching college students, who are not majored in English. It is just served to college students to learn English skills.
精选
? How the language has been presented and organized into teachable units/lessons. The materials contain 10 units, it will be used for a whole semester, and each unit includes Section A and Section B.
? The author’s views on language and methodology and the relationship between the language, the learning process and the learner. “New Horizon College English 4” is combined with modern information technology, the goal of this book is aimed to train students’ ability of comprehensive competence to use college English, especially to cultivate students’ listening and speaking skills, so that students can use English to communicate effectively in their learning and working process.
In addition, when evaluating materials, it is useful to keep a note of these claims, which we can then refer back to later in the process. Other factors to take into account at this external stages are as follows: ? Are the materials to be used as the main ‘core’ course or to be supplementary to it? This textbook is designed to teach general level, it includes from 1to four levels, this book is the forth level, it is the course of reading and writing. Reading and Writing course is the core material of the textbook.
? Is a teacher’s book in print and locally available? The material is published in Beijing-Foreign Language Teaching and Research
精选
Press.So it is convenient to offer teachers and learners books. ? Is a vocabulary list/index included? The book with an introductory unit, each unit is began with a preview of one hundred words, behind the text is the vocabulary tables. And in the last of book, there is an overall table of glossary appendix.
? What visual material does the book contains and is it there for cosmetic value only or is it integrated into text? In this material, it has several carriers, which consist of video，net and so on. And there is hardly any pictures in the book, because it is used to teach college students.Some texts are attached with visual materials, and the visual materials are related to the content of text, it is useful for students to understand the text.
? Is the layout and presentation clear or cluttered? The book can present main information clearly, each unit has clear structure, including section A and section B, it is satisfy students’ needs to gain knowledge.
? Is the material too culturally biased or specific? The content of this book does not exist these aspects, it just includes the neutral ideas of the text, it mainly talk about the technology and medical information or something else.
? Do the materials represent minority group and/ or women in a negative way? The content of this book does not exist bias
精选
knowledge.
? What is the cost of the inclusion of digital materials？ The textbook has several materials, such as DVD, and downloadable materials from the web. Learners can gain knowledge by New Horizon College English Online(http://www/nhce.edu.cn).
? The inclusion of tests in the teaching materials? In this book, Section A and Section B have their own exercises for students to practice. For example, Pre-reading Activities, Comprehension of the text, Vocabulary, Word building Translation and so on. These exercises concentrated on training learners’ productive skills. (2) The Internal Evaluation
We continue to the next stage of our evaluation procedure by performing an in-depth investigations into the materials.We need to examine at least two units of a book or set of materials to investigate the following factors：
? The presentation of the skills in the materials. The complication of Reading And Writing Course reflects the principle of combining receptive skills(listening and reading skills) and productive skills(speaking and writing skills). The comprehension of text is useful to train the receptive skills, and all kinds of exercises pay more attention to train learners’ productive skills. So the skills treated are in an integrated way, and the proportion is appropriate.
精选
? The grading and sequencing of the materials. The material includes 10 units, each unit has different kinds of text, and the author will control the length of text, different levels have different text length.The first level of text generally has 700 words, the second level has about 800 words, and the third and forth level will be controlled about 900 words.
? Where reading/discourse skills are involved,is there much in the way of appropriate text beyond the sentence? Reading and discourse skills are embodied in the comprehension of text, students can use those skills to finish the exercises in the book, or they can finish Section B on their own.
? Where the listening skills are involved, are recordings “authentic”or “artificial”? Listening skills are involved in the book, before learning the text deeply, there are first listening and second listening of passage, and then students try to answer the pre-reading questions after listening.The listening material is the passage not dialogues.
? Do speaking materials incorporate what we know about the nature of real interaction or are artificial dialogues offered instead?This book does not exist specific speaking materials, students can practice the skill by reading passage and finish the exercise: Comprehension of the text.
精选
经典教材分析 第三章.doc
