对《英语泛读教程》教材的分析与评价

关于《英语泛读教程(第二版)》案例探讨英语专业低年级英语阅读教学教学方法1.引言英语阅读Extensive Reading)是英语专业低年级学生的专业必修课,也是专业技能之一。

根据《高等学校英语专业英语教学大纲》2000),英语阅读课的目的在于培养学生的英语阅读理解能力和提高学生的阅读速度;培养学生细致观察语言的能力及假设判断、分析归纳、推理检验等逻辑思维能力;提高学生的阅读技能,包括细读、略读、查阅等能力;并通过阅读训练帮助学生扩大词汇量、吸收语言和文化背景知识。

阅读课教学应注重阅读理解能力与提高阅读速度并重。

教材应选用题材广泛的阅读材料,以便向学生提供广泛的语言和文化素材,扩大学生的知识面,增强学生的英语语感,培养学生的阅读兴趣。

文学课程Literature)是英语专业高年级学生专业知识课程之一,根据教学大纲,文学课程的目的在于培养学生阅读、欣赏、理解英语文学原著的能力,掌握文学批评的基本知识和方法。

通过阅读和分析英美文学作品,促进学生语言基本功和人文素质的提高,增强学生对西方文学及文化的了解。

由此可见,文学知识的获得必须通过大量的、广泛的阅读。

英语阅读教学跨越四个学期,其目的既是培养一种英语技能,同时又是通过阅读,了解英语国家的风俗、历史与文化等,原汁原味的文学作品无疑是体验这些文化背景最直接、最生动的载体。

现在各高校英语专业所使用的英语阅读教材均选取了一定数量的文学作品。

笔者以高等教育出版社出版《英语泛读教程第二版)》为例,探讨英语专业低年级英语阅读教学中文学篇章的教学方法,以实现向高年级文学课程的过渡与衔接。

2.文学篇章的阅读教学 2.1阅读篇章类型由高等教育出版社出版的《英语泛读教程第二版)》以下简称《泛读教程》)供高等学校英语专业一、二年级使用,教材旨在提高学生英语阅读理解能力,扩大学生词汇量,介绍基本的阅读技巧。

该教程阅读材料题材广泛,涉及英语国家社会、政治、经济、科技、文化等方面,课文长度从第一册的1200词增加到第四册的2400词,注意培养学生快速、准确、有效地获取信息、把握中心思想的能力,训练学生见“树”又见“林”的能力。

英语泛读教材分析作者：赵凌来源：《科技视界》2015年第03期【摘要】英语泛读课程在英语语言教学过程中处于一个非常重要的位置。

作为英语语言知识的输入媒介直接影响着英语学习者的知识获取和语言素质培养。

笔者分析了国内高校英语专业学生普遍使用的《英语泛读教程》来说明该课程对英语专业学生英语学习的影响。

【关键词】英语学习;英语专业;泛读教材;分析0 IntroductionThe textbook evaluated in this assignment is Extensive Reading （book 1 by Liu Naiyin，2005， second edition）. This textbook is sponsored by Education Department of China， and is widely used as a coursebook of extensive reading for English majors（usually first and second year students）.According to the author， this textbook has the following features：（1）The materials of reading touches upon society， politics， economics and culture of English-speaking countries; the content is up to date and includes new social developments and scientific and technological developments， and it focus on interests and variable genres.（2）The reading material varies from 1200 words to 2400 words， which is a breakthrough of traditional extensive reading books. This increasing of words can help students enlarge their vocabulary through reading， upgrade their reading speed and comprehending ability.（3）The reading material highlights the aim of training students’ abilities to acquire information and text thesis statement quickly， accurately and effectively.This text book consists of 15 units， each unit falls into 4 parts：（1）Text. In this part there is a text about 1200-2000 words， students are required to read the text and do the following exercises. The exercises are multiple-choice questions set for testing students’ abilities of getting the main idea of the text， comprehending the text， discussing in class and vocabulary exercises.（2）Reading skills. In this part， various reading skills are introduced， and， accordingly，specially designed exercises are followed. （This part is not provided in unit 3， 6， 9， 12 and 15）（3）Testing. In this part， three short passages of about 100-300 words are provided. Students are to read the passages quickly and note down the time of reading each passage. Each passage is followed by 5 multiple-choice questions to examine students’ comprehending.（4）Home reading. In this part， a passage of similar length of the text in part one is provided for students to read after class. Exercises of multiple-choice questions are provided to examine students’ comprehending.It is universally acknowledged that extensive reading， unlike intensive reading which focuses on grammar and complete comprehension of reading materials， aims at letting students read at leisure， at their own space and most importantly read for fun， in this process， students can cultivate themselves a native-like language environment， thus， promoting their reading ability. But in my teaching experience in my university， it is another story. In my curriculum， I have to teach extensive reading for a class twice a week. And the established practice in teaching extensive reading in my department， the first part--- text has to be taught just like the one of an intensive reading class. That means I have to explain every difficult points of the text： new words， difficult sentence structure and grammar and so forth. Usually， there is no time to do the following parts of the unit which are normally assigned to students as homework. And there are no contributive suggestions available in the according teacher’s book. Still， there is no way I can alter the course either in time table or the teaching procedure， because the syllabus of our university requires me to do so. That is how the extensive reading class is taught in my teaching practice.1 EvaluationAccording to Mckeachie （2002）：‘the major predictor of what students learn is not the teaching method but the textbook’. Textbooks are of great impo rtance for both teachers to carry out their teaching activities and students to get a great access to information. When it comes to EFL learning， it is needless to say how important textbooks are. In China， Extensive reading is the textbook for English majors of first and second year across nearly all Chinese universities and colleges， if I may say，this book has a great influence on students’ cultivation of reading ability. I will evaluate this extensive reading book according to the textbook’s 5 parts： text， reading skills，testing and homereading and the according exercises.（A）Text.In this part students are given a passage about 1200-2000 words. In most cases， it is an excerpt from a native writer and the theme of the text touches on various aspects， like society， culture，literature， science and technology to name just a few. By all means， it is a hard nut to crack. For teachers， this text is even more difficult and complicated than an intensive reading text， and they do not know how to convey successfully the knowledge to students. For students， they have to look every new word up in dictionary to get a basic understanding for guessing word from context is not useful at all， because there are too many new words for a just enrolled student so many so that thewords surrounding the unknown ones are unknown， too. So， I can say this text is not suitable to be conducted in class for first-first year students as extensive reading material. Then what is extensive reading？ And what an extensive reading material should be？ According to Davis （1995：329）（Cited from Renandya. 2007）：An extensive reading programme is a supplementary class library scheme， attached to an English course， in which pupils are given the time， encouragement， and materials to read pleasurably， at their own level， as many books as they can， without the pressures of testing or marks. Thus， pupils are competing only against themselves， and it is up to the teacher to provide the motivation and monitoring to ensure that the maximum number of books is being read in the time available. The watchwords are quantity and variety， rather than quality， so that books are selected for their attractiveness and relevance to the pupils’ lives， rather than for literary merit.Similarly，‘Wilhelm （2001）argues that text difficulty should be within students’ zone of proximal development; that is， they can read the text with assistance. But if the texts are within students’ zone of actual development or beyond their ZPD， readers may not read efficiently and critically since the former belongs to an independent reading level that is not challenging and thought provoking for readers and the latter is at students’ frustration reading level.’ （Cited from Reza Zabihi. 2011）From the above we can see the text in this part of Extensive Reading goes to far for first-year students to engage in real extensive activities. Extensive reading should be a method to put students in a native-like environment， to let students dip into multiple language exposures. During extensive reading， students should read at their own space with the aim to develop a sense of language instead of focusing on new words， difficult sentence structures and grammar. Then what should an extensive reading text be？ Usin g Krashen’s input theory，I can infer that while intensive reading adopts ‘i+1’ mode，then in extensive ‘students should be reading text at an i+1， i， or i-1 level， with i being their current proficiency level， and 1 referring to language features that are slightly above students’ competence.’ （Renandya. 2007）. So， first，students’ current English proficiency should be taken into consideration. Students of first year of college， they just graduated from high school， and the English education they received is primarily on elementary one. They know less about academic reading， professional words. Sudden encountering with many big words will dismay them. The best way I think to alter this part is to use graded reading materials. The grading can be done according to TEM-4 （Test for English Majors Band 4）. This is a Chinese national English proficiency test held in the second year of English majors. As mentioned above， this series of Extensive Reading textbooks are designed for the first and second year students. So we may just grade the texts of book 1 of TEM-1， book 2 of TEM-2， book 3 of TEM-3 and book 4 of TEM-4. By doing so， students can first easily adapt themselves to college level English study， and second prepare them for their professional examination. And most importantly they can have much easier comprehensible access towards extensive reading.（B） Reading Skills.This part provides various reading skills for students like previewing， guessing words form context， skimming and scanning and so on. There is no denying that reading skills are important. But as a book for English majors， only focusing on skills can not contribute much for students to improve their reading ability. Still， this way of teaching reading skills are not fruitful. To complete this part in order to help students develop themselves into competent readers， I think， it is a must to add reading strategies and cultivation metacognition awareness.Let us first look at the definitions of skill， strategy and metacognition： skills tend to be simpler， smaller， more specific， more discrete; strategies tend to be larger， more complex，multi-step and involve the use of a number of skills; metacognition consists of knowledge of cognition and regulation and control of cognitive acts. Metacognitive knowledge （Flavel， 1982） consists of persons （interest， skills， knowledge）， tasks （understanding nature and demand of task） and strategies （knowing the strategies for monitoring， repairing， and regulating reading process）; metacognitive control （Flavel， 1982） consists of planning （setting purpose， selecting particular actions）， monitoring （regulating and redirecting reading efforts to achieve goals） and evaluating （appraising effectiveness of strategies used）. So， we can have a hierarchical relationship among skill， strategy and metacognition： metacognition can help students understand and acquire reading strategies which leads to a better use of skills. Therefore， the weakness of this part is obvious： only teaching students reading skills will not sufficiently enable them to use them correctly and effectively.Then how do we make it a better part of this extensive reading textbook？ My suggestion is that we could teach students useful reading strategies which consist of many different reading skills instead of reading skills only， at the same time，pay great attention to raise students’ metacognitive awareness. For example， we can in this part first introduce a global reading strategy like predicating， and then tell students the cor rect skills to be used like guessing new word’s meaning from context， inferring relative information from background knowledge etc. In this way， students will acquire not only learn and acquire the skills but also strategies， and gradually form a sense of how these learned strategies should be used in different situation， in other words， have a metacognition knowledge of strategies using.（C） Testing.In this part， students are given 3 short passages to read. Each passage is varies from 100-300 words. The aim of this testing is to examine the speed of student’ reading and how much students can understand the passages. Compared with the text of the first part of this textbook， the passages are easy-understanding ones because there are not many new words， difficult sentence structures and grammar. In my teaching experience， I often ask students to do this part in class. Most students can finish reading the passages around no more than 15 minutes and get most correct answers to thefollowing multiple-choice questions. This is a really simple test， but for what？ Recording the reading time of each passage of course is not the answer. It may be useful to have an overview of the time used in this part after the semester to see whether students will improve in reading speed or not. Its appearance seems abrupt and irrelevant with the other parts of a unit. The whole organization of a unit is discrete. One plausible explanation is possibly that it is a preparation for students for their TEM-4 examination. Because， in TEM-4，there is a similar part called ‘fast reading’ which requires students to read fast and get the most comprehension. This test-wise design， in my opinion， is not compatible with the nature of extensive reading. Because one point that extensive reading stresses is to let students read without pressure. My altering suggestion is to change this part into one with background knowledge connected to the main text of the first part. It could be an anecdote， a joke， a cross talk or anything that is interesting and pertaining to the text. In this way，students can not only read for fun， but also have a deeper understanding of the text， and this cultural accumulation is very helpful for their English acquisition.（D） HomereadingThe text in this part， according to the author， is related with the first part text. Under most circumstances， this part is often the continuing part of the first part. That means， students is given two long difficult texts to read. As I have stated above， students get not only a few problems in reading and comprehending the first part， it is just another boring text which they are so reluctant to do it. As often as not， I ask students to read it after class and check the answers in next class. Even so， students rarely tried to do it. They just noted down the answers.By homereading， we mean it is kind of reading activity you can enjoy on a lovely day， or over a cup of coffee. In fact，students have to flip pages of a dictionary to get new words’ meaning， to look back at the first text to better his comprehension. It is more torture than enjoyment. Although，it is a good idea to stretch reading from only class to students’ life， it is hard to be put in practice. My idea of changing this part is either simply omit it or make it a practical one. If we do the latter， I think we can do it in two ways. First， we can change this part into a comparatively simple one. The text can be the ones closely related to students’ life or the ones they are interested in. The re would be no questions. Students are only required to give a sharing presentation on what they have thought about the text， or what they have found interesting of the text， things like that. By doing this， students are not pressed anymore with the questions， they just read for sharing， as long as they indeed read， the aim is accomplished. Secondly， we can assign students no specific reading text for their homereading. We can ask them to read anything that is available at hand， and report what they read to the class. Nowadays， students are immersed into a digital era with abundant information. Anything they read from their computers， laptops， and smartphones can be considered as a homereading exercise. Similarly， there should be no questions， and possibly a sharing presentation. In this way students can read freely， widely and passionately. It is of great help for students to learn background information， up-to-date words and steep into various English reading environments， and that is what I think a homereading should be.（E） Exercises.Exercises are an essential part of an extensive reading textbook. They are effective ways of examining what students have understood the text of the textbook. Exercises are also a direct indicator how those ‘input’ get across to students.Exercises here refer to all the exercises included in the first part （text）， the second part （reading skills）， the third part （testing） and the fourth part （homereading） of the textbook. The exercise of the first part of this textbook are： A. Determining the main idea; B. Comprehending the text; C. discussing the following topics and D. Understanding vocabulary. They are all multiple-choice questions except the ones of C. The exercises of the second part of this textbook are various in forms; they could be multiple-choice questions， blank-fillings and question-answerings， etc. The exercises of the third part of this textbook are all multiple-choice questions. The exercises of the fourth part of this textbook are： A. Comprehending the text. B. Disscussing the following topics. Every unit is of the same arrangement. From this structure I think it is far from being enough for an extensive reading textbook to evaluate what students will learn in this textbook. First， multiple-questions are used in nearly every part of the textbook. Though it is convenient to conduct， it is monotonous in form and it can not test students’ gain of the class comprehensibly. Because students will simply locate the part of the text that is pertaining to the question in order to get a correct answer instead of actual reading the text. That is not an extensive reading class for. Second， these exercises are all aimed to examine how students react to the given inputs， it ignores the output. According to the ‘output hypothesis’ （Merrill Swain. 1983）， output is more important than input to learn and acquire language knowledge. Third， I think， reading skills can not be taught through exercises. It is an accumulating process of metacognitive awareness through reading. So， from the perspective of my view， I think， the exercises of this extensive reading textbook should be： first the ones can really serve extensive reading better; second， they should be combination of the input and the output; third， they shoul d be helpful for students’ gradual development of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and skills. For example， we could use presentation， text-retelling， role-play to add to the simple structure of the textbook’s exercises.2 ConclusionExtensive reading plays an important role in EFL study which has long been realized in Chinese English language teaching practice. Many researchers and institutions have conducted various studies to make it better. The prevailing usage of this textbook is one of their studies result. And they still have a long way to go. First， it is a preoccupied concept and tradition in Chinese education that a textbook should be academic and difficult. Students are not supposed to read in class with leisure and laughers. They should sit upright with their eyes wide open in the classroom and they should be busy with their homework after class. Second， it is too risky for universities and colleges to put extensive reading out of schedule to have students read at home or to have students read in class something not academic. Because students examinations result of CET and TEM will decide the ranking of the university or college. Third， teachers can not teach extensive reading as it should be taught. If theuniversity principal passes an extensive reading class and sees the students read with smiles on their faces and the reading teacher were not instructing or writing on the blackboard， the teacher would surely be punished. These may count for why this extensive reading textbook is not a real extensive reading textbook. Nevertheless， these are all my personal and unprofessional understanding of the extensive reading textbook， and I believe a great change is being made possible as China becomes opener.【References】[1]Davis， C.ER： An Expensive Extravagance？[J]. ELT Journal，1995，49（4）：329-36.[2]Krashen， S. D. The Input Hypothesis： Issues and Implications[M].Longman Inc.， New York，1985.[3]R. Eric Landrum， Regan A. R. Gurung & Nathan Spann. Assessments of Textbook Usage and the Relationship to Student Course Performance[J].College Teaching， 2012，60（1）：17-24.[4]Regan A. R. Gurung1 and Ryan C. Martin.Predicting Textbook Reading： The Textbook Assessment and Usage Scale[J]. Teaching of Psychology，2011，38（1） 22-28.[5]Reza Zabihi.An Investigation of Critical Reading in Reading Textbooks：A Qualitative Analysis[J]. International Education Studies，2011，4（3）：80-87.[6]Swain， M.The Output hypothesis： Just Speaking and Writing are n’t Enough[J]. Canadian Modern Language Review，1993，50：158-64.[7]Wei Wu.An Investigation of the Nature and Functions of Exercises in textbooks for Intensive Reading Course for English Majors[J]. Journal of Language Teaching and Research，2011，2（5）， 998-1008.[8]Wilhelm， J.D.Improving comprehension with think-aloud strategies[M]. New York：Scholastic Inc.，2011.[9]Willy A. Renandya.The Power of Extensive Reading[J]. RELC Journal， 2007，38（2）：133-149.[责任编辑：薛俊歌]。

泛读教程body language课文分析(一)教材内容分析本单元的中心话题是“肢体语言”，介绍了肢体语言在世界范围内的人们生活中所承担的不同角色及所起的重要作用，其中重点介绍了肢体语言在不同的文化背景下的不同含义及世界通用的肢体语言。

本单元的绝大部分内容都围绕这一中心话题展开的。

“热身”(Warming up)部分以五幅不同的面部表情导出本单元的话题之一：面部表情是传递某人内心情感的一种方式，使他们能在平时注意自己在与他人交往中注意自身的面部表情。

“听力”(Listening)部分是以听的形式进一步向学生介绍了肢体语言的交际功能，然后以选择的形式考查学生对听力材料信息的筛选能力，同时又要求学生把所听到的信息应运于讨论之中。

“口语”(Speaking)部分向学生提供三个情景，让学生通过编对话进行“请求帮助”和“提供帮助”的日常英语练习。

“读前”(Pre-reading)部分编者设计了三个问题，诱发学生思考如何用肢体语言进行交流。

激发学生进行阅读的欲望。

“阅读”(Reading)部分是一篇说明文，它介绍了We use both words and body language to express our thoughts and opinions and to communicate with other people./We can learn a lot about what a person is thinking by watching his or her body language。

全文可分为三大部分，各部分的意思是：Part 1(Para 1):We use both words and body language to express our thoughts and opinionsand to communicate with other people.Part 2(Para 2-3):Just like spoken language,body language varies from culture to culture.Part 3(Para 4-5):Some gestures seem to be universal.。

英语泛读教学反思————富源学校熊礼强英语教学作为一门语言的教学，其主要是培养学生的语言技能，即运用语言的能力，因此其课堂教学应具有不同于其他课程课堂教学的特点。

目前在很多中学的英语教学中存在的紧扣课文，反复操练短语、句型的教学方式的确让很多学生体验不到英语学习的乐趣，进而丧失学习的乐趣。

而要改变这一现状，我们应该在教学观点上进行转变。

即英语教学不是语言知识的教学而是语言技能的教学。

霍教授提到的“让学生阅读大量的英文原著，在故事的阅读中感受乐趣，培养语感，最终达到熟练运用语言”的观点则体现了语言学习的特点。

即语言是思想沟通的载体，学生只有在富含寓意和情节的故事阅读中才能体验到乐趣，进而对英语学习感到兴趣。

在这一过程中，学生也得到了大量的语言输入，对其听、说、读、写的各项技能的提高也会产生潜移默化的作用。

然而，在现实的英语教学中，老师们仍难免受到考试指挥棒的影响，过分强调英语知识的教学。

在考试依旧是教学的指挥棒的情况下，如何在这两点找到一个平衡点就显得尤为重要。

具体为在平时的英语教学中应尽可能多的让学生阅读英文文章，在优美的文章中激发兴趣，培养语感，在语言运用中学习语言。

另外，我们的确应在教材的处理上作出一定的改变，即由以本为本向以用为本转变。

其实这也是强调应让学生尽可能多的接触英文文章。

英语教材是学生学习英语的基础，而紧紧只是对教材中的语言知识点进行反复讲解操练是枯燥乏味，远远不够的。

因此必须进行大量的阅读。

然而，我并不完全认同所有的英文课应采取霍教授提倡的理念进行，在目前的英语教学大环境下，部分传统的教学方法依然有它的成功之处值得借鉴，只是在具体的教学过程中，我们应把握好两者的利弊，做到取长补短，综合运用，这样才能使学生在英语学习中保持强烈的兴趣和自信，同时又打下扎实的英语学习的基础。