The Characteristics of New English Textbook“Go for it”

【Abstract】Textbook plays a very important role in secondary schools. By fully understanding its characteristics， teachers can full exert its advantages in the process of usage. It equally can provide a point of reference for junior English in China in the future.

【Key words】English teaching； “ Go for it ” （the first volume of grade seven）

Introduction

Under the new-round curriculum reform of the fundamental education， new textbook has been adjusted prodigiously at capacity and contents. In fact， many teachers， however， are still wearing new shoes to walk the old path. They can not hold the characteristics of the new textbook， which cause many thorny issues. This thesis， taking “Go for it” （the first volume of grade seven） as an example， summarizes its characteristics as follows：

1. Full coverage of vocabulary presented in curriculum standards and properly reducing total amount of vocabulary.

Revised textbooks based on topics carefully select words in order to， on the one hand， ensure full coverage of the words required by curriculum standards， on the other hand， strictly control the total amount of vocabulary by deleting some words and names. At the same time， try to keep balance each units new word in balance. In the first volume of grade seven， the total number of words from the original 487 reduces to 346， the quantity in names reduces to 28 from 74， greatly reducing the initial grade of learning burden for students and laying a solid foundation for further study.

2. Grammar teaching and meaning going first.

This textbook takes topic as a main stream with less explanation of grammar. Grammar only runs through teaching activities constantly. With singular and plural forms of English nouns， for example， several units include this grammar knowledge in the first volume of English textbook for grade sevens students. Even in the last unit， however， there is no systematic rules of variation as a noun. This feature exactly reflects the direction of todays English educational reform—paying more attention on the development of actual ability about using language for students， not focusing too much on explanation of grammar and vocabulary. Therefore， in the process of teaching， we put forward grammar teaching and meaning going first， which means that we pursuit accuracy and appropriateness of language on the premise of ensuring correct transmission of information. In practical teaching， teachers can make students know about grammar by students making communication with topics. After students having a certain understanding of the grammar knowledge and a certain language accumulation， teachers can make generalizations.

3. More content related to urban life and less content related to rural life.

In general， the content of the new textbooks is close to students life， with strong smack of everyday life. However， there is more content related to urban life in the new textbook， such as baseball， soccer， salad， even including birthday party. There is less information and sources in the countryside. Therefore， rural students can only have virtual experience based on rational imagination and derivation according to instructional situation provided by teachers. These students can not gain experience through their own efforts and participation so that teaching effectiveness greatly reduced.

4. Difficult to teach grammar.

The arrangement of unit based on topics easily leads to grammar scatter in many units in the textbook， which raises obvious difficulties to teachers teaching. Moreover， the new curriculum standard requires to pay less attention on explanation of vocabulary and grammar and to focus on cultivating students ability to use language. Then many teachers think that grammar teaching is a sensitive topic. In fact， the new curriculum standard only requires us to change the way of grammar teaching. That means teachers should not always impart knowledge and let students remember grammar rules and sentence patterns by rote， which does not let us abandon the grammar teaching. On the contrary， the new curriculum standard promote the task-based teaching model and teachers must learn to teach grammar in the task activities. Teachers can guide students to discover and learn grammar through inquiry learning strategy， such as the establishment of scenarios—inspiring students to think—drill—summary.

References：

[1]劉道义，张雅君，郑旺全.英语（新目标）Go for it[M].北京：人民教教育出版社，2015.

[2]程晓堂.英语教材分析与设计[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2004.

作者简介： 张瑜（1992-），女，汉族，山西太原人，山西师范大学研究生，研究方向：学科教学英语。