基于语料库的商务英语教材评价—以广外《商务英语综合教程》为例

CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

Business English program, a branch of the discipline of Foreign Language and Literature, hasbeen established among 293 colleges till March, 2016. It specifies that learners should notonly have a solid command of English language knowledge and skills, but also acquireacquaintance with culture and society status quo of English speaking countries. Thereupon, inorder to fulfill these objectives, a train of language-based lessons and culture lessons shall beestablished, which is beyond the capability of an ESP- oriented business English lesson.Besides, learners shall be equipped with systematic business awareness, which can beachieved by commercial curriculum, and an ESP-oriented business English lesson is unable toassume the task of imparting commercial input. Under such circumstances, correspondingteaching materials are waited to be developed to meet Business English teaching demand.Thus, Business English (A Comprehensive Course) (hereinafter referred to as the BEtextbooks ) is compiled by teachers from School of English for International Business (SEIB)in Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS), distinguishing itself from generalEnglish course books. Meanwhile, even the textbooks are specifically designed for businessEnglish major, blemish certainly exists and causes predicament for learning and teaching.Currently, according to teachers’ feedback and teaching evaluation, this set of teachingmaterials still possesses flaws, waiting to be further revised.

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1.2 Rationale and Significance of the Present Study

In the short-term perspective, evaluating teaching materials attempts to provide justifiablesuggestions in terms of revising or adapting textbooks on the basis of research findings. In thelong run, Ministry of Education is going to promulgate The National Criteria of TeachingQuality for BA Program in Business English (hereinafter referred to as the National Syllabus)which specifically proposes and defines Business English curriculum system and teachingstrategies. Thus, it is of great significance for editors to speculate how Business English teaching materials fulfill the needs of National Syllabus. Furthermore, the BE textbook is atypical course book of business English teaching materials. And according to teachers’feedbacks, it possesses flaws and is in need of adaptation. Therefore, a systematic evaluationis needed to provide suggestions for further revision.

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CHAPTER TWOLITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Some Definitions

Since the thesis is oriented at evaluating BE textbooks, it’s requisite to illustrate relevantdefinitions to comprehend evaluated teaching materials. As a result, this part, referring toauthoritative literature, elaborates on course book, business English, and business Englishmaterials. Meanwhile, familiarizing the definition of corpora and corpus tools is conducive toanalyze BE textbooks objectively.

2.1.1 Definition of Course Book

Cunningsworth (2002) once noted the role of course book, indicating “Course books are bestseen as a resource in achieving aims and objectives that have already been set in terms oflearner needs” (p.7). It can be seen that course books act as a solutions carrier to satisfylearners’ needs, with goal-oriented materials arrangement. Apart from learners’ need to beconsidered, teachers’ aim also plays a crucial role. Cunningsworth (2002) noted “the role ofthe course book is to be at the service of teachers and learners but not to be their master”(p.14), which demonstrates teaching materials are positioned as support for teacher’s teachingprocess instead of a guiding role,. To conclude, course books shall be equipped with the dualfunctions that take aims of teachers and needs of learners into account.

Furthermore, concrete classification of roles is also completed by Cunningsworth.According to his understanding, seven roles are played by course books in ELT, serving as “aresource for presentation material (spoken and written); a source of activities for learnerpractice and communicative interaction; a reference source for learners on grammar,vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.; a source of stimulation and ideas for classroom languageactivities; a syllabus (where they reflect learning objectives which have already beendetermined); a resource for self-directed learning or self-access work; a support for lessexperiences teachers who have yet to gain in confidence” (Cunningsworth, 2002:7). It isclearly seen that the roles are classified by combining the needs of learners and teachers.Besides, both knowledge and activities are included in course books for teaching activitiesand self-learning process.

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2.2 Previous Studies on Teaching Materials and Problems

Domestic scholars have conducted relevant researches on the roles of ESP teaching materialsand concluded problems inherent in current ESP course-books. Meanwhile, the evaluation ofbusiness English course books is also under the study of researchers with corpus tools andquestionnaires surveys.

2.2.1 Previous Studies on the Roles of Teaching Materials

Mo (2008) concluded status quo of ESP teaching materials, (1) ESP teaching materials are notmature enough to have a systemic set of course book, which has consistent arrangement andcontents. (2) ESP course books cannot be complementary with one another in terms ofdifficulty level, materials presentation and exercises, failing to form a system. (3) Coursebooks may be altered after the change of teachers without fixed setting of curriculum. (4)Teaching contents lack theoretical basis with less explanation of abstruse terms, andarrangement of grading level isn’t increasing steadily from easiness to difficulty. (5) Teachingmaterials may be compiled by teachers tentatively, of which the credibility remains to bejustified. (6) Some course books cannot direct learners to real practice, only concentrating oninane theories. As to the shortcomings of ESP materials, BE textbooks may be stuck inabove-mentioned circumstances, remaining to be noted in evaluation process.

Apart from research of problems inherent in ESP course books, Mo (2008) alsoelaborated on the relevance between course books, students and teachers. On one hand,concerning relation inherent in learners and course book, such differentiations as ages,psychological factors, recognition, etc. do allow teachers to adopt disparate teaching methodsand impart divergent input to suit different learners’ needs, which exactly corroborateswell-known teaching concept illustrated as teaching activities are in accordance with students’aptitude. On the other hand, teaching materials bear direct relevance with teachingperformance. A systematic course book with fine design and a variety of materialspresentation spurs teachers to actively participate in teaching activities and advance teachingperformance, which, in turn, influences effectiveness of course books.

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CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKANDANALYTICALPROCEDURES....17

3.1 McDonough & Shaw’s Evaluation Theory....................17

3.1.1 External Evaluation....................17

3.1.2 Internal Evaluation.....................18

CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH METHODS..................23

4.1 Tailored Checklists........................... 23

4.2 Questionnaires...............................25

CHAPTER FIVE RESEARCH RESULTSANDANALYSIS..............29

5.1 General Overview of BE Textbooks.............................29

5.2 Results of the Questionnaire Survey......................... 30

CHAPTER SIXSUGGESTIONS

6.1 The Merits of the BE Textbooks Revealed by the Present Study

In the aspect of external evaluation, BE textbooks turn out to be adequate to some extent.Firstly, the BE textbooks, compiled by the teachers from GDUFS, are targeted at the businessEnglish majors, which indicates that the BE textbooks have their specific target users.Secondly, along with the student’s book, there are a teacher’s book and a list of newvocabulary to assist the users, strengthening convenience and efficiency in learning andteaching. Thirdly, the general overview of the audio/ video materials, and the price of thetextbooks suggest that this set of textbooks has a good performance in these aspects. Fourthly,the textbooks offer different topics of business and opportunities of practicing the four basiclanguage skills, but the result of questionnaire indicates that the integral development oflanguage skills turns to be less satisfactory in real practice.

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CHAPTER SEVENCONCULSION

7.1 Summary

The thesis, combining questionnaires survey, interview and corpus analysis, conducts researchin a comparatively quantitative manner to determine whether the BE textbooks are suitable forstudents. With the introduction of National Syllabus for BA program, there are specificrequirement for business English core curriculum, to which BE textbooks belong, thus theevaluation can be conducted from the perspective of syllabus demand. Then after NationalSyllabus is integrated with McDonough & Shaw’s external and internal evaluation, a tailoredchecklist is generated. On the basis of polished checklists, the questionnaire is designed andcorpus analysis and interview are conducted afterwards. The findings of study suggest that thetextbooks have more drawbacks than merits, especially failing to satisfy the requirements ofobjective congruence, contents relatedness, learnability and difficulty suitability. After causesare analyzed, further suggestions are proposed on the grounds of Cunningsworth’s adaptationtheory. Consequently, four research questions have been answered as below.

(1) The tailored checklist consists of a multiple of variables, namely layout, package, pictures,costs, objectivity congruence, contents relatedness, learnability and difficulty suitability.

(2) Questionnaires survey consisting of organization, content and business skills andcommunication dimensions manifests that the current edition of BE textbooks fails to suitstudents’ demand. On one hand, in descriptive analysis, firstly, respondents gave less positiveremarks in terms of the organization of teaching materials. The covers of BE textbook remainto be polished to add attraction to target learners, and exercise materials are too cumbersome.Secondly, content section which comprises textbook attraction and difficulty arrangement oftextbook, fails to arrange reasonable order of teaching material and to follow the pace of timeswith authentic commercial language. Furthermore, business elements inherent in BE textbooks are not enough to manifest business-relatedness of BE textbooks. Thirdly, businessskills task designs fail to attach sufficient importance to business skills and communicationenhancement. On the other hand, comparative analysis presents little difference of analysisresult between Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and Guangdong University ofTechnology (Table 5-6), but certain variances among different grades. Especially in “layout”,“blurb” and “arrangement of difficulty from easiness to difficulty” dimensions, the findingspresent great divergence among different grades with sophomore students achieving thelowest mean value.

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