The purpose of this study is to analyze the dialogues in Practical English Ⅰ textbooks, which are based on the 2009 revised curriculum, focused on the topics, communicative functions, and learners' interests. The five kinds of textbooks are chosen f...
The purpose of this study is to analyze the dialogues in Practical English Ⅰ textbooks, which are based on the 2009 revised curriculum, focused on the topics, communicative functions, and learners' interests. The five kinds of textbooks are chosen for the textbook analysis; in addition, a hundred of the first grade high school students participated in the survey taken to examine the learners' interests. As an analysis criterion, the 19 kinds of topic types and 11 kinds of communicative function types suggested by the 2009 revised curriculum are used.
The contents of the study are as following.
First, the 253 dialogues in Practical English Ⅰ textbooks based on the 2009 revised curriculum are analyzed in terms of the 19 types of topic; moreover, the 2,136 sentences from dialogues are analyzed in terms of the 11 types of communicative functions. The results are rated from a type of high frequency.
Next, a hundred of the first grade high school students are required to choose three types they are interested in based on the 19 types of the topic and the 11 types of communicative functions, respectively. The results are also rated from a type of high frequency.
Finally, the two frequency data are compared to in accordance with the Spearman rank correlation coefficient.
The results of the study are as follows.
The textbooks are confirmed as reflecting the learners' interests statistically according to the topic analysis. The topic 'Leisure' is used in the highest rate in textbooks(used 66 times occupying 21.0%); at the same time, the learners' highest interesting topic was also the topic 'Leisure'(selected 59 times occupying 19.7%). However, the more important fact is that other topics are not deeply involved between the textbook rank and the learners' interest rank.
In terms of communicative functions, the textbooks nearly do not deal with the learners' interest. The most commonly introduced communicative function is the 'Transmitting and Requesting information'(used 439 times occupying 20.6%); on the other hand, the 'Expressing emotional attitudes' is the most highly preferred by the students. Other communicative functions are not deeply involved between the textbook and the learners' interest frequency.
The results of the study lead to the following recommendations.
First, the efforts to study and reflect what learners are interested in on textbooks are required to improve their English skills efficiently although introducing various topics and communicative functions are also considered when textbooks are written.
Second, teachers are necessary to analyze revised textbooks and add more contents or activities considering learners' needs and interest so that learners' motivation and the quality of teaching and learning should be improved.