Reflection on the Reading Material of Middle School Students

【 Abstract】： Evaluation is an important part in ESP teaching. However， the majorities of the studies focus on the needs analysis， genre analysis or lesson plan. In this thesis， the paper tends to make an evaluation of the English training course based on the evaluation theories in ESP teaching. The advantages and limits of the course are analyzed in this thesis to promote the research on approaches and methods in ESP teaching.

1. Introduction

Evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose. After designing the course， what we should do is to evaluate whether the materials we have used are appropriate for the target groups.

There are four major steps in evaluation process. They are defining criteria， subjective analysis， objective analysis and matching. In my thesis， I tend to evaluate them in terms of the audience， aims and content of the materials to testify the materials， to see whether the materials meet the needs.

2. Theoretical Background

In ESP context， the materials can be used as a source of language; as a learning support; for motivation， stimulation and reference.

Evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose. Evaluation is basically a matching process： matching needs to available solutions. We can divide the evaluation process into four major steps. The first one is defining criteria which means on what basis will you judge materials？ In the next step， it is the subjective analysis which focuses on the realization of the wanted criteria. The second step is to see how material being evaluated through the criteria. In the end， we need to make a comparison to see whether the material match the needs.

3. Material Evaluation

The material I used is a guide book of their textbook which is studied in school. Later， I will select a piece of reading material to analyze briefly.

Firstly， from the aspect of the audience， in subjective analysis， my students are teenagers between 14 to 15 years old. They come to the class only on weekends. Having learnt English for 4 years， they know a little about English. However， for various reasons， they show no results in English， even most of them cannot pass the examination， and they show no interests in English. In reality， the material is intended for 14–year-old teenagers who are in the process of learning fundamental knowledge of English. So they are matched.

Secondly， from the aspect of aims， the purpose of this course is to help students acquire the English knowledge in terms of grammar， reading and writing skills as soon as possible. As a contrast， the materials I use focus on the translation of texts， explanation of the vocabulary and exercises. To make a conclusion， the materials meet the needs of vocabulary and grammar which is teacher-centered. Students always passively receive what the teacher said but understand nothing. In addition， the writing and reading skills are not being trained.

In addition， from the aspect of content， the article， proper nouns， the present continuous tense and modal verbs should be included. Meanwhile， in the materials， they are all included. So they are matched from this angle.

Besides， I think the materials lack writing and spoken exercises. For writing， some tentative topics like school life， food or their views towards games should be included into their writing exercises. As we all know， most texts give no room for spoken exercises. In my view， the spoken exercise should be a part of the teaching. Without it， what the students learned can only be dumb English. To adjust materials， teachers can add some hot topics for students to discuss.

In the end， the sequence of the content is that the first part is the explanation of the new words; the second part is reading translation; the third part is grammar and the last one is the exercise part. In some extent， I think the sequence should be adjusted for the following reasons. In one hand， all the structures are used for reading. If we give lectures about grammar separately， students can only know the concrete items but no ideas about to use them. In the other hand， the teaching of the new words should be after the reading and the translation should be emitted. That is to say， in the first place， the teacher should ask students to read the material and underline the unknown words. To make it effectively， the teacher can give them multiple choices to guess the meaning. So the appropriate sequence should be reading first， then the words， then the grammar used in the reading， at last the exercises.

For the selected material， in my view， most students cannot understand it for too many new words and too long. Taking their levels for consideration， the materials they need should be easy， clarity and understandable.

4. Conclusion

Material evaluation is very important for designing a course. Thus the teacher should make clear about the needs of every student. Through the given criteria and comparison between subject analysis and objective analysis， teachers can adjust their selected materials to meet the needs of students.

References

Hutchison T. Water A. English for Specific Purposes： A learning centered approach. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 1987.

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