The results from questionnaires indicated few significant differences in almost all aspects of the textbook across different geographical areas and textbooks. Only the dimension of the texts in Textbook H was significantly given higher scores by the
rural students than the urban ones (see Table 20). Furthermore, students in both areas thought that the following two dimensions needed improvement: learning methods and resources as well as vocabulary, phrases, and pronunciation.
To discuss the possible reasons for students’ discontent with learning methods and resources, as revealed in students’ suggestions in the open-ended question of the questionnaire (see Appendix I), it was expected that a variety of learning skills and resources would be provided in the textbook. Opinions of Interviewee RSK were in line with the suggestions from the questionnaire. She said that the core of English learning should be effective learning and English communication. She had problems with reading long articles and retaining grammatical rules. Therefore, it was hoped that practices in the textbook could diagnose her problem and offer useful assistance.
The other dimension which gained the most discontent from students is the presentation of vocabulary, phrases, and pronunciation. Each of the student interviewees hoped that strategies of memorizing and retaining words would be provided. For example, it was widely believed by all of the interviewees that Items D5 (the relation between a word’s spelling and its pronunciation) and D6 (strategies of memorizing words, e.g., prefixes, suffixes, theme words) in the questionnaire could aid their vocabulary memorization. However, both textbooks failed to present the above two features. Furthermore, as revealed by USH3 and USH4, the recycling rate of some words in Textbook H was too low for students to apply or retain.
Interviewees USK2 & RSK also had the same perceptions of Textbook K. In addition, Interviewee USH5 and RSK said that most of the practices in Theme Words were simply fill-in in a single sentence. Interviewee USK1 thus proposed that theme words be put in Dialogue or Reading of a lesson in order to make students understand the word usage in a full context. Also, words with similar meanings, sounds or spellings confused students. USK3 took “since” and “from” as examples. Both of their Chinese
translations is “從.” USK4 indicated “snake” and “snack” have similar sounds and spellings. It caused many of her classmates to misuse them. As for pronunciation, although it is provided in each lesson of both textbooks (Books Five and Six of Textbook H do not have this), few of teachers’ attention was put on this section. The possibility of this may lie in limited time and the fact that pronunciation is not one of the focuses on the current JHS English exams. However, students still hoped to learn how to correctly pronounce words and sentences. They also believed that pronunciation is helpful for their word memorization.
Regarding students’ difficulties in using the two textbooks, the most common problems are as follows: “insufficient explanation of grammar,” “insufficient writing, speaking and listening skills,” “insufficient practice and extra learning resources,” as well as “boring texts.” All of them were chosen by about 36% to 62% of the urban and rural students. “Insufficient explanation of grammar” was even perceived by over half of the students in urban and rural areas (59.5% and 61.9% respectively).
As the data from interviews with teachers and students reveal, teachers spent much time explaining grammar, designed worksheets/handouts and assigned drills because the textbook only presented about three examples of the key grammar. The exercises of grammar were also insufficient. Besides, most of the examples were just single sentences instead of a whole passage. However, students reported that they had problems with cloze tests and tenses, which should be learned through a whole passage with a clear context and discourse. UTK1 further indicated that the textbook failed to introduce some commonly-used functions of a tense. For instance, past progressive can be used to show that a continuous action for a period of time in the past, e.g.,, Leo was sleeping all day long yesterday. In particular, such an important concept has appeared on the BCT several times. Students also stated their problems with similar grammar, for example, present perfect, past perfect, and past simple.
Even though the review section after every three lessons presented comparison of key grammar/patterns, more practices were still suggested by teacher and student interviewees. Teachers further mentioned that students’ common mistakes should be listed in the teachers’ manual.
In terms of the difficulty, “insufficient writing, speaking and listening skills,”
which includes three of the four language skills and related to one of the teachers’
commonest difficulties (i.e., the textbook’s failure to cultivate students’
communicative abilities), teacher and student interviewees indicated that the textbook seems to be designed for the BCT. Since these three skills are not the focuses of the current English exam of the BCT, they appear less than reading skills in the textbook.
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that communication is the core of English learning.
In order to cultivate students’ integrated skills and communicative abilities, some suggestions were proposed by interviewees. For example, open-ended questions are hoped to be added as pre-reading or post-reading questions to arouse students’ oral discussion and writing practices. The Chinese JHS textbook and workbook can be role models. Teachers further suggested that activities should aim to develop students’
integrated language skills instead of just practicing grammar/sentence pattern.
Additionally, how to assess students’ four skills are suggested so that teachers and students have clear goals to achieve. Therefore, some foreign language materials were recommended, such as Touchstone and Visions, for they had activities/tasks to develop students’ four skills and critical thinking.
Concerning the other common difficulties, “insufficient practice and extra learning resources” as well as “boring texts,” they were related to two of the teachers’
most common problems: “the textbook failure to cope with students’ diverse proficiency levels and interest them.” The result of teachers’ and students’ satisfaction with the textbook also shows that the dimension of “learning methods and resources”
gained the most discontent from users. These findings may result from the fact:
students’ in an ordinary class have varying learning background and needs, but their English textbook is identical. Even so, an identical textbook can be diversely and flexibly used by a teacher and a student as long as extra learning resources which suit students’ multiple proficiency levels and learning needs are offered in the textbook.
However, few of these resources are given. Even practices for exams are insufficient for students, so students usually have to buy another workbook to compensate for this weakness. Therefore, some of the interviewees hoped to have more practices.
As for the problem of “boring texts,” based on student interviewees’ opinions, even though readings and dialogues are associated with their daily life, it was hoped that the content would be more diverse and deep. For example, in addition to some common situations, such as greeting someone, showing gratitude, apology, agreement and disagreement, one of the interviewees said that argument is also an important part in students’ real life. On the other hand, although the textbook does introduce cultures, which is one of the most popular topics, most of the cultural information in the textbook has been known by students before it is introduced. Therefore, interactive English magazines are suggested because of the diversity, freshness and fun in their materials. The JHS Chinese textbook is also recommended, for it offers extensional readings whose topic is related to the lesson.
Furthermore, the area of a participant’s school caused significant differences in students’ difficulties with the textbook. As shown in Table 31, “insufficient extra learning resources” shows significant differences in the urban group, whereas
“insufficient reading skills,” “too much and too difficult grammar,” as well as
“inconvenient appendixes” reveal significant differences in the rural group. It is noteworthy that the former two items are related with the focuses of the current JHS English exams: vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. These results
support the findings of previous studies which aimed to explore the relationship between students’ performance on the BCT and urban-rural disparity. The findings indicated that urban-rural disparity did cause urban students to perform better in the BCT than rural students. In order to get higher grades, it may be expected by rural students that appendixes of grammar and vocabulary would be given in the textbook for them to check and review. However, the current textbook fails to meet this need.
On the contrary, the reason for “insufficient extra learning resources” which shows significant differences in the urban group may lie in that urban students are more proficient than rural ones, so they expect to have more additional resources to advance their proficiency. Urban students interviewees also suggested that websites and extensional readings related to the topic of a lesson would be added in the future textbook. Additionally, more open-ended questions before and after the reading were hoped to be presented because urban student interviewees believe that such questions could arouse their oral discussion.
In addition, among students used Textbook H, “the insufficiency of listening skills” shows significant differences in the rural group. 50.5% of the rural students perceived this difficulty, while only 35.6% of the urban ones had such a problem.
According to Interviewee RSH2’s statement, the speed of listening practices was too fast for her. Particularly, listening comprehension will soon become a part of the national English exam for JHS students in 2014 (The Committee of the Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students, 2012). If the problem of the rural students’ insufficient listening skills can not be solved in time, then it may cause more serious bimodal distribution to students’ grades between urban and rural areas.
With respect to students’ learning needs from teachers’ and students’ perspectives, results from teachers show significant differences due to different areas (see Table 29).
“To get high grades in exams and the BCT” shows significant differences from urban
teachers’ point of view. It is also the top one need in the urban teachers’ group. As all of the urban teachers revealed in their interviews, the current textbook was designed for the BCT. It was believed that the textbook helps students to get high grades on the BCT. Even exercises in the textbook and workbook as well as supplementary materials offered by the publisher are mainly practices for the BCT. Also, the criteria of the admission to an urban senior high school are usually stricter than that to a rural one, that is, urban senior high schools usually request a JHS student’s grades of the BCT to achieve a expected level. In addition, most of the JHS students hope to enter an ideal senior high school. Thus, urban teachers pay more attention on students’
grades than rural ones.
On the other hand, “to learn English autonomously” is the need which shows significant differences in the rural group. According to the information from Interviewees RTH and RSK, rural students have problems with grammar and reading long passages. The results from students’ questionnaire also reveal these difficulties.
However, English classes are insufficient for a teacher to solve these problems.
Therefore, it is expected that more practices of grammar and reading comprehension will be offered in the textbook so that students can autonomously utilize these resources.
In conclusion, most of the students’ discontent with the three dimensions of the textbook (i.e., “learning methods and resources” as well as “words, phrases and pronunciation”) probably results from the gap between students’ expectation and the textbook’s presentation. Students hope to acquire strategies of effective English learning, while textbooks did not explicitly present this feature. Furthermore, teachers may not pay much attention on this issue. On the other hand, the geographical difference did cause significant differences in students’ difficulties with the textbook.
The findings revealed that rural students may be less proficient than the urban ones
and may need more assistance of developing their reading skills as well as competence of basic words and grammar. In particular, the current JHS exams aim to test a student’s knowledge of vocabulary and grammar as well as reading comprehension. Furthermore, exams are one of the important criteria for JHS students to enter senior high (vocational) school. More suggestions about how to reduce the urban-rural disparity are given in Chapter Six.