LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:8 August 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2021
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

The Importance of Textbook Adaptation for the Localized Context:
A CSE Framework Perspective

Xinying Li
PhD Candidate of ELT in Assumption University, Thailand

Abstract

It is very prevalent for teachers to make changes of textbooks to satisfy local students’ needs and curriculum. In China, because of the vast territory and unequal educational conditions in different places, how to adapt a textbook for localized context becomes more significant. This paper aimed to present and discuss an empirical practice of textbooks adaptation in alignment with the China Standards English (CSE) framework, which can be an example of textbook adaptation from a Chinese context. CSE (Ministry of China, 2018) is a national benchmark for all Chinese learners to measure their English abilities and guide the curriculum setting for each school, hence can be utilized as the standard for materials adaptation. In order to achieve the objective, the researcher adapted the reading and writing content of two college English textbooks aligned with the CSE in pedagogic classrooms in Wenshan University where the researcher worked in. The adaptation was proceeded by an instrument of checklist aligned with the CSE and analyzed by content analysis, whilst students’ perception data about the adapted materials was collected by interviews and analyzed by conversational analysis and inferential analysis strategies. Results revealed that to adapt the reading and writing content of textbooks aligned with the CSE satisfied local students’ learning needs and proficiency and can positively help them to improve their two language skills.

Keywords: China Standards English (CSE), College English, Localized context, Reading and Writing skills, Textbook adaptation

Introduction

Textbooks have always been taken as a guideline for teachers to proceed pedagogic activities, while there is no ideal textbook for different learners and context. Hence textbook adaptation becomes essential and significant to ensure the effectively utilization for different leaners in each context. As Cunningworth (2002, p.136) suggested that there is no one perfect textbook fit between learner needs and course requirements, materials should be improved by adapting it to suit special situation. Gabrielatos (2004, as cited in Tibebu, 2017, p. 254) also mentioned two reasons of why textbook adaptation is needed. One reason is that coursebooks cannot show the methodology of ‘what’ and ‘how’ to teach clearly for teachers, and the other reason emphasizes on the significance of matching a coursebook with the teaching and learning context. What’s more, Tomlinson (2013) thought that it is significant for teachers to learn to use and adapt textbooks to match students’ interest, cultural knowledge, language proficiency and other learners’ needs. Therefore, textbook adaptation is an important process in any educational setting and context. The following research presented an empirical adaptation of college English textbooks in Chinese localized context.

In China, possessing good English proficiency is always helpful for college students to get a good job in future job hunting, so most college students even in rural areas aspire to learn the language well. Moreover, many Chinese universities take it as a condition for graduation that students should pass the College English Test (thereafter CET) Band 4, hence students have quite high motivation for improving their English. However, because of regional differences in education, there is no one textbook can satisfy all English learners’ needs and proficiency abilities in different places. Hence to adapt textbooks for different local students becomes more crucial for Chinese teachers. For different colleges in different places, teachers don’t have unified textbooks, so they follow the mainstream and choose the books published by some big and famous publishers as other universities. These textbooks are mostly not specialized for local students, which make the adaptation becomes inevitable. As a college English teacher in Wenshan University, the researcher always gets reflections from students that the textbooks are not very helpful for their language skills improvement. This phenomenon inspired the researcher to proceed a textbook adaptation experiment and search effective strategies to help students to enhance their English skills. Wenshan University is a state university of Wenshan Zhuang and Hmong Ethnic Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, which locates in the borderline of China and Vietnam.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Xinying Li
PhD Candidate of ELT in Assumption University, Thailand
MA of ICC&IM in Newcastle University, UK
English Teacher in Wenshan University, Yunnan, China
tracy-xinying@qq.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.