EFL textbook evaluation : task design of Contemporary college English

Abstract

As one crucial component of language textbooks, learning tasks mirror the logic of textbook design, and a systematic analysis of task design can facilitate a deeper understanding of textbooks as well as classroom instruction. Based on Nunan’s task component theory (2004) and relevant taxonomies, the current study investigates task design of Contemporary College English, a set of EFL textbooks targeted at undergraduate English majors in mainland China, combining an internal evaluation on tasks and an external evaluation by interviewing ten textbook users. The findings of the internal evaluation uncover a series of characteristics of task design of Contemporary College English. Firstly, this set of textbooks involves a diversity of genres as language input to tasks, and the learning objectives and strategies implied by tasks are designed in a comprehensive way. Secondly, these tasks attach particular importance to certain learning goals (understanding, remembering and analyzing) and strategies (cognitive strategies and linguistic strategies), and the role settings as well as the classroom settings involved mirror a preference for teacher-directed pedagogy. Thirdly, this set of coursebooks takes students’ progressive learning competence into consideration, and contains a progression from lower order thinking skills to higher order thinking skills in its tasks. The results of the external evaluation indicate that learners and instructors are generally satisfied with task design of Contemporary College English despite some deficiencies, such as limited opportunities to practice specific strategies (affective strategies and creative strategies), which deserve further improvement. The major findings of this study can not only contribute to a deeper understanding of task design and facilitate the effective completion of these tasks for textbook users, but can serve as the reference for textbook compliers to further perfect and update this series of textbooks.