“活动”中的英语写作教材评估与使用——来自高校英语教师的声音

College English teachers' assessment and use of EFL writing textbooks: An Activity Theory account

本文运用活动理论分析和探讨了高校英语教师对写作教材的评估和使用,揭示了教师如何在写作教学活动中努力定义甚至转化写作教材的角色与作用。研究发现:1)教材的评估和使用主要取决于活动系统中教师的写作教学理念、教学资源的丰富程度与教学反思的认知策略这三大中介工具以及学生的水平、兴趣和需求;2)规则、共同体与劳动分工也制约着教师的教材评估和使用;3)教师作为教学活动系统的主体,其能动性是转化教材作用的关键。研究结果表明,写作教材评估研究需要开展更多个案研究,从微观和动态的角度进一步深入揭示教材与教材使用者、教学环境的关系。

Drawing on Activity Theory, this article explores college English teachers' evaluation and use of English writing textbooks in their teaching practice, revealing how teachers struggle to make sense of writing textbooks and to transform the different roles that these textbooks play in their instruction. Findings of the study include:(1) evaluation and use of writing textbooks is most mediated by the teachers' writing beliefs, teaching resources available, reflective strategy on the one hand, and by the students' language proficiency, interests and needs on the other;(2) both the teachers' evaluation of the textbooks and their teaching practice are constrained by other factors such as rules, community and division of labor; and(3)teacher agency is found to be the key to transforming the role of textbooks and even the teaching activity.This suggests that dynamic and in-depth qualitative study should be further conducted in writing textbook evaluation in order to find out the relationship among the textbook, its users and the teaching context.