大学英语教材语言学术性和语言难度研究

Academic Word Coverage and Grade Level of College English Textbooks

在回顾大学英语教学改革中的通用英语和学术英语之争的基础上,对国内四套主流大学英语教材的语言学术性和语言难度进行了实证研究。结果表明,传统的大学英语教材语言以通用英语为主,但包含相当的学术英语成分。大学英语教材在语言学术性和语言难度方面的分布未遵循循序渐进的规律,在科学性和合理性方面有待改进。研究结果可为大学英语教学改革试验提供数据支持,并对教材选用和教材修订提供参考。

College English teaching in China's mainland is constantly undergoing reforms.A recent reform tries to transform college English teaching from teaching of English for General Purposes(EGP)into teaching of English for Academic Purposes(EAP).This reform has led to a heated debate about whether this transformation is necessary.To provide empirical evidences for this debate,this paper conducts an empirical study on the academic word coverage and grade level of four series of widely used college English textbooks to testify whether they are EGP or EAP textbooks and how difficult they are.The results show that traditional college English teaching is mainly EGP teaching but contains a certain amount of EAP materials.The distribution of academic word coverage and grade level in college English textbooks does not follow a gradual pattern and needs to be improved in this regard.The research findings can provide reference for the ongoing college English teaching reform,for teachers and students to select suitable teaching and learning materials,and for compilers to revise the textbooks.