Middle School English Textbooks Research Articles

A Comparative Analysis of Middle School English Textbooks in Korea and Finland

A Comparative Analysis of Middle School English Textbooks in Korea and Finland

A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis on the Continuity of the Reading Sections in Elementary and Middle School English Textbooks

A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis on the Continuity of the Reading Sections in Elementary and Middle School English Textbooks

Native Culture and Its Teaching Design in People’s Education Press (PEP) Middle School English Textbooks

Native Culture and Its Teaching Design in People’s Education Press (PEP) Middle School English Textbooks

Language Forms & Activities Required for Communication Used in Middle School English Textbooks Based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum

Language Forms & Activities Required for Communication Used in Middle School English Textbooks Based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum

Language Forms & Activities Required for Communication Used in Middle School English Textbooks Based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum

Language Forms & Activities Required for Communication Used in Middle School English Textbooks Based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum

2015 개정 교육과정에 기반한 영어Ⅱ 교과서에 나타난 파생 접사 연구

Based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum, 9 High School English II textbooks were screened and published. These tex tbooks complied with the Vocabulary Guide of the English Curriculum which treats a headword and all its derivational forms as belonging to a single word. This work is first concerned with whether the distribution of derivative affixes is the same across these textbooks. It was shown that the frequency of Bauer and Nation’s (1993) 6-level-word-family derivative affixes is significantly different according to the textbooks. The work then tried to define representative derivative affixes for the textbooks. Examination of the coefficient of usage of derivative affixes suggested that the following 13 suffixes are representative: -ly, -al, -ion, -er, -ation, -ity, -ment, -ive, -ful, -ent, -y, -ant and -ist. These affixes are quite similar to the representative derivative affixes for the English Section of College Scholastic Ability Test but substantially different from the ones for elementary and middle school English textbooks. The work is concluded with some implications of its findings.

영어교과서 관련 국내 연구 동향 분석

The aims of this study are to examine the research trends of journal articles on elementary, middle, and high school English textbooks based on the 2015 revised national curriculum and to explore implications for future related research. To this end, 110 academic papers on English textbooks were collected using KCI(Korea Citation Index), and they were classified by school level, year of issue, language skills, research topics, and textbook components. According to the research results, English textbooks in elementary schools were studied the most, and the articles on English textbooks were published the most from 2019 to 2021, during which the 2015 national curriculum came into full force. Second, reading, vocabulary, culture, and integrated language skills were the most focused language skills in the articles on English textbooks. Thirdly, among seven research topics on English textbooks, most of the articles were found to be focused on content analysis. Thus, research on textbook selection, teaching methods, and teachers’ perception of textbooks needs to be conducted in the future. Lastly, the textbook components mainly studied were teaching and learning activities, continuity and systematicity, culture, vocabulary, and functions, so content topics, language forms, authenticity, and evaluation also need to be addressed in future research. Finally, the limitations of the study were discussed.

“Can we stop cleaning the house and make some food, Mum?”: A critical investigation of gender representation in China's English textbooks

This study offers a critical investigation of gender representation in China's English textbooks to examine potential gender bias. We analyzed a series of middle school English textbooks in Jiangsu Province to examine the feminine-masculine pronouns ratio, occupational/social roles and activities associated with people of different gender. Approximately balanced occurrences of feminine and masculine pronouns were identified in the corpus, suggesting rising gender-fair awareness. We further scrutinized the gender roles and activities by coding all female and male characters’ occupational/social roles and identifying associated activities thematically. We observed that gender disparity is still pervasive as females were frequently assigned with familial relationships and engaged in less physically-demanding activities, whereas males were portrayed in wider social roles and frequently depicted in sport-related activities. Thus, we suggest a critical approach both in identifying and subverting gender stereotypes in textbook design.

An Analysis of the Meanings of Particle DOWN in Phrasal Verbs based on Middle School English Textbooks

The purpose of this paper is to examine the meanings of the particle ‘DOWN’ in phrasal verbs found on 37 publishers of the middle school English textbooks based on Lee(2004), Park(2012), and Collins COBUILD Phrasal Verbs Dictionary. As the main media for English learners, middle school English textbooks, must pay attention to contain the various meanings of phrasal verbs for the communication-oriented English education. To find the core-meaning and extended-meaning of phrasal verbs from textbooks, the procedure was to collect the particle ‘DOWN’ within the complete sentence units in the reading context of the middle school English textbooks and to analyze based on Park s (2012) categories. The results of this study shows that the core-meanings of particle ‘DOWN’ were distributed, but the extended-meanings were limited. In conclusion, to learn the various meanings of phrasal verbs effectively, it is necessary to present the core-meaning and extended-meaning of the phrasal verbs in the middle school textbooks context.

Words Matter: The Need for Environmental Awareness-Raising Content in Middle School English Textbooks in Korea

This study analyses six Middle School English textbooks accredited by the Ministry of Education in Korea, focusing on their representation of environmentally related issues and the human-induced climate change crisis in particular. Having identified a lack of content analysis research regarding the structuring of learning around real-world issues pertinent to the students, the authors examined the books for: (1) climate change related ideas that are misleading or ill-informed; (2) the extent to which the books promote environmental awareness; and (3) how their content might be altered to reflect current calls for an interdisciplinary approach to environmental education. The findings reveal a lack of attention to the causes and ramifications of climate change and their impact on climate, water, food, human health, the natural environment, and infrastructure. In view of the urgent need to address these problems, this study recommends that the world view projected in English textbooks be expanded through a content-based approach, to include attention to the anthropocentric issues students will face throughout their lives. It is also recommended that future research explore student perceptions regarding appropriate content and educational approaches for Middle School English textbooks.

2015 개정 중학 영어 교과서 어휘 활동에 나타난 인지 처리 유형

This study aims to analyze the types of cognitive process required to perform vocabulary learning activities in Middle School English textbooks. For this purpose, 26 middle school English textbooks were examined, including 13 for the first year and another 13 for the second year of middle school. The results indicated that vocabulary learning activities emerged in the phase of reading, and then were categorized into pre-reading vocabulary activities and post-reading ones. Eight types of cognitive process emerged in the pre-reading phase and three types in the post-reading phase. That is, the number of vocabulary activities in pre-reading phase was larger than that in the post-reading phase. In addition, the diversity of vocabulary activities in the pre-reading phase was higher than that in the post-reading phase. Based on these results, this study suggests a new model of vocabulary learning activity in middle school English textbooks. A few implications on how to teach new words in English classrooms are discussed.

A study on content-based instruction activities in middle school English textbooks based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum

This study investigated the content-based instruction (CBI) activities in middle school English textbooks based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum. It investigated whether the CBI activities were designed to provide language learning opportunities and integrate various knowledge and skills. To this end, the analysis focused on the questions regarding the content subjects and topics provided in the activities of the textbooks, learning objectives of these activities and a detailed analysis of the activities. The results indicated that the CBI activities were designed to meet the goal of ‘creative convergence education’ by appropriately connecting various knowledge and skills with the topic of the unit. Yet, the activities were largely limited to a small number of subjects such as social studies, ethics, and technology and family. Also, neither clear language objectives nor content vocabulary were provided. Finally, the activities were mostly intended for group works, indicating that English proficiency levels will likely affect learning outcome. This study suggests that middle school English convergence education would benefit from including clear language objectives for the integrated activities as well as content vocabulary, and a variety of topics beyond the scope of daily life should be covered in the textbooks.

중학교 영어 교과서 비동의 지문의 순차 조직 대화분석 연구

This study draws on findings in conversation analytic (CA) research to evaluate middle school English textbook dialogues and make recommendations for improvement. This study examined thirteen second grade middle school English textbooks of the revised 2015 national curriculum and compiled a collection of 19 disagreement sequences present in six of those textbooks. The final collection was analyzed by making comparisons to CA insights on disagreement and found that many of the textbook dialogues were interactionally inadequate. The majority of the scripted conversations lacked dispreferred components and consisted of bald, literal formulations of a disagreeing stance. A few others included delaying devices and turn prefaces that showed awareness of preference organization, yet some of their features were divergent from CA descriptions of doing disagreement. Only one dialogue appeared to closely resemble natural interaction by including prefatory talk with agreement. The analytic findings thereby illuminates the need for incorporating knowledge about the actual workings of spoken interaction into scripting textbook dialogues and ends with implications for language materials design.

An Analysis of Cultural Contents in Middle School English Textbooks based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum

An Analysis of Cultural Contents in Middle School English Textbooks based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum

Asserting Koreanness in South Korean middle school English textbooks

AbstractIn response to recent trends in recognizing English as the language of international communication, this study examines the extent to which English textbooks used in the South Korean education system incorporate properties of what it means to be a legitimate Korean speaker of English. By adopting a thematic approach to critical discourse analysis, the study explores seven government‐authorized middle school English textbook series widely used in Korea. Analyses center around the themes of ownership of English and identity formation, naming order convention, national independence, contentious territorial disputes, and repatriation. Findings reveal how asserting national identity and learning English are jointly framed and reflected in the textbooks. The study discusses how discourses are constructed to present opportunities for promoting learners’ cultivation of Koreanness pertaining to dominant ideologies and contemporary identity issues while enhancing their awareness in positioning themselves as competent members in the global community through the course of learning of English.

A Comparison of Cultural Awareness Directives in Junior Middle School English Textbooks and Teacher’s Books of Go for It and English in Mind

Based on the CAB model of intercultural communication competence(ICC), this paper analyzes the cultural awareness(CA) directives of junior middle school English textbooks and teacher’s books of Go for It (GFI) and English in Mind(EIM) through the methods of text analysis and comparative analysis. The study focuses on the teaching activities of reading, listening, speaking, writing and culture in mind, etc. of the two editions of textbooks and teacher’s books. During the research process, it has been found that firstly, as for the textbook of GFI, the proportion of the three dimensions is ranked in descending order as follows: cognitive dimension first, behavioral dimension second and affective dimension third. The proportion of cognitive dimension is close to that of behavioral skills. The proportions of both cognitive and behavioral dimension are much larger(8 to 10 times) than that of affective dimension. Second, as for the teacher’s book of GFI, the descending order of the three dimensions is the same as in the textbook of GFI. The proportion of cognitive activities is far greater than that of affective and behavioral activities. The proportion of affective activities in both the textbook and the teacher’s book of GFI is very low. Thirdly, as for the textbook of EIM, the proportion of the three dimensions is ranked in descending order as follows: behavioral dimension first, cognitive dimension second and affective dimension third. The proportion of cognitive activities is relatively close to that of behavioral activities. The proportions of cognitive and behavioral activities are more than twice as much as that of the affective activities, which may show that the textbook of GFI pays more attention to the cultivation of students’ cognitive and behavioral abilities, ignoring the cultivation of students’ affective ability. However, compared to the textbook of GFI, the proportion of affective activity in the textbook of EIM is 3 times as that in the textbook of GFI, indicating that the textbook of EIM pays more attention to cultivating students’ affective ability than the textbook of GFI. Fourthly, as for the teacher’s book of EIM, the proportion of behavioral activities is far greater than that of cognitive and affective activities. The data seems to demonstrate that the teacher’s book of EIM has carried out a detailed and in-depth discussion of behavioral activities and paid great attention to the cultivation of students’ behavioral skills. Finally, through comparative study, it has been found that GFI can gain some advisable suggestions on how to write cultural awareness directives by referring to EIM.

A Corpus-based Analysis of Collocations in Korean Middle and High School English Textbooks

This study analyzed collocations in Korean middle and high school English textbooks based on the 2015 revised national curriculum. All 1,718 nouns from the curriculum wordlist were selected as node words and paired with their collocates statistically verified using a billion-word reference corpus to better represent the existing lexical syllabus. The analysis revealed that collocation density was higher in the textbooks, with readers encountering one collocation per 16–17 words. However, collocations in the textbooks showed insufficient repetition and a narrower range of association strength. Fewer repetitions and a limited collocational repertoire led to a weaker correlation between the two variables. This suggests that Korean learners may not benefit enough from frequent encounter to consolidate their lexical knowledge or distinguish different collocational strength levels. These findings call for considering the level of repetition and association strength of collocations in developing the English curriculum and materials.

중·고등학교 영어 교과서 수정 활동 연구: 예비 영어교사의 비판적 접근법 활용 사례

This study explored how pre-service teachers at a teacher’s college in Korea perceived and applied what they learned in an English textbook evaluation and modification class utilizing a critical approach. Under the premise that learners give too much authority to English textbooks, they were invited to analyze and modify English textbooks through critical perspectives and were asked how they perceived such English textbook evaluation and modification experience. Middle school English textbooks for first and second graders and high school English textbooks for first graders were analyzed and modified by the students. Their artifacts, textbook evaluation reports, pre-modified and post-modified English textbooks, group progress reports, and group interviews were collected and analyzed using qualitative methods. Results of this project-based participatory class revealed that students are able to critically analyze English textbooks in terms of prejudice towards minorities and cultural imperialism. Also, such textbook modification experiences help them develop more constructive points of view as learners as well as future material developers and teachers. Pedagogical implications and future research suggestions are also addressed.

2015 개정 초등 6학년과 중등 1학년 간 영어 교과서 의사소통 기능의 연계성 분석

This study analyses the communicative functions of listening scripts extracted from the 2015 elementary school English 6 and middle school English 1 textbooks in terms of continuity. Auditory data corpora were drawn from all five elementary school English textbooks and five most widely used middle school English textbooks. Each sentence of listening scripts was manually tagged based on the classification of communication functions presented in the 2015 Revised National Curriculum. The corpora were analyzed using 14 syntactic complexity measures with the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (Lu, 2010). The findings of this study show that the continuity between the elementary school English 6 and the middle school English 1 textbooks is relatively well-organized. However, concerning the sequence, the elementary school English 6 was found to be more complex than the middle school English 1 in terms of syntactic complexity. It is suggested that future textbook development should correct the reversed complexity in listening scripts found in this study.

An Analysis of the Continuity of the Listening Scripts of Middle School English Textbooks with Coh-Metrix

An Analysis of the Continuity of the Listening Scripts of Middle School English Textbooks with Coh-Metrix