Abstract:

Teachers' attitudes toward course-books directly influence teachers' choice of teaching content and thus affect the teaching processes and students' learning outcomes, but current research in China on English teachers' attitudes towards course-books has mainly involved higher education, and there is a lack of research on teachers' views on course-books at the basic education level. Based on a questionnaire, this study surveyed 123 junior high school English teachers' attitudes toward course-books when setting up writing instructional programs in nine middle schools in Shanghai. It was found that most of the junior high school English teachers had an “authoritative” view of course-books, and there were fewer teachers taking on “adaptive” and “creative” approaches, which suggests that course-books were still the main teaching materials and the basis for teachers' teaching activities. Further analysis revealed that there was no significant association between teachers' educational level and the number of in-service professional development opportunities and teachers' views on course-books, while there were significant associations between teachers' attitude toward course-books and teachers' grade level, teachers' years of teaching experience, teachers' pre-service professional education, and teachers' familiarity with curriculum standards.

Key words: junior high school English education, attitudes toward course-books, teacher education, curriculum standards