Creative Reading for College English (First Edition) Teacher's Book

Author: (English) Smallwood, I., edited by Li Baolong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-12-01
Features: The clock of the new century urges the pace of reform and improvement in college English teaching. Every teacher is seeking a teaching material that is unconventional yet meets students' reading needs, while students from various universities are also looking for books that can enhance their practical skills through reading. The "College English Teaching Syllabus" (Revised Edition) explicitly states: "Reading is an important channel for mastering language knowledge, building a solid language foundation, and acquiring information. Reading ability is the main language skill required by most college students for their future careers." Especially after China's entry into the World Trade Organization, it has become increasingly important to comprehensively improve college students' reading ability, as well as the complementary skills of listening, speaking, writing, and translation. The Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP) deeply recognizes the importance of reading in college English teaching and has been continuously exploring good topics in this direction for many years. We know that the current teachers and students' demand for reading materials no longer stops at the traditional approach of extensive reading followed by a few comprehension questions about the content; they need more to use the materials to cultivate reading skills and the ability to acquire and apply information through reading. It can be said that foreign countries are ahead of us in the writing of reading materials. After a long period of preparation, FLTRP has partnered with the world-renowned Macmillan Publishing Group to develop the "College English Creative Reading" series tailored to the Chinese market. This multinational group, specializing in textbook publishing, conducted a comprehensive survey of 15,000 non-English major college students in China in 2002 to understand the reading topics most interesting to today's Chinese college students. Through this survey, which may be the largest of its kind in China to date, 120 topics were selected as references for the collaboration. With the meticulous planning of FLTRP and the strong cooperation of Macmillan, the complete set of 6 books of "College English Creative Reading" was finally launched for the Chinese market. This reading series has the following features:
· Each unit selects articles on topics that are the most interesting to students, as determined through market research. At the same time, considering that many college students today lack a broad understanding of humanities, the writing pays special attention to the comparison of different cultures around the world to awaken students' awareness of their own culture, global culture, and cross-cultural communication.
· Drawing on the diversity of exercise design in excellent foreign textbooks, it strives to teach students how to use English more effectively through lively, interesting, and challenging exercises.
· In terms of vocabulary design, it breaks away from the traditional method of listing words in a glossary at the end of the text and instead designs exercises to help students master vocabulary usage, thereby improving their ability to remember words.
· It aims to cultivate students' initiative in learning, encouraging them to shift from passive reading to actively acquiring various types of information beyond language materials.
· It seeks to enable students to use English creatively, thereby fostering their creativity.