Ontogenetic analysis of college English textbooks in China: a systemic-functional perspective

This chapter presents the findings of an exploratory study of ontogenetic and systemic-functional analysis on College English Textbooks used in China. In order to better understand the linguistic content in textbooks and seek application for language education and material design, this study firstly mapped out the texts chosen for the textbooks in terms of two major parameters of field within the context they operate in: the nature of socio-semiotic activities and domain experience, followed by a complementary lexico-grammatical analysis of the these texts. Through identifying how these analytical features change in the textbooks for various levels, the findings from this study reveal what linguistic capacity students need to possess in order to understand the texts in the textbooks in their tertiary level.