BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 224 Application of "Production-Oriented Approach" in College English Teaching: Adaptation of Teaching Materials Xueqing Wang 1, 2, * 1 School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University of Science and Engineering, Yongzhou 425199, China 2 Philippine Christian University Center for International Education, Manila, 1004, Philippines * Corresponding author Email: 2859791547@qq.com Abstract. According to the theory of " Production-Oriented Approach " (POA) , the team of the author has carried out POA processing on the college English comprehensive course materials, and carried out an experiment in the college English comprehensive class for one semester. This paper focuses on the adaptation of teaching materials, discusses the process of adaptation from the aspects of preliminary analysis, goal setting, selection and conversion of input materials, and points out the implications of this study for the preparation and use of college English textbooks. Keywords: Production-Oriented Approach; College English Teaching; Adaptation of Teaching Materials. 1. Reasons for Adaptation At present, the application of POA in college English teaching has produced abundant research results, and its operability and effectiveness in college English teaching have been proved through continuous development and improvement. However, there is only one English textbook based on POA, A New Generation of College English, on the market. It can not meet the needs of different schools, different majors and different levels of students, resulting in the POA can not be widely used in foreign language teaching. Although some teachers have carried out research on the design of college English courses based on the POA in some teaching materials, they have all taken a certain unit as an example and have not formed a system. Our team intends to apply POA to college English teaching practice, test the effect of POA in college English teaching, and explore ways to effectively improve the college English teaching model. In order to implement a new method, it is necessary to rely on the corresponding teaching materials. In order to carry out POA experimental teaching in the classroom, the teaching materials written under the guidance of POA are indispensable. Students currently use the teaching material Innovation College English Integrated Course, in order to reduce the influence of experiments on normal teaching and testing, it is a good way to choose the teaching material in use. 2. Basis for Adaptation POA theory system is the basis for the adaptation of Innovation College English Integrated Course. The three components of the theoretical system play different roles in the embodiment of POA in teaching materials: Teaching idea is the guiding ideology, teaching hypothesis is the theoretical premise, and teaching process is the concrete starting point (Chang Xiaoling, 2017). From the operational level, it can be simply summarized as four strategies: selection, reordering, alteration and increase (Wen Qiufang, 2020). "Selection" refers to the selection of a part of the material from existing resources. "Reordering" means reordering existing materials. "Alteration" means modification of existing material. "Increase" means that teachers supplement new materials themselves. In practical teaching, it is necessary to use four strategies to adapt teaching materials. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 225 3. Process of Adaptation The process of adapting teaching materials consists of three stages: 1) preliminary analysis, 2) setting goals, 3) selecting and converting input materials. In the stage of preliminary analysis, teachers should study the teaching materials, learning situation, school situation and teaching situation at the macro level. First of all, we should carefully study the existing student books and teachers' books and other related materials, especially the preface. A thorough understanding of the preface would be extremely useful in the selection of material for specific modules and in the design of enabling activities. At the same time, we should also analyze the situation of learning, school and teaching. Learning situation refers to the investigation of the students' English level and learning attitude; School situation refers to the understanding of the school's general requirements for English teaching and the prescribed teaching hours; Teaching situation refers to the teacher's teaching style, teaching preferences and so on. The goal setting stage belongs to the meso-level analysis. The basic unit of analysis is the teaching unit. The teacher first identifies the total output goal for each unit and then breaks it down into sub-goals. Sometimes each sub-goal can be divided into smaller goals. The selection and conversion of input materials is at the micro level. Teachers are guided by a series of small goals, select the corresponding input materials, and convert the input materials into a series of enabling activities. 3.1 Preliminary Analysis 1) Analysis of teaching materials The third edition of Innovation College English Integrated Course is a new set of public English teaching materials based on the current practice of college English teaching in colleges and universities in China. It aims to cultivate college students' basic English language knowledge and applied skills, and follows the principle of strengthening the training of comprehensive application ability and paying attention to the cultivation of humanistic quality. Each volume has eight units, each unit is composed of four parts: Lead-in; Intensive Reading; Listening Comprehension; Oral Practice. 2) Analysis of learning situation This teaching object is art students in ordinary universities. Most of them have weak English foundation, lack of vocabulary and grammar knowledge. Because professional practice takes up too much extracurricular time, art students lack English extracurricular activities except English classroom learning. More than half of the students learn English to pass the grade test, and only a few to improve their own quality. They have a strong sense of practice and participation, have independent opinions and personalities, are more active and confident, and pursue a free and unconstrained learning atmosphere. 3) Analysis of school situation In accordance with the spirit of the Ministry of Education, the Guidelines for College English Teaching and the actual situation of the university, the University proposes that the teaching objectives of college English are to cultivate students' English application ability, enhance cross- cultural communication awareness and competence, develop independent learning ability, and improve comprehensive cultural literacy. So that they can effectively use English in study, life, social interaction and future work, to meet the needs of the country, society, school and personal development. Art students are required to meet the general requirements of College English Course Requirements in the undergraduate stage. Art students with a general foundation pass the Practical English Test for Colleges (Level A), and students with a good foundation pass the CET-4 and CET- 6. In response to the situation and requirements of the national college English teaching reform, the university has reduced the number of college English hours since January 2022, and the course is open for one year, with a total of 132 class hours. 4) Analysis of teaching situation I have been engaged in college English teaching for more than ten years, teaching college English courses for art students for eight years, and researching POA for five years. I’m good at encouraging and guiding students and cultivating students' interest in English learning. I have been preparing BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 226 lessons carefully, explaining them in detail, and being good at using multimedia to assist teaching. I always teach students according to their aptitude and attach importance to the principal position of students. But I’m not good at mobilizing the classroom atmosphere and free play. 3.2 Setting Goals Take Unit 4 of Innovation College English Integrated Course 1 as an example, the theme of this unit is travel. The original teaching objective of this unit is to 1) understand the general idea and structure of the text, 2) master the key words and grammatical points in the text, 3) master the language points and grammatical structures in the text, and 4) participate in a series of reading, listening, speaking and writing activities related to the theme of this unit. Based on the preliminary analysis, the teaching objectives are adjusted as follows: Through this unit, students will be able to 1) share travel stories and explore the meaning of travel 2) use “no matter+ wh-words” structure 3) master the use of these words “arm, scene, accompany, willing, vivid, reflect, appreciation, anticipate, merit, settle”. 3.3 Selecting and Converting Input Materials There are three criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of POA teaching materials: 1) appropriateness of productive objectives; 2) effectiveness of enabling activities; 3) achievement of productive objectives (Wen Qiufang, 2020). The first two criteria can be used for predictive evaluation of teaching activities, and can also be used for retrospective evaluation, and the third criterion is used to evaluate the effect of the use of teaching materials. The three criteria are closely related. The starting point is the determination of productive objectives, the end is the realization of productive objectives, and the effectiveness of enabling activities is the guarantee of the achievement of productive objectives. The first criterion has four measures: drive, teachable, subdivision, and logic. The second criterion has three measures: precision, gradualness and diversity. The third criterion also has three measures: engagement, sense of acquisition, and product quality (Wen Qiufang, 2020). Step 1: Motivating. The teacher prepared a video of herself traveling in the United States, and shared with the students her experience and feelings of driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles along Highway 1, and then to San Diego, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Then the students were asked to share their own travel experiences. If the students did not have impressive travel experiences, they were asked to say what kind of travel they wanted most. By trying to complete the productive activities, students realize their own shortcomings, and stimulate the enthusiasm of learning new knowledge and the willingness to produce. Step 2: Enabling. Students read the text "An Unexpected Journey" and learn key words and expressions. The teacher instructed the students to find out the meaning of the trip from the main text and the sub-text respectively. Teachers guide students to carry out selective learning according to the requirements of activities, such as the expression and introduction of tourist attractions. Students learn the structure of discourse by imitating the teacher's trip to America and the structure of the two texts. The teacher guides the students to practice the production and gives them a check. Step 3: Assessing. 1) Prepare before class. Students submit sound files and text manuscripts, and teachers quickly listen to the sound files, select typical samples for assessment and modification, design the focus and steps of teacher-student collaborative assessment in class, and prepare assessment materials for students in class. 2) Implementation in class. The teacher first explains the key points and steps of assessment to the students. This assessment focuses on whether the travel process is complete, whether it is presented in a chronological order, whether the time and place characters are complete, and whether the meaning of the trip can be seen from the narration. First of all, students independently put forward opinions on the assessment materials, and then group discussion and exchange, compare and select different opinions on revision. Then teachers give professional guidance and give opinions on revision, so that the quality of students' modified products can be improved. 3) After-school activities. Students modify their own products according to the BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 227 requirements of teachers in the class and submit them again. Teachers randomly check some of the modified products and recommend 2-3 excellent works through the Internet for students to learn. In short, the content of this adaptation is as follows: selection, reordering, alteration and increase " Selection " : Select Text A and Text B as the enabling inputs. " Reordering " : Move the "Topic-related Listening" in Part 3 to the front of the reading part as a catalyst for preparation before class. " Alteration " : Change the first part "Lead-in" into the motivating part and design the scenario. The oral practice in the fourth part is changed to production assessment. “Increase”: Add a video material recorded by the teacher. 4. Teaching Reflection According to the POA teaching experiment of one semester, the following enlightenment can be drawn from the adaptation of teaching materials: 1) Motivating: Scenarios should be closer to students' lives, preferably related to college students' learning and social experiences, so as to arouse students' resonance. Taking Unit 4 as an example, the productive task I originally designed was to share a travel experience, but I learned that some students in the class had no travel experience. For these students, I suggested that they introduce their hometown and interesting stories of their hometown to the classmates. This adjustment gives all students something to talk about and a willingness to actively participate in the completion of the task. 2) Enabling: In terms of input materials, in addition to text materials, a variety of materials such as audio and video can be added to better mobilize students' learning enthusiasm and improve their efficiency in absorbing input. For art students, it is difficult to read long English text materials, and their usual professional courses are interactive and active courses such as singing, dancing, sports, etc. If the input materials of English classes are relatively simple, it is difficult to catch students' attention and mobilize their enthusiasm for learning. 3) Assessing: According to the POA theory, the teacher assesses the typical samples beforehand, then under the guidance of the teacher, the teacher and students evaluate the typical samples through peer assessment and teacher-student collaborative assessment, and then students evaluate themselves or each other after class, and then use automated assessment; Finally, teachers learn about students' assessment performance and achievement of teaching goals by means of census or spot check. This set of procedures took up half of the learning time of a unit, and the students lost some patience. Therefore, I adjusted it as follows: teachers evaluate the typical samples in class, and then students make self-assessment or peer assessment according to the checklist. Then students submit assessment suggestions. Teachers check the assessment suggestions, and give private comments to students with serious problems. Acknowledgments Fund Project: 2022 Teaching Reform Research Project of Ordinary Colleges and Universities in Hunan Province "A Study on the Teaching Reform of College English Comprehensive Curriculum Based on the Production-Oriented Approach " (HNJG-2022-1062). References [1] Iris Schaller-Schwaner. Reflections on the Production-Oriented Approach (POA) in China: A New Name and a New Acronym [J]. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2018 (02). [2] Qiufang Wen. The production-oriented approach to teaching university students English in China[J]. Language Teaching, 2016(04). [3] Wen Qiufang. Production-Oriented Approach: Developing a Theory of Foreign Language Education with Chinese Features [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2020. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 228 [4] Chang Xiaoling. Research on the compilation of teaching materials of Production-Oriented Approach [J]. Modern Foreign Languages, 2017 (03). [5] GUI Jing, Ji Wei. Application of Production-Oriented Approach in teaching Chinese as a foreign language: Adaptation of teaching materials [J]. World Chinese Teaching,2018(04). [6] Qiu Lin. Research on the use of POA teaching materials: Process and evaluation of selection and conversion of input materials [J]. Foreign Language Education in China,2017(02).