Grammar in Mainland China's High School English Textbooks

This paper examines the ways grammatical features are presented, illustrated and instructed in Mainland China's high school textbooks. Resting upon the categories set by Parrot (2000) as well as referring back to comprehensive theories in second language acquisition, it closely examines seven aspects of curriculum of New Century Senior English (NCSE), a senior high school English textbook currently used in Shanghai. It discovers that grammatical features are addressed with a strong intention of raising learners' grammar consciousness other than encouraging using grammar. However, it argues that, though a focus on both form and meaning may play a better role in raising students' grammar awareness, yet in real classroom settings of grammar teaching and learning, multitudes of variables (more than learners and instructors) should be seriously considered.