A Comparative Study of the Types of Non-text Information and their Functions of Junior High School English Textbooks in Japan and China

The purpose of this report is to compare and analyze how effectively visual aids in junior high school English textbooks of Japan and China are functioning in helping students comprehend the reading texts, and to ascertain the influence of the background principles in syllabus design which is the main cause of the differences between the textbooks of these two countries. For these purposes, three kinds of textbooks from Japan and one from China, both with similar total market share in their respective home countries, were selected and examined, focusing on the utility and regularity of illustrations that appear, as well as the number of tokens and the typography size. Close scrutiny of the textbooks shows an overall similarity in the use of illustrations. However, there were striking differences among the Japanese and Chinese textbooks in terms of not only their resultant numerals but also what is seemingly hoped for for the students to achieve at the end of the three-year learning