As college British and American Literature courses are the core courses for English majors, the ability of appreciating and critically analyzing literary works is significant for college English majors in China. Therefore, as the main learning materials, the current British and American Literature textbooks need to be systematically evaluated for the consideration of whether the textbooks satisfy learners’ learning needs.

According to Lu (2013, 44), currently in British and American Literature textbooks for English majors in China there exist such problems as the obsolete teaching concepts, the traditional knowledge-transmission instruction, the out-of-date content, the use of obscure vocabulary and tedious sentences, the lack of diversity in selecting writers and literary works, the insufficient introduction of related theory and practice, etc. Therefore, the existing British and American Literature textbooks in China need to be modified from the above aspects to meet college English majors’ learning needs.

Considering the above deficiencies in existing American and British Literature textbooks, Lu (2013, 45) infers that the inadequate British and American Literature textbooks are detrimental for student’s abilityto appreciate and analyze literary works. Also, the current textbooks possibly limit students’ imagination that may lead to the lack of the capacity of critical and divergent thinking.

The gap between domestic and overseas literature textbooks, which also embodies the insufficient practicability of domestic British and American Literature textbooks. According to Lei (2018,59): “Such textbooks that combine literary theory with critical practice have long existed abroad, for example, Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literaryedited by Ann B. Dobie and Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practiceedited by Charles E. Bressler”.

The main limitations of college American and British Literature textbooks for English majors in China have been concluded in following aspects. Firstly, the outdated textbook-compiling mode is out of touch with the current trend. Secondly, the obscure words and sentences are difficult for students to comprehend. Also, the exam-oriented textbooks lack introduction of significant literature theory. Finally, the directory of textbooks is always the same. However, some researchers have offered suggestions, like an improvement proposed by Fan (2016, 55): “the directory of textbooks can be rearranged by the themes of works to instead of the traditional method, which always use the timeline to arrange writers and works”.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate two college American and British Literature textbooks for English majors in China by using McDonough and Shaw’s (1993) two-stage evaluation model and to consider whether the textbooks meet learners’ learning needs or not. The first textbook is Selected Readings in British Literature, Fourth Edition (2014) by Wang Shouren, and the second textbook is Appreciating American Literature, Second Edition (2014) by Wu Dingbai.

Unlike other course-books, American and British Literature textbooks are not compiled in great numbers, which means teachers and learners cannot get access to various materials. This study aims to evaluate existing textbooks in the consideration of future adaptation. To be specific, the study tries to find whether textbooks have shortcomings in meeting learners’ demands. The main reason why this paper takes learner’s learning needs into account in the textbook evaluation is because learners are main users of the textbooks. Besides, the analysis of advantages and disadvantages of the textbooks is useful for the further British and American textbooks’ compilation. On the basis of shortcomings, feasible solutions are provided as implications for future studies such as some detailed suggestions of modification.