Huiping Zhang
This study examines the People’s Education Press (PEP), Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP), and Oxford editions of Grade 7 English textbooks (Volume 2). Using qualitative content analysis, it takes five types of components including writing, reading, listening, grammar, and pronunciation as well as the objects of analysis and six categories of scaffolding resources like context, content, language, structure, strategy, and assessment as the analytical dimensions. It compares the placement, task sequencing, and intended outputs of scaffolding resources across the three textbook editions. The findings show that all three editions link input and output through unit themes, while exhibiting distinct characteristics. The PEP edition emphasizes the integration of resources across the unit; the FLTRP edition foregrounds reading-to-writing transfer and makes thinking strategies explicit; and the Oxford edition consistently reiterates learning procedures such as Plan-Write-Check and revise. On this basis, the study finds that the key to cross-edition borrowing lies not in stacking templates but in aligning scaffolds precisely with learning objectives and transforming resources for listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing into the meaning-making resources required for authentic writing.