From Resource Provision to Learning Service: Relocating the Value of Foreign Language Textbooks

Wu Xiaoyang

Foreign Languages Department, North China Electric Power University

Abstract：

Foreign language programs in higher education have accumulated extensive material packages: a printed book, audio sets, slide decks, test banks, and supplementary readers. Classroom use and learning gain have not risen in step. The gap reflects a faulty account of where textbook value resides. This paper argues that value has been treated as something supplied inside the resource, rather than something realized in use. Drawing on service-dominant logic and curriculum-enactment research, it contrasts a resource-provision model with a learning-service model along five dimensions, then specifies three operational shifts (from content delivery to process accompaniment, from one-time authoring to continuous iteration, and from uniform push to on-demand response) and a minimal viable mechanism for adoption. Content quality remains necessary but is only the start; value is released when the textbook operates as a service woven into the learning process.

Key Words：

foreign language textbooks; resource provision; learning service; value realization; textbook development