A corpus based study on the alignment of reading texts with high school English curriculum standard textbooks and examinations in China

The aim of the study is to examine the alignment among senior high school English curriculum standards, textbooks, and college entrance examination papers in Mainland China. It employs corpus linguistics software (LancsBox, Sketch Engine, Voyant Tools) and Porter's SEC Model. The study analyzes the high school English curriculum standards, high school English textbooks (seven volumes), and college entrance examination English test papers (2018-2022). Findings indicate that the high school English curriculum standard, high school English textbooks and college entrance examination English test papers are relatively consistent in terms of vocabulary scope, and the overall content scope meets the alignment requirements. The four elements related to the high school English curriculum standards, high school English textbooks, and college entrance examination English test papers in this study are (1) Keywords, (2) Lexical density, (3) Readability, and (4) Alignment index. Based on the findings it could be concluded that, corpus research approaches are able to measure the high school English curriculum standard, the vocabulary range and content writing range of high school English textbooks and college entrance examination English test papers and improves improve the accuracy and quality of English teaching material development. This research offers valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and materials developers, potentially improving the coherence of curriculum design, textbook development, and assessment creation.