大學英文原文教科書的使用：東南亞及東北亞四國教師的觀點

The use of English-medium textbooks has prevailed at universities in many countries, both in English speaking and non-English speaking contexts. Scholars believe that reading English-medium textbooks in content courses allows university students to learn and communicate content knowledge in English. In other words, it is believed that with the use of English-medium textbooks, students can not only improve their English reading abilities but also learn to communicate content knowledge via English, the international language of academic communities. However, the impacts of English-medium textbooks on the acquisition of content knowledge among EFL learners have yet to be explored. This cross-linguistic and cross-cultural study aims at investigating instructional impacts of adopting English-medium textbooks in four Asian countries: Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia. A total of 960 professors (of science and humanities) from these four countries (240 each) will be invited to participate in this two-year survey study, which will be divided based on geographical location, with the first year focusing on Northeast Asia and the second year on Southeast Asia. University professors of social science (psychology, economics, management) and science & technology (chemistry, biology, computer science) in Japan and Korea (Northeast Asia) and Thailand and Malaysia (Southeast Asia) will be recruited to answer a survey that taps their rationales, perceptions, and instructional strategies when English-medium textbooks are adopted. The results of this study will allow the impacts of this common practice of using English-medium textbooks at the university level to be scrutinized and the findings from different linguistic and cultural contexts in Asia to be compared. It will also provide content-area teachers ways to look at pedagogical strategies that facilitate students’ learning of content knowledge with English-medium textbooks.