An Investigation of Taiwanese Nursing Students’ English Learning Behaviors and Environmental Factors Related to English Learning before and after Their Internship Experiences—A Case Study

Yi-An Hou

doi:10.4236/ojn.2017.712102

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate Taiwanese nursing students’ English learning behaviors and environmental factors relevant to English learning before and after their internships. More than five hundred nursing students from five junior colleges in southern Taiwan served as subjects of the study. The research instrument included a 134-item questionnaire dealing with students’ personal demographic information and English learning behaviors of motivation, strategy, and anxiety. In addition, environmental factors relevant to English learning of English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI) and Internationalization at Home (IaH), as well as nursing English for practicum use were discussed. Findings revealed that some correlations among students’ English learning behaviors, environmental factors, and English levels did exist before and after their internships. Moreover, students’ internship experiences of English use also brought about some changes in their learning behaviors led to English levels. Some implications and suggestions were provided for schools and students hoping to equip students with good English skills before getting into the job market.

Highlights

The present study aimed to investigate Taiwanese nursing students’ English learning behaviors and environmental factors related to their English performance before and after their medical internships, it was appropriate to adopt the method for the study
As for students’ self-report English proficiency, in average, 63% - 65% were Basic (CEFR A1), 21% - 23% were Elementary (CEFR A2), 9% - 10% were between Elementary (CEFR A2) and Intermediate (CEFR B1), and the rest 2% 3% were intermediate (CEFR B1)
The findings revealed that students had moderate level of English learning anxiety (M = 3.11 - 3.14 out of 5)

Summary

Introduction

In Taiwan, there are about six hundred and forty thousand foreign residents from more than 167 countries (Taiwan National Immigration Agency, http://www.immigration.gov.tw//, 2016), that is to say that more than 2.7% of the whole Taiwanese population are foreigners. In such circumstances of having more and more foreign residents, and with the increasing number of aging and diverse foreign patient population in the society, access to health care will expand and the need will increase for more competent and diverse nursing graduates, with adequate English proficiency and cultural knowledge and sensitivity to care effectively for the increasing diverse foreign patient population. L. 1990 50 Q052-101 0.972 Q186-235 0.976 Learning

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Conclusion