The Impact of Reading Anxiety of English Professional Materials on Intercultural Communication Competence: Taking Students Majoring in the Medical Profession

Abstract

In most medical universities in Taiwan, English-language professional materials are used in professional courses. Thus, a student’s reading ability is very important for understanding the content of English professional materials. The professional knowledge gained will facilitate intercultural communication in their future work setting. In this paper, the authors explored the impact of students’ anxiety when reading English professional materials on intercultural communication competence (ICC). A mixed method was applied. Firstly, sample data from 312 students majoring in the medical profession were investigated to obtain the results of the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of two scales: a reading anxiety regarding English professional materials scale (RAEPMS) and an intercultural communication competence scale (ICCS). The RAEPMS, with a total explained variance of 81.67%, included three factors: worry about comprehension, lack of satisfaction with one’s reading ability, and language distance. The ICC, with a total explained variance of 80.02%, included four factors: skill, attitude, awareness, and knowledge. Secondly, sample data from 205 students majoring in the medical profession were obtained to form the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the two scales, and then structural equation modeling (SEM) between RAEPMS and ICCS was created. The results showed that “worry about comprehension” impacts “skills” and “attitudes”; “lack of satisfaction with one’s reading ability” impacts all four ICC factors; and “language distance” impacts “skills”, “awareness”, and “knowledge”. Furthermore, interview results from three teachers were obtained to understand the significant connection between RAEPMS and ICCS. Additionally, pedagogical implementations, based on the interviews’ results, which could decrease reading anxiety and increase ICC were discussed. This paper provides a significant contribution to student education and professional training. The benefit of this research is to think how to design the pedagogy implementation to ensure the education of students and their professional training. Thus, students majoring in the medical profession will be more easily trained to communicate with people of different cultures in their future workplace.