Third-year Vet Med Students’ Speaking Performance in English: Evaluation and Suggestions

Abstract

The ascertainment of the Third-Year Vet Students’ poverty to perform in oral English has been noticed in the Veterinary Medicine Department at the University of Kinshasa. People join universities and colleges in order to acquire sufficient knowledge that makes them capable of working in different areas of life. The Third-Year Students in Veterinary Medicine Department need a good command of English for both their academic activities (for the present moment) and job requirements (for the future). Unfortunately, the reality is that these students are less proficient in oral English than they are expected to be. Considering their poor performance, this article aims at evaluating the Third-Year Students’ performance in oral English so as to suggest recommendations for successful speaking performance. To collect and analyze data, qualitative and quantitative methods are used. As far as the qualitative methods are concerned, this article applies the Capstone Project or Course, Syllabus Review, Observation, SWOT Analysis, and Course Evaluation Survey. Capstone Project is used to evaluate the students’ knowledge, abilities, and concepts they have required from the first year up to the third one. Syllabus Review Method is used to examine both the teaching objectives and outcomes so as to make sure whether the students have reached the expected performance or not. Observations Methods is used to examine the students’ behaviors and their environment in which the learning took place. SWOT Analysis is used to examine how the course content matches academic and occupational purposes. Course Evaluation Survey is used to point out the students’ perception of the English course. Apart from the qualitative methods, the quantitative methods used in this paper are Certification, Exit Exam, and Performance. Certification Method is useful in evaluation of the students’ general knowledge of English used in the veterinary medicine field. Exit Exam is employed in this paper to realize how much the students are able to apply their English knowledge in their life. Performance Method is used to evaluate the students’ ability to give presentations as it is required. The results of the analysis of data and the related interpretation prove that the Third-Year Students are not performant in oral English because of the reasons listed in this paper. Furthermore, the conclusion of the interpretation suggests recommendations so as to cure the problem related to the lack of speaking performance in the Third-Year Students.