English is the dominant and globally working language in the vast majority of professions, including nursing. Along with the globalization of nursing and the shortness of international nursing talents, students who are good at English and nursing profession are urgently needed all over the world. Similarly, as the initiation of wards for foreigners and foreign funded hospitals in China, English abilities in nursing are demanded by employers in Chinese hospitals. In order to meet the demands of both students and the job market, a lot of Chinese nursing schools developed teaching of English for occupational purposes (EOP) since the beginning of the 21st century [1]. The research in educational psychology shows that learners may foster different interests due to various needs of their work [2]. · Accordingly, though EOP teaching and research started late in China, they have developed quickly over the past years [3]. 978-1-4673-2108-2/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE 186 However, this development is of a limited scope in China and has still over looked the principles of the course design, which should be viewed as an on-going process to suit students’ interests and needs [4]. In addition, based on Chinese published literature and personal observations, the main problem of EOP teaching in nursing is its changeless teaching methodology-grammar-translation [3] which is teacher-centered and examination-oriented. Lots of EOP educators in China focus on the medical terminology and the translation of the teaching material, which is similar to traditional English grammar teaching with the major focus on reading comprehension skills. After completing their degree programs, most students lack the professional English language proficiency they are expected to have. Such a situation requires the EOP instructors of nursing English to pay attention to social and students’ needs for EOP learning. The necessity of new and proper teaching methodology for nursing English as EOP in the Chinese context has come into being.
IELTS Writing: Grammar – improve your English and IELTS writing
A. Needs analysis is necessary for nursing English teaching A needs analysis was undertaken in one Chinese nursing college with the aim of investigating nursing students’ professional English learning needs, wants and lacks. The assessment of learners’ needs was performed with the help of junior nursing students, EOP instructors and professors of nursing in this college. Based on the needs analysis, the problem-situated intervention was designed in order to improve students’ nursing English skills and instructors’ teaching effects. The research data including tests and questionnaire highlighted the success of the experimental teaching intervention, which also indicated the significance of the needs-based approach to ESP course design [9-11] towards optimizing learning conditions.
B. The advantages jor problem-situated instruction Nursing English skills are core competencies to be cultivated in EOP teaching. It should be noted that the students in the intervention group demonstrated better performance in both test 1 and test 2 scores compared to their peers in the control group. This fact not only indicates the importance of meeting students’ learning needs, but also shows the effectiveness of problem-situated teaching in training students’ nursing English speaking, listening, reading abilities. Although students’ development for writing ability and vocabulary were not so obvious, they showed their interests in using the medical terminology in speaking. Therefore, this instruction can be clearly regarded as having an impact on students’ nursing English skills through the provision of situational clinical problems which created opportunities for students to think, read, write, listen and finally speak out. Another Issue of major importance was that, in the intervention group, students’ satisfactory and interests for the subject have been enhanced, which presented as students’ improved learning initiative, good performance m teaching periods and results for evaluation questionnaire of nursing English teaching. From questionnaire results, students enjoyed the lectures which enabled them to pose and solve problems and they said they began to feel easy to learn in the problem situations. Moreover, they were satisfied with teacher’s teaching attitudes, methods and quality.
C. The contribution of the LINDGE software LINDGE computer software guaranteed the success of the problem-situated intervention. It made the convenience for the teachers to divide students into groups for discussion according to their English abilities. Through the software interface of the computer, the teachers observed and directed students during their discussion whenever. Besides, videos and courseware were played in the class, which could be replayed by students in their own computers for review after class. Meanwhile, students could ask questions during their discussion. Therefore, LINDGE computer software helped students to improve their nursing English abilities in the problem-situated intervention.