Abstract—

The aim of the current study is to investigate the perceived learning challenges as well as the coping strategies employed by Nursing and Health Sciences (NHS) students at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University (AHU) in dealing with general and medical English as a foreign language in the learning process. Princess Aisha Bint Al-Hussein College of Nursing & Health Sciences (PAC) at AHU needs to address these challenges to meet the low-level grades of its students. A three-part questionnaire was used for data collection over a time period of three consecutive academic semesters. It is a 26-item self-reported questionnaire with a 5-point Likert-type scale. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used for statistical analysis. The reliability of the scale was tested using Cronbach alpha. The outcomes showed that the students struggle with the issue of limited language proficiency. This problem, then, which the study’s outcomes present is twofold: firstly, due to the students’ lack of knowledge and proficiency in general English and secondly, because of students’ lack of proficiency in medical English. Actually, students are not only burdened by the fact that they lack the proficiency of general English but further by their unfamiliarity with medical English.

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 809-817, July 2018 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0904.19