Taiwanese EFL Nursing Students’ English Learning Beliefs and Anxiety

Abstract

As in a global village and English has been widely used in medical terminology, medical records and in professional communication, it’s quite essential to have good English ability for those people standing in the front line of healthcare, in particular, the nurses. However, how do nursing students outside of English speaking countries think of English learning and what are the effects on their English performance? The paper aims to investigate (1) how Taiwanese EFL nursing students think of English learning, (2) what their anxiety are, and (3) the effects of beliefs and anxiety on their English performance. Participants are 733 nursing students in a private medical college in south Taiwan, including 78 males (11%) and 655 females (89%). The research instruments include a set of English Proficiency Test and questionnaires dealing with the Beliefs about Language Learning (Horwitz, 1988), and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope, 1986). All available data are processed by SPSS 15. Findings show that students’ beliefs do affect their anxiety and negatively relate to their English performance. It’s expected that the findings can provide teachers and educators with more understanding about students’ individual differences in English learning for nursing schools outside of English speaking countries.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n11p671