Müller Amanda, Daller Michael
College of Nursing and Health Sciences, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics, University of Reading, P.O. Box 218, Reading RG6 6AA, United Kingdom.
Nurse Educ Today. 2019 Jan;72:6-11. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2018.10.007. Epub 2018 Oct 23.
Academic English tests are used to ascertain if international English as a Second Language nursing students have sufficient language skills to commence their nursing degrees, and later, if they have sufficient English for nursing registration. However, an academic English test may not be appropriate for clinical contexts. This study examines the relationship between two types of English test and the performance of forty-nine undergraduate international nursing students in both their first year of theory-centred academic topics and practice-centred clinical topics. An academic English test, called the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), and a general English proficiency/processing speed test using a variation of the cloze-test (C-test) format were administered at the commencement of the students' course of study. At the end of one year, grade percentages were collected. It was found that both the IELTS test and the C-test were significantly correlated to both types of topic, albeit with different patterns. The two English tests were also tested for similarities in the constructs they measured, with a significant overlap found. The implications are to rethink the way English tests are applied to entry in university degrees involving a clinical component and, by extension, to direct universities to rethink how nursing students are supported during their degree. The question is also raised about the practice of using academic English tests for professional nursing registration purposes. The benefits of the two testing approaches are also considered, particularly the large differences in monetary outlay and time found between the two tests, given their performance in explaining the variance in grade outcomes.
学术英语测试用于确定以英语作为第二语言的国际护理专业学生是否具备足够的语言技能来开始他们的护理学位课程，以及后来是否具备足够的英语水平以获得护理注册资格。然而，学术英语测试可能并不适用于临床环境。本研究考察了两种英语测试与49名本科国际护理专业学生在以理论为中心的学术课程第一年和以实践为中心的临床课程中的表现之间的关系。在学生课程开始时，进行了一项名为国际英语语言测试系统（雅思）的学术英语测试，以及一项使用完形填空测试（C测试）变体形式的通用英语能力/处理速度测试。在一年结束时，收集了成绩百分比。结果发现，雅思测试和C测试与这两种类型的课程都显著相关，尽管模式不同。还对这两种英语测试所测量的结构的相似性进行了测试，发现存在显著重叠。这意味着要重新思考英语测试应用于涉及临床部分的大学学位入学的方式，进而促使大学重新思考在护理专业学生攻读学位期间如何为他们提供支持。同时也引发了关于将学术英语测试用于专业护理注册目的的做法的问题。还考虑了这两种测试方法的益处，特别是鉴于它们在解释成绩结果差异方面的表现，发现这两种测试在费用支出和时间上存在巨大差异。
