Nurses’ Perceptions of English for Nursing Coursebooks at the University Level in Vietnam

Abstract

This article investigates nurses’ perceptions of English for Nursing coursebooks used in faculties of nursing at the university level in Vietnamese. A total of 221 nurses working at public and private hospitals participated in the study. A questionnaire and semi structured interviews were conducted to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The results revealed that the participants perceived that although the listening and speaking activities in the coursebooks encouraged communication, the listening exercises were insufficient. In addition, the reading texts were not specialized in terms of terminology for a nursing career, and the writing tasks focused mainly on filling out forms rather than writing medical documentation, such as nursing diagnoses. In addition, the topics in the coursebooks were neither diverse nor updated with new information, and Vietnamese cultural features were not included. Finally, it was difficult for the nurses to read or write journal articles because the coursebooks they had used did not include academic English. The results suggest that educators should re-design the coursebooks with the recommended guidelines to provide opportunities for nursing students to strengthen their English skills in medical contexts. The implementation of diverse topics and Vietnamese cultural features should be considered. Further research could focus on instructors’ teaching approaches to teaching English for Nursing coursebooks.