Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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A Discipline-Specific Academic Literacy Module to Develop Communication Skills of English Second-Language Nursing Students
Maryna GM Hattingh, Rev C Grobler, Mrs. I Lombard
ABSTRACT:
Most South African students and lecturers are English second language speakers, with many students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, they need assistance improving their language skills to manage their work and studies successfully. Nursing personnel should be proficient in academic English to prevent inter, or intra-professional miscommunication, which could compromise patient safety. The researchers aim to develop a nursing-specific academic literacy module that will be integrated from the curriculum’s first to the fourth year. During basic training, our students are involved in scientific research and the process of writing and publishing an article. The researchers believe that academic applied reading and writing skills are essential for nursing students to engage in research and demonstrate scholarship in evidencebased practice healthcare and nursing because every discipline differs in how it writes arguments and explains experiences. The problem identified is that nursing students do not receive nursingspecific academic literacy preparation from their first year of training. The researchers followed a qualitative case study design with nominal group interviews with purposefully sampled undergraduate students, lecturers, and professional nurses from the public and private sectors to determine the content of a nursing-specific academic literacy programme. Such a programme might enhance undergraduate nursing students’ critical thinking and written and oral communication skills while forming part of the graduate attributes the university promotes in their students to improve their employability.
keywords: graduate attributes; language skills; nominal group interviews; purposeful sampling; qualitative research