Students and Teachers’ Perception of the Adequacy of the Preparatory Year English Language Course for Medical Specialisations

Abstract

This paper reports on an evaluative study, which aimed at assessing the adequacy of the English language programme taught to medical students at the PYP, Jazan University in KSA. The study attempts to explore the extent to which the course was adequate in preparing the students for academic studies based on their needs. The study adopted a mixed method research design whereby a quantitative survey method was complimented by qualitative interviews in obtaining all the data from the study participants. About 227 male and female students from different medical departments within JU participated in the study. Moreover, a pre/post-test was used in the present study to find out the extent to which the participants’ proficiency in English significantly changes from before the course to after the course. The test included written and oral questions designed to measure the course competencies that were stated by the ELC. As for data analysis, the data gathered by means of a questionnaire were analysed using SPSS 17.0 to produce descriptive statistics. The interview questions were analysed according to the theme and the categories. The overall results revealed divergent views as to the adequacy of the PYEL course. That is the students seemed to have positive attitudes towards the course whereas their teachers tended to be less positive about it. With all these in mind, it could be argued that the course under investigation might be in need of some modifications. Accordingly, some recommendations were made to increase the course efficacy.