Occupational English Writing Test for the Nurses in Kuantan Pahang

Abstract

Nurses in Malaysia are not required to sit for any specific English Language test that suits the medical setting. At the moment the existing English Language tests do not test nurses specifically to use English Language in the context of medical situation. It is the objective of this research to recommend a special test, Occupational English Test (OET) specifically designed for these health practitioners.  Specifically the objectives of this research are to assess Malaysian nurses’ performance in the OET, to evaluate the suitability of the OET in Malaysian context. The OET is a language test used to assess health practitioners’ English language proficiency in medical and health context. It is designed to ensure that language competency is assessed in a relevant professional context. This study employs a case study involving a group of nurses from the medical centre UMP (Pusat Kesihatan Pelajar). The nurses chosen as samples for this research cover all the nurses of Pusat Kesihatan Pelajar. The samples are required to sit for a writing test and they are also interviewed. The test results are analysed manually. Three sets of sample test are revised based on the result of the test and interview and the revised tests will be used to conduct a study on the nursing students of Kolej Kejururawatan and the nursing students of the school of nursing of IIUM to evaluate the suitability of the test in Malaysian context.

Keywords: Nursing, Background of OET, OET format, case study, interview result.