| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 應用外語系 === 106 === The internationalization of Taiwan, emerged as a result of past political democratization, has greatly affected and changed economic climate. One manifestation of these changes is a remarkable expansion of medical services and treatment for international workers and students as well as immigrants. This requires healthcare providers in Taiwan, particularly doctors and nursing personnel, to acquire greater English proficiency so as to productively respond to international patients’ need. The present study, therefore, explored in-service nurses’ EFL speaking anxiety when they communicate with foreign patients and caregivers at their workplace. This study mainly addressed the following research questions: (1) What are the levels of EFL speaking anxiety of in-service nurses in Taiwan when they communicate with foreign patients and caregivers? (2) What are the sources causing EFL speaking anxiety of Taiwanese in-service nurses? (3) How do Taiwanese in-service nurses cope with their EFL speaking anxiety? (4) What are the nurses’ perceptions on their EFL speaking anxiety? The participants were 67 nursing students recruited from the department of nursing continuing education at a two-year medical technology-based college. Meanwhile, all participants also worked in different departments of healthcare institutions across Northern Taiwan. The main instruments are quantitative and qualitative methods. The questionnaire examined levels, sources, and coping strategies of in-service nurses’ EFL speaking anxiety. The survey was administrated in class, and the semi-structured interviews were scheduled and conducted individually with 10 voluntary participants in the following week.
Results showed that the EFL speaking anxiety of in-service nurses were at moderate level. In addition, the majority of anxiety sources reported by the participants included lack of oral linguistic competence specifically in medical terminology and general vocabulary, fear of consequences of misunderstanding between themselves and foreign patients and caregivers, not able to understand their requests, not able to follow foreign patients, caregivers’ and doctors rapid pace in spoken English. Based on the coping strategies, relaxation and peer seeking were the most frequently used strategies for the participants to deal with speaking anxiety. It is expected that the empirical findings of the present study may, to some extent, facilitate a better understanding of what are Taiwanese in-service nurses’ levels of EFL speaking anxiety, anxiety-provoking sources and strategies used to overcome such anxiety. Finally, the study is expected to serve as a reference for any future research on foreign language speaking anxiety among nursing personnel and also to provide ENP instructors, hospital board of directors, and on-job trainers with some pedagogical implications and empirical evidences to solve this anxiety-related issue.
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