English Language Difficulties of Pre-Clinical Medical Students and the Contributing Role of Foundation-Year English Language Course at a Medical College in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

—The study investigates the pre-clinical medical students' perceptions about their English language difficulties and lack at King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi medical students study an English language course at the pre-university level (Foundation Year) to train and prepare for their future extensive medical study in medical college. The English language program comprises reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills and targets enhancing students' language skills. The study aims: (a) to examine the pre-clinical medical students' level of difficulties related to their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. (b) To determine the pre-medical students' language lacks and the students' general proficiency. A mixed-method approach, including quantitative and qualitative research methods was used. Data from questionnaires of 67 pre-clinical medical students has been used with representative interviews from the faculty members teaching pre-clinical subjects in the medical college. The findings revealed that the students experience significant difficulties in the use of English language skills, and the skill-wise average is worth considering such as writing (27.95%), reading (25.36%), speaking (24.86%), and listening (12.73%). The findings indicated that writing skills were the most difficult among all the language skills for pre-clinical medical students. Finally, the recommendations were made to revise the English language course, improve the teaching methodology, and address the students' insufficient English language proficiency.