The effect of linguistic modification on English as a second language (ESL) nursing student retention

Abstract

AbstractEnglish-as-a-second-language (ESL) nursing students fail out of nursing programs at a far higher rate than native English speakers. There are many reasons for this trend, however academic failure related to poor performance on multiple-choice (MC) exams, is the most common.ObjectiveThe purpose of this interventional comparative research study was to determine the effect of linguistic modification (LM) of MC exam questions on score and timing of ESL compared to native English-speaking nursing students.MethodTwo-factor analysis of variance and a mixed-effects regression were applied to the data from 69 participants.ResultsStatistical significance was noted as related to time. All students took significantly less time to complete the LM questions in comparison to the standard questions.ConclusionLM is a process that should be used by nursing faculty to create fair evaluation instruments for all nursing students.