Language of Medical Instruction in Palestine: A Mixed Method Approach of Students’ Perceptions

Abstract

This mixed method study explores medical students’ perceptions and attitudes regarding the language(s) of medical instruction in two Palestinian universities. The researcher aimed to identify the way medical students look at the language of medical education as well as the merits and drawbacks of the language(s) used in medical instruction. A 25-item descriptive, online questionnaire was built to explore the way university students evaluate and perceive the medium of medical instruction at the Faculty of Medicine. To complement and inform the quantitative findings, fifty-five students from each university were randomly selected, and their responses to an open question about the merits and drawbacks of the language(s) were analyzed using MAXQDA. Of the too many medical students enrolled in the two universities, 604 completed and returned the survey, and 55 students were selected to interpret their open responses qualitatively. The study findings suggest that the students are divided into two camps concerning what the language of medical instruction should be; some prefer Arabic, their mother tongue, while the others showed no reservations about using the medical academic vocabulary in English. Some statistically significant differences were found when some demographic variables, i.e., gender, specific major, and year of study, interact. Finally, study respondents highlighted several issues which the researcher sorted into advantages and disadvantages for each language. There is a considerable discrepancy in the choice of the language of medical instruction at the Faculty of Medicine. Each language has its pros and cons; consequently, a mixture of a mother and a foreign language (e.g., English) could be a suitable compromise in a country like Palestine.