An Analysis of Speaking Activities on the “English for Nursing 1”

Abstract

This research aims to study the type of speaking activity contained in English nursing textbook for nursing students titled ‘English for Nursing 1,’ written by Ros Wright and Bethany Cagnol with Maria Spada Symonds, published by Pearson Education Limited, and copyrighted in A.D. 2012. Regarding the instrument of this research, a checklist of textbook evaluation criteria developed from the two experts by Chaisongkram is used to give the general information of the textbook, and an evaluation criterion synthesized from the five experts by Astuti is employed to analyze the speaking activity types in the textbook. 

The research results revealed that this textbook has 69 speaking activities. In these 69 speaking activities, there are 27 activities, or 39.13%, of ‘role plays and simulations,’ 15 activities, or 21.74%, of ‘discussion and group work,’ 10 activities, or 14.49% of ‘performing from a script,’ 6 activities, or 8.70%, of ‘others,’ 5 activities, or 7.25%, of ‘dialogue,’ 4 activities, or 5.80%, of ‘describe pictures,’ and 2 activities, or 2.90%, of ‘questionnaires.’ However, ‘reporting,’ ‘interviews,’ and ‘presentation’ are not found in this textbook. To conclude the results, although there are many speaking activities in this textbook, these speaking activities do not vary in types. Based on the results above, in choosing a listening and speaking English nursing textbook for nursing students, teachers should select the textbook that has many speaking activities in a variety of speaking activity types for communicating in diverse backgrounds and by integrating speaking content with nurses’ diverse communication needs, coursebooks could prepare students for the multifaceted communication demands of nursing profession.