Common writing challenges in academic English among Chinese nursing undergraduates
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28918/erudita.v5i2.12216Abstract
The study examines the most common writing challenges in Academic English faced by Chinese undergraduate nursing students. Despite meeting the general English proficiency benchmark of College English Test Band 4, many students struggle with the academic writing conventions necessary for success in university and professional nursing contexts. The analysis was based on writing samples taken throughout the term from 38 second-year nursing students from a university in Northwest China. The mistakes were categorised according to Ferris' taxonomy of errors (1995, 2002, 2012). Results show that surface-level errors, including punctuation, spelling, and mechanics, were the most common, accounting for more than one-third of all errors. However, more profound grammatical issues, particularly errors in verb form, collocation mistakes, and article omissions, had a greater impact on clarity and academic tone. The findings suggest that many errors stem from interference with the first language (L1). This study emphasises the importance of instructional strategies that focus on verb use, sentence structure, and genre-appropriate vocabulary. The article discusses practical approaches to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction.
Keywords:
References
Bitchener, J., & Ferris, D. R. (2012). Written corrective feedback in second language acquisition and writing. Routledge.
Chan, A. Y. W. (2010). Toward a taxonomy of written errors: Investigation of error types in the writing of Hong Kong Chinese ESL learners. TESOL Quarterly, 44(2), 295–319. https://doi.org/10.5054/tq.2010.219941
Chen, L., Zhao, Q., & Liu, M. (2023). Self-regulated learning strategies adopted by successful Chinese nursing students in the process of learning nursing English. Nurse Education Today, 120, 105638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2023.105638
Corder, S. P. (1974). Error analysis. In J. P. B. Allen & S. P. Corder (Eds.), Techniques in applied linguistics (pp. 122–154). Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. (2006). The methodology of task-based teaching. Asian EFL Journal, 8(3), 19–45.
Evans, N. W., Hartshorn, K. J., & Strong-Krause, D. (2011). The efficacy of dynamic written corrective feedback for university-matriculated ESL learners. System, 39(2), 229–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.04.012
Ferris, D. R. (1995). Teaching students to self-edit. TESOL Journal, 10(4), 18–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1949-3533.2001.tb00103.x
Ferris, D. R. (2002). Treatment of error in second language student writing. University of Michigan Press.
Ferris, D. R. (2012). Does error feedback help student writers? New evidence on the short- and long-term effects of written error correction. In K. Hyland & F. Hyland (Eds.), Feedback in second language writing: Contexts and issues (pp. 81–104). Cambridge University Press.
Hinkel, E. (2004). Teaching academic ESL writing: Practical techniques in vocabulary and grammar. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hyland, K. (2006). English for academic purposes: An advanced resource book. Routledge.
Li, J., & Wang, Y. (2023). Peer feedback and Chinese medical students’ English academic writing development: A longitudinal intervention study. BMC Medical Education, 23, Article 574. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04574-w
Liu, D., & Shaw, P. (2001). Exploring the transfer of collocational knowledge of L1 to L2. Applied Linguistics, 22(2), 239–265. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/22.2.239
Lu, Y. (2016). A corpus study of collocation in Chinese learner English. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315464732
Olson, M. A. (2012). English-as-a-second-language (ESL) nursing student success: A critical review of the literature. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 19(1), 26–32.
Pinkham, J. (2000). The translator’s guide to Chinglish. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Severino, C., & Prim, S.-N. (2015). Word choice errors in Chinese students’ English writing and how online writing center tutors respond to them. The Writing Center Journal, 34(2), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.7771/2832-9414.1777
Wang, W., & Wen, Q. (2002). L1 use in the L2 composing process: An exploratory study of 16 Chinese EFL writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 11(3), 225–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1060-3743(02)00084-X
Zhang, Y., Li, X., Wang, L., & Chen, H. (2023). English training requirements and associated factors for non-native English-speaking nurses: A critical gap analysis based on the importance-performance method. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 10(2), 123–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2023.01.005
Downloads
Published
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Bartlomiej Kuszel
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Erudita: Journal of English Language Teaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. An author who publishes in Erudita: Journal of English Language Teaching agrees to the following terms:
- Author retains the copyright and grants the journal the right of first publication of the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal
- Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book) with the acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Author is permitted and encouraged to post his/her work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
