An English for Specific Purposes Curriculum to Prepare English Learners to Become Nursing Assistants

Javier Romo Department of Linguistics and English Language Master of Arts in TESOL This project details the designing and implementation of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum to prepare English learners to become Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (UVRMC) in Provo, Utah. UVRMC, which is owned by Intermountain Health Care (IHC), employs a group of about 40 non-native speakers of English. They work as housekeepers and have interest in learning English and consequently acquiring new skills they could use in better jobs to improve the quality of their lives. UVRMC would like these employees to obtain additional education in order to provide them with better employment opportunities. UVRMC allowed two graduate students at the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Brigham University to design and implement an ESP course to help UVRMC housekeepers improve their language skills in preparation to apply and participate in a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) course offered through IHC University. This report covers the linguistic needs analysis of the participants, situational analysis of UVRMC in terms of the support given to the curriculum, the designing of goals and objectives, the syllabus, the teaching of the syllabus, some material development, and the assessment of language learning. It also describes the instruments used to obtain information during each step of the designing of the curriculum and its implementation, analyzes that information, presents results, assesses the curriculum’s efficacy, and explains the implications for other ESP curricula in the field of nursing and other scientific fields.