The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan

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J Contemp Med Edu. 2013; 1(3): 170-176

doi: 10.5455/jcme.20130226121358

The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan.

Cited by (7)

Abstract
Gender-based differences and English language were found to be factors that may affect studentsâ€™ academic achievements. In Saudi Arabia, the number of female students is rapidly increasing in universities. In addition, medical students suffer learning difficulties due to the adoption of English language as a medium of education in all school, although schooling is mostly in Arabic. Aim to investigate whether gender and English language proficiency has an impact on the academic performance of medical students in pre-clinical phase. A cross-sectional, comparative study included final grades in English (premedical) and Basic Medical Sciences courses of two studentsâ€™ cohorts in the second and third year medical school. We analysed data using Studentâ€™s t-test, Pearson correlation, and regression analyses considering gender and English as effect variables. Female students significantly outscored their male counterpart in most of the Basic Medical Sciences as well as in English courses for all students in the two cohorts (p< 0.05). English has a significant correlation with grades in all courses for the students in two cohorts, and contributed significantly to the regression on these courses (p< 0.05). Gender has a significant regression main effect only on two courses for 2nd year cohort, however, it contributed significantly to the regression on English grades for both cohorts (p< 0.05). Saudi female students demonstrated superior academic performance to male students in pre-clinical courses at medical school. However, English language proficiency was the significant predictor of academic performance rather than gender. Therefore, we suggest that there is a need to introduce an English proficiency test such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), in addition to the implementation of a radical revision and improvement of the English language curriculum associated with the inclusion of modern methods of teaching foreign language learning strategies.

Key words: Gender, English language, academic performance, medical students

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How to Cite this Article

Pubmed Style

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan. The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school. J Contemp Med Edu. 2013; 1(3): 170-176. doi:10.5455/jcme.20130226121358

Web Style

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan. The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school. http://www.jcmedu.org/?mno=30475 [Access: February 15, 2020]. doi:10.5455/jcme.20130226121358

AMA (American Medical Association) Style

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan. The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school. J Contemp Med Edu. 2013; 1(3): 170-176. doi:10.5455/jcme.20130226121358

Vancouver/ICMJE Style

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan. The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school. J Contemp Med Edu. (2013), [cited February 15, 2020]; 1(3): 170-176. doi:10.5455/jcme.20130226121358

Harvard Style

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan (2013) The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school. J Contemp Med Edu, 1 (3), 170-176. doi:10.5455/jcme.20130226121358

Turabian Style

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan. 2013. The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school. Journal of Contemporary Medical Education, 1 (3), 170-176. doi:10.5455/jcme.20130226121358

Chicago Style

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan. "The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school." Journal of Contemporary Medical Education 1 (2013), 170-176. doi:10.5455/jcme.20130226121358

MLA (The Modern Language Association) Style

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

Najwa Al-Mously, Raneem Salem, Nasser Al-Hamdan (2013) The impact of gender and English language on the academic performance of students: An experience from new Saudi medical school. Journal of Contemporary Medical Education, 1 (3), 170-176. doi:10.5455/jcme.20130226121358

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