Other Titles
Eliminating American Linguistic Complexity from High-Stakes Examinations in Nursing Education [Title Slide]
Abstract
Background: In the United States, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) health care providers are important to the nursing workforce but often face challenges when taking the NCLEX-RN examination. This study evaluated the effects of removing slang and words with multiple meanings from high-stakes examination questions.
Method: This study used a quantitative, experimental posttest-only control group design and included a convenience sample of 169 nursing students from a college in southern Florida.
Results: Nursing students per-formed significantly better on the experimental (M = 79.9 [7.48]) than on the control examination (M = 75.08 [10.51]), t(151.8) = 2.973, p = .003. Students with low language acculturation scores achieved significantly higher scores on the experimental (M = 81.48 [SD = 6.05]) versus the control examinations (M = 72.21 [10.09]), t(60.9) = 4.975, p = .001.
Conclusion: Modifying examination questions linguistically can help ESOL nursing students perform better and aid examination creators to design bias-free tests. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(12):XXX-XXX.]
Notes
Reference list included in attached slide deck.
Sigma Membership
Alpha Zeta
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Quantitative Research
Keywords:
Faculty Development, Testing Strategies, Teaching and Learning Strategies, Nursing Education, Advances in Education, NCLEX, Linguistics
Recommended Citation
Parker, Timothy Michael, "The Effects of Eliminating Idiomatic American English From High-Stakes Nursing Examinations" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 64.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/presentations_2025/64
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-11-20
The Effects of Eliminating Idiomatic American English From High-Stakes Nursing Examinations
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Background: In the United States, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) health care providers are important to the nursing workforce but often face challenges when taking the NCLEX-RN examination. This study evaluated the effects of removing slang and words with multiple meanings from high-stakes examination questions.
Method: This study used a quantitative, experimental posttest-only control group design and included a convenience sample of 169 nursing students from a college in southern Florida.
Results: Nursing students per-formed significantly better on the experimental (M = 79.9 [7.48]) than on the control examination (M = 75.08 [10.51]), t(151.8) = 2.973, p = .003. Students with low language acculturation scores achieved significantly higher scores on the experimental (M = 81.48 [SD = 6.05]) versus the control examinations (M = 72.21 [10.09]), t(60.9) = 4.975, p = .001.
Conclusion: Modifying examination questions linguistically can help ESOL nursing students perform better and aid examination creators to design bias-free tests. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(12):XXX-XXX.]
Description
The study hopes to bring light to students who speak English as an additional language, who do not perform well on high-stakes summative assessments. The study attempts to reveal ways examination writers might help to improve examination questions.