[Approaches for Class Preparation Using Qualitative Analysis by Coding-Survey in Technical English Course...

The purpose of this study was to examine how students prepare for the pharmaceutical technical English course "Yakugaku-Eigo Nyumon" by qualitative analysis. A sub-text, supplemental material was used to assist students with class preparation. Qualitative questionnaires on understanding and approaches for class preparation as well as review of class were analyzed in comparison with different academic performance levels on the final exam. The results of qualitative analysis of class preparation based on coding revealed that high-academic-performing students understood and adopted deep-processing approaches for the preparation of "English words" and "understanding of content" more often than low-academic-performing students. High-performing students attempted to not literally translate English sentences into Japanese while checking the English words with thinking and ingenuity, and to understand English sentences by drawing figures and thinking of relationships using previously learned knowledge. These approaches were not adopted by low-performing students. Furthermore, sub-text was one of the means for understanding by high-performing students, whereas it was essential for low-performing students to understand the content. Coding results on the review of class also showed that low-performing students were dependent mainly on sub-text for understanding. These results suggest that deep-processing approaches to both English and content of materials are necessary for deep understanding in "Yakugaku-Eigo Nyumon".