TEACHING ENGLISH FOR NURSING BY USING TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING

English for nursing is one of the branches of English for Specific Purposes. This type of English lesson requires the teacher to choose a specific method in order to meet a specific learning objective. The final goal of learning this kind of English is to equip learners with competencies that suit their future job, one of them, is English skill. This is inseparable from the choice of an appropriate teaching method by the teacher. Many studies on the implementation of specific teaching methods have been undertaken. However, little is still known about the students' responses to the implementation of Task-Based Language Instruction in English for Nursing Classes. To fill this gap, the current study shed a light on this matter. This qualitative research aimed to explore students’ perception of this teaching method. There were 58 nursing students invited as the respondents. The data were garnered through interview and questionnaires. The implication of this research is to be contributed to the field of EFL teaching methodology as the expansion for the current studies in English for specific Purposes field.


INTRODUCTION
Over the last two decades, the focus of teaching English is on the communicative ability. This has made the communicative language teaching approach popular since its emergence in the early 1980s. One of the popular teaching methods under this communicative approach is Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). This method has been proved compatible with learner-centered classroom interaction (Ellis, 2003;Nunan, 2005;Richards & Rodgers, 2001). TBLT is made up of components such as goal, procedures, and specific learning target. (Murphy, 2003;Nunan, 2004;Skehan, 1998); It also gives more emphasis on learning activities that takes a bigger portion of the content rather than linguistic items (Beglar & Hunt, 2002;Carless, 2002;Littlewood, 2004).
In the context of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), a complex interaction is made through a complex interconnection among materials, activities, and evaluative feedback. Essentially, TBLT has given positive impacts on these variables. This means that TBLT facilitates learners with natural sources of the meaningful content, supportive atmosphere and supportive response that afford more opportunities for students to use the language, especially in the context of Asian EFL classroom where learners do not have sufficient time to use the targeted language on daily interaction. More exposures are needed for allowing learners to express out their target language. In his interviews based study, with teachers, teacher educators, and ministry officials, Nunan (2003) indicates that TBLT emerged as a central concept by teachers, teacher educators, and ministry.
However, it is still little known the responses of students towards the use of TBLT in EFL classes. To fill this void, this study is aimed to explore EFL students' perceptions of task-based instruction based on investigating the use of simulation teaching technique in English for nursing class. This will provide insight for teachers to design and implement any real communicative tasks, which are critically important for EFL learners to experience meaningful language use. It will also contribute to facilitating EFL teachers' practical use of TBLT techniques, thereby improving the learners' communicative abilities.
In the context of pedagogy, ESP courses are designed to fulfil professional and academic communication needs. The main objective is to enable learners to communicate in English mediated professional setting. Johns (2013) argues that ESP has been researched since its emergence in the 1960s. Furthermore, he explained that there have been theories, concepts, approaches, and analytical tools used to assess ESP courses. Some of them are content-based instruction (CBI), genre-based instruction, the New Rhetoric, and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). Hutchinson and Waters (1987) contend that ESP can be viewed as an approach for language teaching to meet specific learning needs. This specialization makes ESP different from other English course in terms of its disciplinary knowledge and context (Fang, 2006). Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) define ESP characteristics as follow: 1. ESP courses are designed to meet discipline-specific learning goals with a different level of proficiency. 2. It is informed by a specific approach with specific instructional design. 3. The learning materials and methods are developed or adapted for responsive instruction. 4. ESP courses involve discipline-specific knowledge, genres, discourses, and specific context. 5. In the ESP course, students gain knowledge or concepts from their specialization. 6. It requires students to have knowledge about specific genres and sub-genres in which the language itself operates. Within this current study context, we explore the implementation of TBLT in English for nursing context, which is under the sub-branches English for specific professional purposes.
Many studies have been conducted to look at the implementation of Task-Based Language teaching in the ESP field.  have found that TBLT is a more effective approach compared to Content-Based Instruction in terms of teaching reading comprehension. The research was undertaken at a university in Iran. There were two groups of students chosen, each consisted of thirty participants. The groups were divided into two categories; one controlled group (using content-based instruction) and another one is the experimental group (using task-based language teaching). The findings indicate that the experimental group performed better in the ESP reading class than that of the content-based instruction group.
Another research on the effectiveness of task-based language teaching was done by Sarani & Sahebi (2012). They investigated the teaching of vocabulary in ESP courses within the paradigm of task-based language teaching. The results show that task-based language teaching is more effective in teaching technical vocabularies compared to the traditional one. Another study on the implementation of TBLT in ESP was undertaken by Rahman (2010) about the applications of the task-based approach to teaching oral communication skills in an Indian University. The tasks used had given an interesting learning atmosphere for the students. They got involved in the task because the tasks were giving the feeling of a real-life situation. Their final performances were impressively polished and much improved. This was indicated by 70 per cent of the students got A at the final exam.

Research Questions
In an attempt to investigate the use of task-based language teaching in teaching English for nursing, these three questions were posed to answer research problems: 1. What are learners' views on the use of simulation techniques in teaching English for nursing? 2. How well does task-based language teaching, in this context, simulation technique, support learners to master English for Nursing? 3. What is the most important skill needed to improve if this simulation technique is used in English for nursing class?

The Participants
The participants of the research are 53 nurse students taking English for Nursing course. The participants were in the sixth semester when they were invited to join in this research. The reason for choosing this criterion is that because they already took Nursing English 1 & 2 classes. Therefore, this study is intended to compare the previous lessons they got using other teaching methods and the current English for Nursing class that is treated by task-based language teaching, particularly the use of the simulation technique.

Data Collection
The data were garnered through survey and interview. Fifty-three questionnaires were administered to know students' perception on the use of TBLT in English for Nursing class and one in-depth interview was undertaken to investigate student's perception of this method.

What are learners' views on the use of simulation techniques in teaching
English for nursing? From the table 1, it is clearly seen that the majority of respondents perceived that the use of TBLT, in this context simulation, would be difficult for them (23 responses out of 52) due to their speaking ability. However, the respondents still have the motivation to learn even though this would be challenging for them (22 responses out of 52). We can see from the data, students dominantly perceive that simulation technique would help them improve their communicative skill (31 responses out of 52)

The most important skill needed to improve this simulation technique is used in
English for nursing class. The data depict that dominantly the respondents think that speaking skill is the most essential skill to develop (42 responses out of 52).
From the quantitative data above, we can see that the use of TBLT is a supportive teaching method for nurse students even though this method would be challenging for them since this is a new teaching method for them.
In the same vein, the interview results indicate that all students accept this method as a teaching method for English for nursing class. One of the participants said:" This method helps, sir". Especially, when we perform clinical attachment we can teach our colleagues English. This may build up our self-confidence". The participants explicitly give a positive evaluation of this method.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
Task-based language teaching, within this context, the use of simulation for teaching nursing English, has been perceived as an engaging way for nurse students to study English. Although the method was used in the class, the challenges still remain unsolved. Limited time allocation for teachers to prepare the material as well as for students to do the entire stages of simulation, students' language proficiency, and learning motivation are among issues that need to be taken into account for future implementation.