Abstract
Language barriers significantly hinder academic performance, psychological well-being, and clinical communication skills of Arabic-speaking healthcare students educated through English-medium instruction. Although existing instruments focus on clinical communication—often among physicians—critical dimensions such as academic challenges and psychological impacts remain underassessed, and tools rarely address disciplines beyond medicine (e.g., nursing, pharmacy, radiology). Studies in Arabic-speaking contexts typically employ author-developed or adapted questionnaires lacking rigorous validation. This short communication underscores the need for a comprehensive, psychometrically sound scale tailored to Arabic-speaking healthcare students. Proposed dimensions include Language Proficiency, Academic Impact, Psychological Impact, and Clinical Communication. Validation will involve systematic item development, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, reliability assessment via Cronbach’s alpha, and construct validation through correlations with academic grades, standardized English-proficiency scores, and established anxiety and communication measures. Establishing this validated scale will guide targeted educational interventions, refine curriculum design, alleviate psychological burdens, and ultimately enhance healthcare quality by producing more competent graduates.
Recommended Citation
Alfaifi, Ali and Shubayr, Nasser
(2026)
"The Need for a Validated Psychometric Scale to Assess Multidimensional Language Barriers in Medical Education among Arabic Speakers,"
Health Professions Education: Vol. 12:
Iss.
4, Article 10.
DOI: 10.55890/2452-3011.1419
Available at:
https://hpe.researchcommons.org/journal/vol12/iss4/10
