Impact of Bilingual Approach in Undergraduate Education of Health Sciences

The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of English only and bilingual approach with additional use of Urdu as medium of instruction for facilitating students' learning and communication in academic and clinical interactions, in undergraduate education of health sciences. Survey based quantitative study. The study was carried out at Islamic International Medical College, Islamic International Dental College and Riphah College of Rehabilitation Sciences belonging to Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Riphah International University Islamabad, Pakistan from May to September 2013. A survey was conducted by administering two structured questionnaires using ordinal scale. Questionnaire A was filled by 600 students and B by 60 teachers. The collected data was processed and analyzed by SPSS version17. Thirty five percent students came from institutions using only English medium of instruction. 55% received education in both [English and Urdu] and 10% in other languages. The students speaking Urdu with parents and patients were 63% and 79% respectively. 50% and 61% students talk in both languages with friends and teachers respectively because of comfortable communication and expression. 62% students prefer to be taught, 54% prefer to give viva voce and 55%understood viewpoints better using both languages. 87% students and 91% teachers admitted that use of Urdu enhances learning. 84% students confirmed that teachers used both languages during lectures and 72% teachers admitted it. Considering p<0.05 the nonparametric test applied shows significant value of 0.0499. Bilingual approach in medium of curriculum using English and native languages is an effective tool for better learning, expression and communication