Linguistic Competence of Malaysian Medical Students in the United Kingdom from the Context of the Organic Grammar Framework

Abstract

The case study examined the linguistic competence of Malaysian medical students in the United Kingdom from the perspective of the Organic Grammar framework. A case study was conducted with seven Malaysians enrolled in a medical or dentistry degree programme. Picture description tasks were used to elicit constructions of questions and sentences, which were analysed for complexity and grammaticality using the Organic Grammar framework. The participants produced 573 questions (90% simple and 10% complex), and errors were found in one-third of the simple questions and half of the complex questions. They relied on Wh-questions (53%) more than Yes/No questions (38%) and other types of questions (9%). The analysis of the morpho-syntactic level of sentences using Young-Scholten, Ijuin, and Vainikka’s (2005) Organic Grammar framework, showed that the participants were mostly at Stage 4. Although medical students are known to have the best English proficiency, the study showed that their linguistic competence resembles the target language but does not show the morphological range of native speakers and the subordination constructions tend to be simple.