PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE AMONG STUDENTS OF MIDDLE-LEVEL TECHNICAL PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN NURSING

Abstract

The Portuguese Language (LP) is identified as one of the areas in which nursing students in Secondary Technical Professional Education (EPTNM) present difficulties, mainly in grammatical and spelling aspects. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze the knowledge of LP among EPTNM nursing students. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive and observational study, with a quantitative approach, carried out between March and September 2022 with 184 participants from two private educational institutions, located in the Northeast and Southeast Regions of Brazil. Furthermore, grammatical knowledge of the LP standard norm was assessed using the categories phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax, using an online questionnaire. The results showed that, regarding their approach to LP, 65.22% (n= 120) considered themselves to have an aptitude for the discipline. Less than half (42.39%; n= 78) attested that learning in PL was completely effective/sufficient in Basic Education and less than ¼ believed they had fully mastered basic knowledge (17.93%; n= 33). The average correct answers in the assessment of grammatical knowledge of the standard norm were 48.37% for phonology, 50.44% for morphology, 58.91% for syntax and 59.45% for semantics. The main weaknesses identified were: use of plural; accentuation; verbal tense identification; adequacy of whys; connotation/denotation recognition; use of crasis and verbal agreement. It is concluded, therefore, that although the participants claim to have a certain affinity for LP, the existence of gaps in knowledge of the discipline is noticeable, thus highlighting weaknesses in the training process of this professional category of nursing.