ABSTRACT
Learning English for nursing students as one of compulsory subjects in nursing faculty of Syiah Kuala university make students nurse to pass the whole English subjects. Having enrolled onto four main English subjects during their studies, majority of students still deal with issue to gain TOEFL score as 450 which is stated as the requirement before their graduation. The purpose of the study was to identify learning obstacle and the strategy of English on nursing students since English as their second language and to obtain sufficient score in TOEFL test. The sample was 34 nursing students in the 8th semester which had sat on TOEFL test before their final subject, i.e. mini thesis. To collect the data qualitatively, the students were interviewed with 13 structured questions. The data were transcribed and analyzed. The results showed that 50% of the students were able to pass the test in the fourth test. Although all of them realized that English is essential to support their career in the future, they confessed that TOEFL treatments and score-crosses are the reason they passed for the TOEFL. Additionally, 88% of the students believed that the available English facilities in the university are insufficient to increase their TOEFL score. From this study, it is recommended that the university increase teaching and learning process particularly TOEFL section and improve facilities such as intensive course and try out.
