Abstracts

nafiye aktekin, mutasim bavarsi

Enhancing Nursing Students' English Proficiency for Occupational Purposes: A Focus on OET Preparation

POSTER

This study investigates the effectiveness of integrating the Occupational English Test (OET) preparation materials into the Academic English Course for nursing students, with a specific emphasis on improving writing and speaking skills. At the commencement of the course, students possessing a B2 level of English proficiency, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), were administered a mock OET exam to establish a baseline for their English language and professional communication skills.

Over 14 weeks, the course employed a comprehensive suite of OET-specific educational resources, including practice materials, real-life medical communication scenarios, and targeted language exercises, all aimed at bolstering the students' ability to write and speak in English within a healthcare context. The teaching methodology focused on immersive and practical language use, simulating real occupational settings to enhance students' readiness for the professional environment.

The culmination of the course was marked by administering the OET exam as a post-test, providing a direct comparison with the initial assessment. The results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in the students' English language proficiency, with marked advances in both the writing and speaking components of the OET.  This improvement was not only quantifiable in the context of the OET scores but also reflective of the students' enhanced ability to communicate effectively in healthcare settings where English is the medium of instruction and practice.

NAFIYE AKTEKIN is Assistant professor at Acibadem University, director of the Academic English Program.

MUTASIM BAVARSI is Academic lecturer at Acibadem University.

IRENA ALEKSIĆ-HAJDUKOVIĆ, jelena Jaćimović, ana mužar, jovana kuzmanović-pfićer

Merging GenAI and Data-Driven Learning (DDL) in English for Healthcare

PRESENTATION

Data-driven learning (DDL) refers to using “language corpus data, tools, and techniques for pedagogical purposes” (Crosthwaite & Boulton, in press). Over the last thirty years, it has proved to be an effective methodological approach to language teaching and learning in that it facilitates acquiring vocabulary, English for Academic Purposes, and L2 writing skills (Boulton & Cobb, 2017; Chen & J. Flowerdew, 2018; Crosthwaite & Boulton, in press; H. Lee et al., 2019; Pérez-Paredes, 2019). However, with recent developments in the field of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), there has been a need to merge the two approaches in order to bridge the existing gaps and transcend the limitations of DDL (Crosthwaite & Baisa, 2023; Mizumoto, 2023).

Therefore, the aim of this presentation is to offer pedagogical implications for teaching English for Healthcare or Medical Academic Purposes (EMAP) underpinned by GenAI and DDL. For illustrative purposes, the presentation will include the findings of a textometric study focusing on collocations in the abstracts of 13,974 original research articles in the field of general dentistry published from 2009 to 2019. Fostering collocational competence has been reported to be fraught with difficulties (Frankenberg-Garcia, 2018); however, exposing students to co-occurrences and concordances, either in an off-hands or direct DDL manner can reinforce the learning process. 

IRENA ALEKSIĆ-HAJDUKOVIĆ is an Assistant Professor at the School of Dental Medicine, University of Belgrade, where she teaches English for Dentistry. Her fields of interest also include Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), Multimodal Pedagogy, and use of software for multimodal annotation and transcription for linguistic research.

JELENA JACIMOVIĆ is a Research Associate and Librarian at the School of Dental Medicine, University of Belgrade. She teaches Digital Humanities in Computer Science within the Humanities MA programme. Her research focuses on library informatics and natural language processing. Specialising in information extraction tools, she actively contributes to bibliometric studies and systematic reviews.

ANA MUŽAR holds a BA and an MA degree in English language, literature, and culture. Presently, she is pursuing her PhD while being employed at the School of Dental Medicine, University of Belgrade, as a Teaching Associate interested in applying the discourse of healthcare communication in her teaching.

JOVANA KUZMANOVIĆ-PFIĆER is a Teaching Assistant in Medical Statistics and Informatics at the School of Dental Medicine, University of Belgrade. Her ​​research area revolves around analysing modern principles in quantitative research related to evidence-based medicine and the application of complex statistical tools in biomedical sciences.

VIRGINIA ALLUM

AI Video Creation - Not a Complete Solution… Yet

PRESENTATION

AI has been heralded by many as a new dawn in materials creation. In my role as course writer, I’ve been exploring how AI can generate learning resources. I’ve been focusing on video in particular, something I incorporate extensively in the online courses I develop at SLC. I have developed hundreds of short engaging videos for Medical English and OET preparation, and designed learning activities to be done before and afterwards.

AI has had a positive impact on my work, accelerating the creation of new content and integrating a much greater variety of image, sound and voice. However, it comes with drawbacks. It is not an ‘out of the box’ tool. At least, not yet.

In this talk, I will describe how AI is impacting video creation, give examples of what it can do, and describe the related challenges. At the end of this presentation, you will be able to start experimenting with AI, and make your own learning videos but with an awareness of its current limitations.

VIRGINIA ALLUM is Head of Medical English at SLC where she has written several online general medical and OET preparation courses for healthcare professionals. She has also written a number of textbooks for doctors and nurses and is an OET item writer for Cambridge University Press and Assessment. 

Next-generation Listening Resources: Developing AI-Generated Solutions for English for Healthcare

marwa alnajjar, shooq altamiMi, paula canales

PRESENTATION

This presentation focuses on an ongoing project that utlilises Generative AI to create tailored listening materials in ESP, particularly for summative assessments. Addressing the limitations of current resources, three lecturers have utilised ChatGPT and text-to-audio generators to create listening scripts, questions, and audio.

Attendees will gain insights into the iterative process of script and question generation, the evaluation of text-to-audio generators to select the most effective one, as well as how to produce contextually relevant resources that are adaptable to different language proficiency levels. Furthermore, the presentation will provide valuable insights into the methodology employed, expected outcomes, and implications for future research and educational practices. By shedding light on the project's development process and decision-making considerations, attendees will gain practical knowledge on applying Generative AI in material development for healthcare contexts, setting a precedent for innovative approaches.

MARWA ALNAJJAR is a Lecturer in English and Academic Team Lead for English for Nursing at RCSI Bahrain. She has 12 years of teaching experience and an MA in ELT from Coventry University, UK. Her current interests include teacher training, materials design, and integrating AI in language teaching and learning.

SHOOQ ALTAMIMI is a Lecturer in English for Nursing at RCSI Bahrain. She has 11 years of teaching experience and an MA in ELT from Coventry University, UK. Her subject specialisims include threshold concepts, Generative AI, and reflective practices.

PAULA CANALES is a Fulbright Teaching Assistant at RCSI Bahrain. She received her MA in TESL from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has over eight years of experience in the healthcare field as a mental health technician. Currently, she focuses on providing language support to nursing students.

eszter asztalos-zsembery

Buiding Autonomy and Self-reliance Using Error Analysis

POSTER

As a diagnostic tool, error analysis can play an important role in promoting self-reflection and autonomy in the process of becoming self-reliant professional translators. This can be achieved by completing translation tasks with error typologies (Gonzáles Davis 2004, 6, 217). By analyzing errors in authentic translation tasks, translator trainees can gain a deeper understanding of both the source and target language and culture, thus enhancing their ability to produce accurate and culturally appropriate translations.

By systematically analyzing errors in translation work, the possible causes of errors may be mapped; thus, the corrective feedback will prove remedial, and trainees can gain valuable insights into their strengths and weaknesses, which in turn will enable them to make professional decisions and encourage them to continuously improve. With clear error analysis classification built into translator training curricula, trainees will become competent and reflective translators capable of meeting the demands of the profession. Therefore, error analysis in translation may be viewed as an opportunity for growth and development, and not as a tool highlighting failings and what trainees cannot do.

ESZTER ASZTALOS-ZSEMBERY is a language instructor of EMP and healthcare translation and doctoral candidate at Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School, University of Szeged, Hungary. She currently holds the position of assistant lecturer. She has been employed as an educator at the University for more than two decades. The primary focus of her research is translation studies, encompassing translation assessment and evaluation, as well as the development of translation competence. In English for Medical Purposes, her primary focus is on the development and improvement of academic skills and medical terminology.

JOANNE BASS

Putting Theory into Practice: How OET Preparation Enhances Workplace Performance

PRESENTATION

This session looks at how teachers can help learners utilise the skills they have developed in their OET exam preparation, ensuring they not only succeed in the test but also thrive in their healthcare careers. We will explore the impact of OET on candidates, emphasising the positive washback effect.

The session will provide practical strategies teachers can use to illustrate how the communication skills honed in OET classes are directly applicable to professional healthcare environments. Participants will come away with ideas for reflection and action stages which they can use in their OET classes to boost their learners' confidence and competence, not only on test day, but in the rest of their professional lives. 

The session will discuss the most recent research from Cambridge University Press and Assessment into the impact of OET and sharing some of the findings.

JOANNE BASS, OET Education Specialist – Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), is an experienced educator specialising in English for Specific Purposes and exam preparation for healthcare professionals. Her background in English language teaching is complemented by her experience in the NHS, where she developed and implemented language programmes and clinical communication courses tailored to the needs of internationally-trained healthcare professionals. Joanne holds a Masters degree in English, is Cambridge DELTA-qualified, and has experience in teacher training, curriculum design and course development. In her role as Education Specialist, Joanne provides vital educational support for OET, the leading English language test for healthcare professionals. She is passionately committed to guiding international healthcare professionals through their language learning journey, helping them build the communication skills needed to excel in their careers.

andy cowle

Tools and Ideas for Easily Creating Interactive ESP Courses

PRESENTATION

With the rapid explosion of eLearning, institutions are reflecting on the ways they shape and deliver specialised content, and on the digital expectations of their learners. This is especially true for ESP, where tailored materials are critical for guiding successful learning outcomes. There is a challenge, therefore, in finding quality eLearning courses for ESP and addressing the educator’s need to adapt or map these to the required specialised criteria in bespoke courses.

In this session we will explore what the challenges are when seeking to provide quality online learning in English for the Healthcare sector. These can range from choosing the most suitable authoring and learning platform, to giving tools to teachers to create their own content and assessments (including AI-generated content). From the more commonly known activity types to those at the cutting edge of digital language learning, this session looks at tools from Avallain whose technology has been used for many years by all the ELT publishers and by SLC for their successful course creation and delivery.

ANDY COWLE is a freelance consultant who has worked in ELT for more than thirty-five years as a teacher, trainer, writer and sales professional with publishers and institutions worldwide. He is a business development consultant for Avallain, a leading Swiss-based edtech provider, whose technology is used by ELT and curriculum publishers globally and now – through their out-of-the-box Magnet platform – available to schools, colleges and universities.

RÉKA CSENKI-BÓZSÓ, ÁGNES HORVÁTH, ALExandra zimonyi-bakó

Information Exchange with International Patients in Hungarian Healthcare Settings

PRESENTATION

Hungarian healthcare providers face several challenges when they engage in providing sufficient information to their international patients. In order to assess and address these challenges, all of the Hungarian medical universities joined their forces and created the research group of Language Assistance in Hungarian Health Care:  Translation for Effective Communication (LAHTEC). The present questionnaire study is part of this project.

With the questionnaire data presented we get a clear picture on how Hungarian healthcare professionals communicate with their international patients and to what extent language mediators are involved in present day Hungarian healthcare communication. An online questionnaire was created, validated then piloted on a smaller sample. The final questionnaire was distributed online with snowball effect among Hungarian expatriates over 18 years of age. The data obtained was analysed with content analysis and was subjected to descriptive statistics.

Based on the findings of our questionnaire we propose recommendations on effective communicative strategies that can form the basis of not only intercultural provider-patient communication but can also inform the English for Specific Purposes classroom practice.

RÉKA CSENKI-BÓZSÓ, MA, is an assistant lecturer at the Department for Medical Communication and Translation Studies (Faculty of Medicine, University of Szeged). She teaches general English, medical English, medical translation, German language and medical Hungarian. She is also working on projects with the Hungarian Dental Association and the Hungarian Journal of Dentistry.

ÁGNES HORVÁTH, an assistant professor at Semmelweis University, Hungary, specializes in patient safety communication in multilingual healthcare, focusing on translation. Her research covers language policies, language mediation practices, and corpus-analysis of consent forms. Her work seeks to enhance language services and patient care.

ALEXANDRA ZIMONYI-BAKÓ is an assistant lecturer at the Institute of Languages for Specific Purposes at Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. Her main research topic is conscious language use in MELF (Medical English as a Lingua Franca) communication. Further foci of her research interest are language pedagogy, intercultural communication, and medical terminology.

alexandra csongor, csilla egyed, anikó berta, renáta nagy

Teaching History Taking in English Using AI Tools and Simulated Patients

PRESENTATION

Effective medical interview is a cornerstone of healthcare practice. We offer four courses to improve Hungarian medical students’ English history-taking skills in internal medicine and other specialities. The presentation aims to provide educators with practical strategies for effectively teaching history-taking in English to non-native medical students, integrating AI tools, and simulated patient encounters to enhance learning outcomes and prepare students for real-world clinical practice.

The AI-powered tool, twee.com used in our classrooms provides educators with personalized teaching material. The content of history-taking dialogues between medical doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and patients is customized to students’ contextual needs. The first part of the semester focuses on understanding the history-taking structure, building a medical vocabulary, and enhancing language proficiency with flashcards, quizzes, roleplays, video-and content-based activities using AI tools. In the second part of the semester, students can apply the knowledge and skills acquired earlier by interacting with simulated patients. The integration of these methodologies can prepare students for successful patient interactions in English-speaking healthcare settings.

ALEXANDRA CSONGOR, PhD, Habil, assistant professor. Her interests relate to studying English for medical and medical research objectives. She is researching 21st-century challenges in higher education, the use of the internet and telemedicine in doctor-patient communication. She is a trainer at the Simulated Patient programme at the Medical School.

CSILLA EGYED, PhD student, assistant professor. She teaches languages for biomedical purposes and medical communication, English terminology and communication for dentistry students at the Medical School. Her research interests are applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, telemedicine and teledentistry.

ANIKÓ BERTA, PhD student, assistant professor. She teaches languages for biomedical purposes and medical communication. She is a third-year PhD student researching L3 motivation, multilingual awareness, and motivation to learn LOTE. She is a trainer at the Simulated Patient programme at the Medical School.

RENÁTA NAGY, PhD student, assistant professor. She teaches Languages for Biomedical Purposes, Anatomical and Medical Terminology and Communication for Medical, Dentistry and Biotechnology students. Her research interests are Teledentistry, Telemedicine, Online testing, Communication and Simulated Patients in the field of Medicine.

AGNIESZKA DUDZIK

Developing 21st-century Skills through Project Work in the EMP Classroom

PRESENTATION

One of the main objectives of English for Specific Purposes courses is to prepare learners to communicate effectively and independently in professional settings. This is especially true of teaching English for Medical Purposes (EMP), as communication skills and collaboration are integral to medical practice. Moreover, medical professionals also require skills such as creative thinking, digital literacy, problem solving, and adaptability, as today’s healthcare sector is shaped by new technologies, migration, and increasing demand for a wide variety of health services.

Clearly, medical English programmes cannot be restricted to training in medical terms and translating an abundance of specialist texts. Instead, they should emphasise communicative competences, critical thinking and problem-solving skills and expose learners to real-world tasks embedded in their field of study or work. Relating tasks to the real world of the target profession can be achieved through integrating project work into the EMP curriculum.

The aim of this talk is to demonstrate how project work can be incorporated and used in the medical English classroom to enhance learners’ 21st-century skills as well as develop their specialist language knowledge. The tasks defined by the project are related to healthcare, the professional field learners will join after graduation.

AGNIESZKA DUDZIK, PhD, is a medical English teacher and Head of the Department of Foreign Languages at the Medical University of Bialystok, Poland. Her fields of interest include ESP and Communicative Language Teaching. Her research interests lie in the area of EMP training, with particular emphasis on medical communication skills.

BOŽENA DŽUGANOVÁ

Is Grammar Important in ESP Teaching?

POSTER

In our poster presentation, we deal with the question of how important grammar is in teaching professional language. First-year students at Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin (Comenius University) are young adults who come to the faculty with a fairly good command of general English. In professional language classes focused on medical English we provide them with a language extension, i.e. familiarize them with the basics of professional language in terms of content, language (vocabulary and grammar), stylistic aspects, convey to them both professional skills and academic skills.

In order to verify the correctness of our hypotheses that grammar is less important than medical vocabulary, at the end of the 2nd semester 2023 (by means of an anonymous questionnaire), we asked 65 students of the first academic year to evaluate the effectiveness of the grammar covered in the textbook English in General Medicine used during the whole course and if they have detected any shortcomings in a form of missing parts of the grammar or exercises that could be improved in the next academic year. We have obtained interesting data that we want to share with the participants of the conference, teachers of foreign languages at other specialized faculties.

BOŽENA DŽUGANOVÁ is Head of the Language Department at Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University in Bratislava. She has been teaching English and German for more than 35 years. Her current interests include materials design, and integrating new teaching methods in language teaching and learning.

CSILLA EGYED, RENÁTA NAGY, JUDIT FEKETE, ALEXANDRA CSONGOR

Teaching Communication Skills in the Context of Teledentistry with the Aid of Simulated Patients

PRESENTATION

The role of teledentistry came into spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic, which clearly pointed out the increased need for effective doctor-patient communication and the widespread use of digital technologies offering remote solutions for patients. Putting these technological advancements to good use and further improving communication skills are major milestones in dentistry for dental professionals and dentistry students.

The aim of this presentation is to share the experiences of a new course at the Department of Languages and Communication for Medical Purposes at the University of Pécs Medical School. The course offers the opportunity for dentistry students to acquire relevant theoretical knowledge about the implications and advantages of teledentistry in general. Furthermore, it introduces innovative methodology offering course participants to gain practical experience focusing on communication strategies in both online and offline consultations with the aid of simulated patients. Currently, the course is provided in English, German and Hungarian with 4-4 trainers and simulated patients. The students’ feedback has revealed that they have become more aware of the potential applicability of remote dental consultations, and have found the acquired knowledge and practical skills original, useful and relevant preparing them for the expectations and challenges of their future profession.    

CSILLA EGYED, PhD student, assistant professor. She teaches languages for biomedical purposes and medical communication, English terminology and communication for dentistry students. Her research interests are applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, telemedicine and teledentistry.

RENÁTA NAGY,  PhD student, assistant professor. She teaches Languages for Biomedical Purposes, Anatomical and Medical Terminology and Communication for Medical, Dentistry and Biotechnology students. Her research interests are Teledentistry, Telemedicine, Online testing, Communication and Simulated Patients in the field of Medicine.

JUDIT FEKETE, PhD, research fellow at Pécs University's Faculty of Medicine, co-leads the Simulated Patient Education Programme. Beyond teaching and research, she excels as a behavior analyst, coach, and facilitator. With acting expertise, she innovatively incorporates mentalization, improvisation, and applied/medical improvisation to enhance experiential learning for medical students and professionals.

ALEXANDRA CSONGOR, PhD, Habil, assistant professor. Her interests relate to studying English for medical and medical research objectives. She is researching 21st-century challenges in higher education, the use of the internet and telemedicine in doctor-patient communication. She is a trainer at the Simulated Patient programme at the Medical School.

kerry flamank

Difficult Conversations in Veterinary Practice

WORKSHOP

The NHS, free at the point of access, sees to our needs without us having to think about what it costs. So, when an animal is sick or injured, owners are often shocked at the costs involved. Veterinary practices are required to inform owners of estimated costs. Depending on the circumstances, this can be challenging. However, knowing how to approach these conversations with confidence is vital, not only to fully inform the client, but also to reduce the vet’s own stress when speaking about a sensitive matter. 

There is so much more to giving a client an estimate than simply calling out numbers. End-of-life care - Often, the client needs help making the decision. Vets sometimes have to read between the lines as much is left unsaid; owners can’t always bring themselves to say it because they feel guilty. A sensitively handled conversation about euthanasia and when the time comes to say goodbye will remain in the client’s memory and, therefore, is essential to get right.

KERRY FLAMANK co-founded Bromyard Vets Ltd. in 2006. As Practice Manager, much time was spent equipping our staff with the communication skills necessary to navigate challenging conversations. She became an English tutor in 2019 after she sold her practice. She now lives in Spain.

VERONIKA GLOGAROVÁ

AI and Teaching Foreign Language in Healthcare HE

PRESENTATION

Integrating AI into foreign language teaching in health education offers new and promising ways to enhance students' learning experiences and communication skills, as well as new creative methodological perspectives for teachers.

In its first, more general part, this study examines the approaches employed by Czech universities to deal with AI in their academic context, including the strategies, recommendations and sanctions they propose for the use of AI for academic purposes. However, it is not certain that, at least in the Czech environment, higher education and individual institutions are prepared for the increased use of AI.

Second, the paper summarises the categories of AI-based and digital tools preferred by PhD students in the medical PhD programmes at Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, for academic writing and research task processing, based on data collected through questionnaires. Additional insights into their usage patterns, preferences and perceived benefits were gained through discussions and interviews with the medical doctoral students, which shed further light on the topic. By understanding these dynamics, we can better tailor language teaching methods and support mechanisms to meet the evolving needs of medical students.

VERONIKA GLOGAROVÁ is the head of the Centre for Foreign Languages at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. She teaches PhD courses focused on scientific writing in English and runs a counselling Writing Lab for doctoral students. She is interested in academic writing styles in Czech and English.

LETITIA GOIA

The Use of Book Presentations in Developing Soft Skills in Medical Students

PRESENTATION

My presentation will focus on the crucial role literature plays in cultivating and refining soft skills in a field governed by science and technology. We started the Medicine and literature project ten years ago and, throughout time, we have noticed in students’ presentations the shift in focus from specific medical aspects to finer details pertaining to the area of soft skills.

Students have started to choose books that have a philosophical component, or topics related to life and death, issues regarding emotions, mental health, resilience. Many of the books they choose are either autobiographies, they explore how doctors feel and how they deal with difficult situations, or they offer an in-depth perspective on how patients cope with their diseases, encouraging reflections on mortality and the human condition.

This shift in perspective has made us more aware of the growing need to build soft skills in specialists that will have to interact with patients and their families, people that will work in teams, form relationships, and deal with difficult situations. The need for soft skills in the medical field is even more accute as the scientific background is intertwined with communication and decision-making abilities, as well as challenges and ethical dilemmas.

LETITIA GOIA is a senior lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages at “Iuliu Haţieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca. Her fields of interest are teaching and assessing English for Specific Purposes, as well as acquiring and improving communication and presentation skills in English.

anita hegedÜs

Modality in a Corpus of Official Letters Written by Students of Medical English

POSTER

The study undertakes to investigate the manifestations and functions of modality in the ' UPMS Learner Corpus of Official Letters', which contains official letters submitted electronically by students of Medical English at level B2. The corpus includes 158 official letters, 21,106 words, 24,460 tokens and 1,309 sentences. 39 students were included in the study. The corpus has been expanding since October, 2022. The study was conducted using the Sketch Engine program.

The results show that students express modality almost exclusively with modal auxiliaries. The most frequent modal auxiliary was 'would' with 157 occurrences, mostly in the patterns 'I would like to' and 'I would be grateful if you could'. The second most common modal auxiliary was 'could' (45 occurrences), and other commonly occurring auxiliaries were 'will' to express future, 'can' for expressing possibility and necessity was most frequently expressed with 'need' and 'should' in the passive.

It can be concluded that participants of the study mainly use modal auxiliaries in memorized phrases to convey modal functions, which indicates that they learn the use of modality in context. Participants reliance on memorized phrases also indicates their disinclination to take risks to resort to other manifestations of modality.

ANITA HEGEDÜS has been involved in teaching and examining English for Medical Purposes (EMP) and at the University of Pécs, Medical School for 24 years. She has been the chief examiner of PROFEX, a state-accredited bilingual (English - Hungarian) EMP exam since 2013.

MICHAEL HUGHES

Online OET Preparation for People with Refugee Backgrounds

PRESENTATION

The University of Leicester Sanctuary programme has been running online OET preparation courses for medical professionals within the refugee and asylum-seeker community since 2020, working with doctors, nurses and pharmacists. The aims of this session are to share our practice, to explain how our courses have developed over time to meet our candidates’ needs, and to create opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of ideas with similar providers in the UK and abroad. We will look at the challenges (e.g. attendance, access) and opportunities (e.g. through our partnership with RefuAid) presented by working online with this community.

This session is best suited for those who are thinking of setting up similar programmes at their institutions or those who have already done so and are willing to share their experience and knowledge of the context. I hope the last part of the session will be more of a discussion than a Q&A.

MICHAEL HUGHES has been working in the world of EFL, ESOL, EAP and teacher-training for over 30 years. He has worked in Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Portugal and Japan with International House and British Council. He is currently an EAP tutor, OET co-ordinator and CELTA tutor at the University of Leicester.

ERIC H. JEGO

Measuring Novice Medical Students’ History-taking Skills Using a Novel Rubric/Scoresheet

PRESENTATION

A novel assessment method was developed to measure the oral communication skills of novice Japanese medical students within the context of medical history taking. This new method, known as the Japan Functional History Taking Assessment, or JFHTA, was created by merging language teaching theory with health care communications theory. Interactional Competence (IC), a relatively new construct from language teaching/assessment, forms the first theoretical pillar of this study. The second is the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS), which is a widely used system for categorising utterances in patient encounters for various purposes including assessment within the context of medical education.

Existing assessment tools were unsuitable for this demographic due to an overemphasis on clinical skills and a lack of discriminating power to effectively distinguish levels of performance. JFHTA is unique in that it is the only assessment tool designed for novice Japanese medical students, which attempts to accomplish the following objectives: (1) Integrate RIAS with IC to measure skills both objectively and subjectively in an appropriate way. (2) Distinguish levels of performance based mainly on patient-centredness while also considering English proficiency. Primarily driven by pedagogy, this medical education study introduces an assessment tool for novice Japanese medical students, emphasising patient-centred communication.

ERIC H. JEGO, Associate Professor and Director of Medical English Education at Nihon University School of Medicine in Tokyo, earned his PhD from the University of Birmingham by developing a novel rubric/scoresheet method for assessing oral proficiency of novice Japanese medical students during history taking.

CSILLA KeresZteS

Challenges of International Medical Students Taking Patients’ History in Hungarian

POSTER

Generally, international medical students may face language problems when communicating with local patients. Students may need to overcome various types of barriers during communication including the language barrier and the cultural one.

A mixed-method study was conducted at the University of Szeged, Hungary including questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with international medical students to reveal the communication challenges they need to overcome when they visit patients at the ward to take their history in Hungarian.

Research data are compared to and backed up by the literature review in the field. The benefits and drawback of the published solutions are discussed, and another method, the clinical language field trip together with the implementation of a new language course book developed for teaching both language and culture are presented. Recommendations are given for language teachers and university stakeholders to achieve better results and more satisfaction for medical students completing their medical studies in a foreign country.

CSILLA KERESZTES works at the University of Szeged, Hungary. She teaches Medical English and Hungarian to international medical students. She is the first author of Hungarian for Medical Purposes (2023). She is also involved in teaching medical translation and publishing in English. Her current interest is challenges in healthcare communication.

JO LANGFORD

How to Create a Successful Video Tutorial

PRESENTATION

Video tutorials are integral to how students learn these days but are underused in many education settings. Teachers and lecturers lack confidence and knowhow. This session will change that! I will provide practical tips and ideas on how to create lively, impactful videos that engage and teach your viewers.

I will share some of the lessons I have learned over 5 years of posting content on social media for learners of OET. The ideas explored can be applied by any OET Preparation or English for Healthcare teacher looking to add to their courses or reach a wider audience and will enable you to stand out from what has become a very crowded space.

It will explore how content, visuals, activities, and timing can engage learners and promote participation. Together with a few marketing tricks and tips, we’ll also look at ways you can boost your online presence, grow your audience, and promote your products in return for giving your viewers free content.

JO LANGFORD is a teacher, teacher trainer, materials writer and course designer and the face of SLC’s YouTube channel where her videos have achieved nearly 3 million views. As part of SLC’s academic team, she develops and teaches OET, Medical English and Clinical Communication Skills courses, working with nurses and doctors from around the world.

FIONA LONG

Intercultural Communication Competence; what do (we think) refugee Healthcare Professionals need to know?

PRESENTATION

This presentation will explore the considerations and challenges involved when teaching intercultural communication competence to refugee and asylum-seeking healthcare professionals. This includes questions such as ‘What should we teach?’, ‘Who is best placed to do this teaching?’ and ‘Can we measure this kind of learning?’.

The presentation will draw on practical experience, feedback from learners as well as relevant literature to create discussion, share ideas and perhaps find answers to these questions and others.

FIONA LONG taught EAP and Intercultural Communication to international students at a UK university for 20 years. She now works at REACHE (Refugee and Asylum Seekers Centre for Healthcare Professionals Education), based at Salford Royal Hospital, teaching language, intercultural awareness and OET preparation skills to refugee and asylum-seeking doctors and nurses.

Lorena Priscila Dantas de Luna, Ana Alexandra Silva

Developing Engaging Language Learning Materials for Nursing Students

POSTER

As part of the doctoral program curriculum in linguistics at the University of Évora in Portugal, we developed materials for a 16-hour vocabulary and communication skills course, in English, for nursing students in their last year. Initially, a needs analysis was conducted, revealing that students had English proficiency levels between B1 and B2 and had never taken a specific English course for healthcare.

Prior to the course, extensive research was conducted on available physical and digital resources. Various tools, such as TED-Ed videos, teacher support platforms, books, online quizzes, and artificial intelligence, were adapted and utilized to develop the materials to fit the students' needs. Those materials focused on vocabulary topics related to human body organs and diseases, such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, and pancreas. Additionally, classroom debates on career choices in nursing, in general, and diabetes care, in particular, were included to enhance the course content.

This work provided students with a stimulating and relevant learning environment tailored to their specific needs in the healthcare field. Finally, 22 students actively participated in the course, demonstrating minimal difficulty keeping pace with the material and expressing high satisfaction with the engaging course activities.

LORENA LUNA is  PhD student in Linguistics who also holds a Master’s degree in the same field. Currently, she is conducting research on materials development for English for the healthcare field among nursing students. She is interested in English for the healthcare domain, proficiency tests, and materials development.

ANA ALEXANDRA SILVA is Assistant Professor at University of Évora, Portugal. She´s the Director of the Language Centre of the School of Social Sciences. She has participated in European Projects, the latest being Virtual Reality for Vocationally Oriented Language Learning. She´s a member of the Center for the Studies in Letters.

hayley maccallum

Redevelopment of a Patient Simulation Class for Japanese Nursing Students

PRESENTATION

Patient simulation (PS) is a staple in both medical and nursing education around the world. However, the complexity of PS increases when conducted in a second language. At Yokohama City University (YCU) in Japan, non-Japanese PS began in 2015 (Ochiai et al., 2017), undergoing significant evolution since its inception.

This session will present the recent redevelopment of a PS preparation class for over 100 first-year nursing students at YCU. Initially, I will provide an overview of the previous years' course structure, including adaptations made during pandemic years when the course transitioned online. Subsequently, we will examine feedback from students, SPs, and nursing faculty, which highlighted the necessity for redevelopment. I will then discuss a needs analysis (Hutchison & Waters, 1987) conducted to inform the redesigned syllabus. Key aspects of the syllabus redesign will be explored, such as co-construction of role-play scripts, scaffolding techniques, development of active listening skills, and the integration of video models for enhanced learning. Finally, I will analyse feedback questionnaires collected post-redevelopment to assess the effectiveness of the changes and outline future directions for the course.

HAYLEY MacCALLUM is the primary English teacher working with the medical and nursing schools at Yokohama City University. As a former registered nurse from the UK, her main focus is teaching English to nursing students across a range of courses.

timea németh, anna dÁvidovics, vilmos warta, gabriella hild

A Shift from Audio- to Video-based Language Assessment in Hungarian for Healthcare Purposes

PRESENTATION

In response to the globalization of medical education, our presentation addresses the linguistic challenges faced by international students pursuing medical studies abroad. The increasing number of these students prompts a need for effective language assessment tailored to their specific linguistic needs, especially in the context of non-traditional study destinations, such as Hungary. Visual cues play a crucial role in medical communication between doctors and patients, particularly in situations where the conversation occurs in a language that is not the native language of either the doctor or the patient.

Our aim is to present an innovative transition from audio- to video-based assessment of Hungarian for Healthcare Purposes. We developed a set of 30 video-based preparatory and exam tasks that simulate real-life doctor-patient scenarios, where the interlocutors can capitalize on non-verbal communication tools to improve comprehension.

The participants were second-year international students of the English- and German-medium programmes of a Hungarian Medical University, who had been studying Hungarian for several years. This innovative approach aimed to better prepare international medical students for the evolving demands of medical communication and to improve their linguistic comprehension, non-verbal communication skills, and overall engagement in learning Hungarian for Healthcare Purposes. Preliminary feedback from students was positive. They particularly valued that the video-based exam tasks accurately reflected doctor-patient communication. Our presentation provides valuable insights applicable to teaching and testing Languages for Healthcare Purposes.

TIMEA NÉMETH, Phd, is an associate professor at the Department of Languages for Biomedical Purposes and Communication, Medical School, University of Pécs, Hungary. She teaches English and Hungarian for Medical Purposes and intercultural competence for Hungarian and international medical students. Her research interests include intercultural competence, intercultural language learning, internationalisation processes, study abroad programmes and the use of online and AI tools in education.

ANNA DÁVIDOVICS, is an assistant professor at the Department of Languages for Biomedical Purposes and Communication, Medical School, University of Pécs, Hungary. She teaches English and Hungarian for Medical Purposes. She is interested in researching the learning environment within the medical school, as well as exploring gamification and digital technologies in education.

VILMOS WARTA, Phd, associate professor and Head of the Department of Languages for Biomedical Purposes and Communication, and the state recognised PROFEX LSP Language Centre at the Medical School, University of Pécs, Hungary. He teaches English and Hungarian for Medical Purposes. His research interest includes biomedical communication, testing, discourse analysis and genre analysis.

GABRIELLA HILD, Phd, is an assistant professor at the Department of Languages for Biomedical Purposes and Communication, Medical School, University of Pécs, Hungary, where she teaches English and Hungarian for Medical Purposes. She specializes in language testing, autonomous language learning, and language learning motivation.

denise parker

Refugees as Medical Professionals – a pathway into the NHS

POSTER

RAMP Devon (Refugees as Medical Professionals) is a scheme set up by Refugee Support Devon to support refugees and asylum-seekers who are qualified medical professionals in their home country to work in the NHS.

We offer clients classes to prepare for the OET test. All our tutors are either well-qualified EFL teachers or local doctors, many of whom also have a CELTA. We are an accredited Preliminary Preparation Provider and all our tutors have undergone specialist OET training.

We also work with teams of British medical professionals who act as mentors for clients preparing for their professional exams.   We are developing a network of local healthcare providers willing to offer our clients Taster Days or internships so they can become familiar with the NHS culture. To assist them in this adaptation process we deliver a short course on cultural differences, led by our Integration Coordinator, a qualified nurse and EFL tutor.

The aim of the project is twofold: to enable our clients to resume their careers in this country and for the NHS to take advantage of all the skills and experience offered by a wide range of healthcare professionals from around the world who have relocated to the UK. 

DENISE PARKER became Coordinator for ESOL and Employability with Refugee Support Devon after 45 years of teaching and examining EFL, ESOL, EAP and specialising in Business and Medical English. The current project developed from her experience as a Lecturer to nurses in Qatar and medical students in the Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain.

eduardo garbey savigne, maría de los angeles reyes figueroa, josé armando dela cruz roselló

Cuban Experience in Developing Intercultural Communication Skills for Healthcare Professionals

PRESENTATION

For about 60 years, Cuban healthcare professionals have rendered their services mostly in African, Middle Eastern, Caribbean and Latin American countries.  They have worked there particularly when natural disasters or epidemics have occurred. Therefore, being English an international language, including the healthcare sector, the teaching of English to healthcare professionals (TEMP) became a must.

This paper aims to give a brief overview of TEMP in the Cuban context, to present the different challenges we have faced, considering financial, material and technical limitations, as well as to describe and exemplify some of the endeavours to overcome those challenges. The speakers will address how intercultural awareness is being developed in the road to achieve a good level of intercultural communication by the Cuban healthcare professionals overseas.

On this presentation, the speakers will illustrate different tasks used in the training of medical students and in graduate courses, mainly but not only, for doctors. Some activities are developed in the classroom and others in hospital settings, highlighting the use of verbal and non-verbal language to communicate effectively and properly in different cultural contexts.

EDUARDO GARBEY SAVIGNE, PhD, MA, Full professor, has taught English for Medical Purposes for more than 25 years. He has participated in national and international conferences and co-authored books for nursing and medical students. An IATEFL member since 1998 and the Chairperson of APC-ELI (Cuban Teachers Association). Line of research intercultural communication skills.

MARÍA DE LOS ANGELES REYES FIGUEROA, MSc, Associate Professor, teaching in Havana medical university for +30 years, EMP for +20 years. Has participated in national and international conferences, and co-authored books for nurses, medical students and recently an ebook for medics. An IATEFL member and the organizing officer of the Cuban teacher association APC-ELI.

JOSÉ ARMANDO DE LA CRUZ ROSELLÓ, MSc, an Associate Professor at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba. He has an MSc degree in Higher Education Management. He has taught English for Medical Purposes for over 40 years and is the National ELT Advisory Board to the Cuban Ministry of Public Health.

DANKA SINADINOVIĆ, stevan mijomanović, irena aleksić-hajduković, gordana vekarić

Connected4Health: Adapting Project Outputs to Teaching English for Healthcare

PRESENTATION

Connected4Health: A Medical- and Humanities-Based Approach to Navigating Obesity and Eating Disorders (EDs) is an interdisciplinary Erasmus+ project whose aim is to address this issue through education of students, practising healthcare professionals, and lecturers/trainers dealing with nutrition, nutrition habits and nutrition-related pathologies. For this purpose, a three-pronged set of resources has been designed and it comprises the handbook, syllabus of seminar, and training package. These resources provide insights into the historical and cultural perspectives of obesity and EDs, they give a carefully curated multidisciplinary approach to young people suffering from obesity and EDs and suggest effective ways of treating and managing these patients.

This project also aims to raise awareness of the importance of a holistic approach to patients suffering from obesity or EDs, which is achieved through the introduction of a more humanistic approach. This means that linguistically framed stigmatisation and discrimination, person-first language, and patient-centred communication are at the core of this project. The materials are interactive, easily accessible, and contain instances of theoretical and terminological disambiguation, hands-on training through simulated interviews, and carefully devised study materials and quizzes, as well as insights and perspectives provided by experienced specialists. This presentation will show how each of these resources can be adapted to the English for Healthcare classroom.

DANKA SINADINOVIĆ is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Humanities of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade. Her areas of interest include conversation analysis, discourse analysis, English for specific purposes, sociolinguistics. She has published extensively in several research domains.

STEVAN MIJOMANOVIĆ, PhD is a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia, where he teaches English for Medical purposes. His fields of interest also include doctor-patient communication, discourse and genre analysis, computer-mediated communication, and cognitive linguistics. 

IRENA ALEKSIĆ-HAJDUKOVIĆ is an Assistant Professor at the School of Dental Medicine, University of Belgrade, teaching English for Medicine and Dentistry. Her fields of interest also include Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), Multimodal Pedagogy, and use of software for linguistic research. She is an active member of the European Commission’s Digital Education Hub.

GORDANA VEKARIĆ is an Assistant Professor of ESP and Communicology at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Belgrade. She has graduated in English and Italian and completed master and doctoral studies at the Faculty of Philology. Her research interests include EAP, pragmatics, and communication studies.

john skelton, katherine heatcock

Task-based Learning and Authentic Tasks for Elementary Students

WORKSHOP

“Task-based learning” (TBL) is a commonplace shorthand for a range of aims and activities in the Medical Curriculum (eg Tosteson et al 1994), though “Problem-based Learning” (PBL) is the more common term. TBL is also a commonplace within ELT (Prabhu 1987, Nunan 2004). Broadly, the aim is to encourage students to explore a real world task/problem, and solve it.

This Workshop explores ways of understanding and using TBL with elementary/intermediate students in the EMP classroom. It aims to explore ways of encouraging students to rethink what they can achieve with limited English. The Workshop looks partly at developing reading tasks beyond the apparent range of students, and principally at the use of English language role-play where the students have limited English. The aim in the first case is to develop an understanding of research, in the second of holistic/humanistic abilities.

Note that the activities presented and discussed can be undertaken with students at any level, in any language, from elementary to fluent. However, we are assuming elementary students of English. We will also look at the use of role-play activities where there are limited resources.

JOHN SKELTON is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Communication at University of Birmingham Medical School, where he was Head of Education Quality for many years. Prior to his involvement in Medical Education, he was an Applied Linguist and ESP teacher. He and Katharine Heathcock (below) have been colleagues for 30 years. John is President of EALTHY.

KATHERINE HEATCOCK lectures in Clinical Communication at the University of Birmingham Medial School, teaching and assessing students across multiple healthcare programmes. She co-leads a unique remediation and coaching programme for students with challenges in communication, language and professionalism and is the deputy lead for the MBChB Professional and Academic Skills module.

POORVADEVI SREEKANTHAN, CHRIS MOORE

Learning the Lessons: Analysing the Creation of a Sustainable, Structured Nursing English Programme in Multiple Nursing Colleges across India

PRESENTATION

In India, a multi-lingual country where English is the link language for communication, the English level of the majority of nurses, both student and professional, still remains at A2 or below. This negatively affects the professional development and ability to access global employment opportunities of many thousands of nurses.

A pilot project aiming to improve the English language skills of nurses while on Degree and Diploma courses was implemented in more than 10 colleges across India. Digital Nursing English materials provided by SLC were mapped across 3- and 4-year curricula and combined with face-to-face tuition from Ebek. Courses were integrated with clinical Nursing courses. With 2000 students on the courses, analyses at various stages of the programme has provided valuable information about what processes worked, what progress students made, as well as the operational challenges that needed addressing.

How has this programme, now in its third year, affected the learners’ language ability, life skills and employability? How can the programme be implemented elsewhere and on a wider scale? This presentation hopes to answer these questions by focussing on the impact of the first two years of the English language courses undertaken by nursing students from these colleges to understand the effect and impact of the content, training and assessment.

POORVADEVI SREEKANTHAN is Academic Director at Ebek, and an English language trainer specialising in healthcare communication with more than 15 years’ experience in ELT training and assessment. Her areas of interest include materials creation, learner and trainer training and AI enabled language learning.

CHRIS MOORE is Managing Director of SLC (Specialist Language Courses). SLC publish over 850 hours of digital English for Healthcare materials, used by colleges and universities around the world to support tutor-led programmes. Before founding SLC, Chris spent 20 years teaching, training teachers, and running a variety of organisations in the language teaching world.

ANDREA STÖTZER

Exploiting Synergies in “Bilingual” Medical Communication Classes

PRESENTATION

This presentation aims to give an insight into a novel approach, a two-way immersion course, we have introduced at Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School of Szeged University. This elective medical communication class, designed to enhance doctor-patient communication skills, welcomes Hungarian and international medical students within one course. Our aim is to create a collaborative learning environment where Hungarian and international students can practise the language panels of doctor-patient communication together, thus taking advantage of the existing synergies. The working language of the class is, on the one hand, English, which provides a relatively authentic environment for the Hungarian students to practice their English communication skills.

On the other hand, the presence of Hungarian students provides an authentic environment for the international students to practice their Hungarian communication skills (they are expected to be able to interview Hungarian patients). Pedagogical methods such as peer teaching and role-play are used extensively. This unique setting has enabled the students to explore intercultural differences and develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of cross-cultural differences. The analysis of the feedback on the course has shown that students are enjoying these classes; their engagement is visible, and their motivation to learn English and Hungarian, respectively, is high.

ANDREA STÖTZER is an assistant lecturer at the Department of Medical Communication and Translation Studies (University of Szeged). She teaches English for Medical purposes (EMP), medical translation and interpreting, and Hungarian for Medical Purposes. Her research area includes L2 learning motivation in the field of EMP and EMP teacher’s identity.

ILARIA TARULLI

Refugee Healthcare Professionals - Returning to Work Commensurate with Skills and Experience

PRESENTATION

Requalifying in a profession after being forcibly displaced presents significant challenges, especially for refugees who were healthcare professionals in their home countries. Many find themselves starting anew, often beginning with the daunting task of learning a new language.

This session will introduce RefuAid, shedding light on its mission and healthcare-focused initiatives. It explores the unique obstacles healthcare professionals encounter as they strive to reintegrate into the workforce. Additionally, we will examine the impact of RefuAid’s Language Programme through insightful data analysis and discussion.

ILARIA TARULLI, from her beginnings as a caseworker at RefuAid to her current role as Head of the Language Programme, is committed to empower individuals from a refugee background. Her journey includes an internship in Ghana focusing on international development and volunteer work with asylum seekers through Care4Calais.

tamara tošić, danka sinadinović

Generating and Strengthening Student Motivation in English for Healthcare

PRESENTATION

It is a long-established fact that motivation plays an essential role in second language acquisition (e.g. Gardner 1988, Dörnyei 1998). This rationale is applicable to all language learning contexts, including English for Healthcare (e.g. Spalević et al. 2018). In fact, generating student motivation may be one of the most challenging aspects of teaching in an English for Specific Purposes context.

Therefore, this presentation centers on ways of fostering student motivation in an English for Healthcare classroom. It is based on a survey conducted with first- and second-year students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, in which they were asked to self-report their motivation levels and to indicate which of the activities used in class were the most motivating to them.

In the first part of this presentation, a brief analysis of their motivation levels is provided. However, the main focus is on the activities the students chose as the most motivating ones – they are presented and explained in detail. The activities feature innovative methods such as gamification and learner autonomy. The presentation concludes with further ideas for activities based on the survey results which will be tested in the following academic year.

TAMARA TOŠIĆ is a Teaching Assistant for the English language at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade and a PhD student of linguistics at the Faculty of Philology at the same university. She is interested in applied linguistics, more specifically the interface of sociolinguistics and language teaching methodology.

DANKA SINADINOVIĆ is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Humanities of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade. Her areas of interest include conversation analysis, discourse analysis, English for specific purposes, sociolinguistics. She has published extensively in several research domains.

PHILIP WILKINSON

Language and Culture in Psychiatric Interviewing - Challenges and Opportunities

PRESENTATION

The experience of mental illness is closely bound with culture and language so, while psychiatric interviewing has much in common with other specialties, specific skills are essential. People experiencing mental distress may lack the language to express it and clinical exchanges provide opportunities to facilitate this. The interviewer must remain sensitive to the patient’s mental state and be skilfully able to adjust register. Good use of discourse skills and idiomatic language (especially phrasal verbs) is needed. The interviewer must be able to differentiate between linguistic errors arising from a patient’s limited proficiency in English and those that indicate psychiatric symptoms.

Culture and migration impact significantly on the manifestation of mental illness and there are risks of under and over-diagnosis arising from misunderstanding or limited language proficiency. Nonetheless, useful strategies can be employed and being an interviewer who is a non-native speaker of English or from a different culture can actually help to build rapport.

This presentation will highlight some of the particular challenges of psychiatric interviewing when clinician and patient may not be native speakers of English. Specific strategies will be suggested, samples of useful functional language will be given, and discussion of delegates’ own experiences will be encouraged.

PHILIP WILKINSON is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists with over 25 years’ experience in undergraduate and postgraduate medical training. He is trained in cognitive behaviour therapy and active in psychological treatment research. He is also a PLAB2 examiner and teaches medical English to refugee doctors.     

ROS WRIGHT

When Is a Patient Not a Patient?

PRESENTATION

“We condemn attempts to label us as ‘victims,’ a term that implies defeat, and we are only occasionally ‘patients,’ a term that implies passivity, helplessness, and dependence upon the care of others. We are ‘People with AIDS’.”

During the 1980’s, in an attempt to remove the stigma and dehumanisation associated with HIV-AIDS, the National People with AIDS movement, encouraged the use of person-first language. In 1990, person-first language was written into the Americans with Disability Act and since then, healthcare professionals in the US have been taught to refer to and communicate with their patients using person-first language.

In this talk, we’ll first discuss problematic language usage in healthcare, from references to the ‘frequent flyer’ patient, through patients who ‘suffer from’ a particular condition, to describing a patient as ‘non-compliant’.

Then, by comparing the experience of two different communities, we’ll consider the impact of ‘person-first language’ on certain patient groups. Finally, we’ll look at how learners can navigate this potential terminology minefield. We’ll brainstorm, not only strategies for learners to successfully broach the subject of person-first usage in a manner that ensures respectful, inclusive, and supportive language choices, but also ways for them to resolve communication breakdown when necessary.

ROS WRIGHT has 20 years’ experience in clinical communications as a trainer and author of specialised materials, including an upcoming title, Step up to OET (Express Publishing), co-authored with Tom Fassnidge. Ros also runs a teacher training programme preparing teachers who are moving into the sector of English for healthcare.

B. BRICKLIN ZEFF

AI-Driven Chatbot for Nursing English: Development and Context Creation

POSTER

Integrating AI into education can significantly enhance learning experiences. In nursing English courses, chatbots can offer personalized and situational content, aiding in retaining and applying key vocabulary and expressions. This poster presents a chatbot development to boost student engagement in a nursing English course. Attendees will learn about the chatbot's purpose, functionality, and innovative methods to create a contextual and interactive learning tool.

The chatbot was developed using advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning algorithms. Key expressions and vocabulary were sourced from nursing English curricula. The development process involved creating a robust language model and a framework to contextualize responses, ensuring the chatbot could provide relevant situational content. The chatbot effectively recognized and responded to key expressions and vocabulary, delivering contextually appropriate content. Initial trials showed increased student engagement and improved retention of course material. The chatbot’s interactive nature also fostered a more immersive learning environment. The AI-driven chatbot presents a promising tool for enhancing nursing English education. Its ability to provide personalized, situational responses can improve student outcomes.

B. BRICKLIN ZEFF holds a PhD in applied linguistics from Hokkaido University. His research area includes interlanguage pragmatics. He has taught EFL for nursing students as an adjunct professor at a nursing college in Japan for over 30 years. He is a full-time faculty member at Hokkai-Gakuen University.