Materials for English learning for the students of medical specialties

Міжнародний європейський університет, Київ, Україна

Сучасний етап розвитку міжнародних відносин України з іншими країнами вимагає перегляду процесу викладання іноземних мов у вищій школі. Особливу увагу слід приділити ефективності вивчення іноземної мови. Розширення міжнародних контактів актуалізує необхідність підготовки фахівця, здатного спілкуватися з представниками інших країн не лише на побутовому рівні, а й у професійній діяльності. Насамперед це стосується фахівців тих професій, у яких існує міжкультурна комунікація (міжнародне стажування, участь у міжнародних конференціях).

Процес вивчення англійської мови в багатьох українських медичних коледжах та університетах переважно базується на неавтентичних матеріалах. Було проведено небагато досліджень для вивчення впливу автентичних і неавтентичних матеріалів на вивчення англійської мови спеціального призначення, зокрема для медицини. Поточне дослідження вивчає сприйняття студентами цих ресурсів під час вивчення медичної англійської мови. З метою оптимізації навчального процесу проведено порівняльний аналіз англомовних посібників для медичних працівників. Дані були отримані на основі анкети, заповненої студентами-медиками двох університетів. Студенти повинні були оцінити різні аспекти як автентичних, так і неавтентичних матеріалів. Кінцевою метою аналізу є визначення навчальної ефективності зазначених підручників та мотивації студентів до вивчення англійської мови.

Для аналізу ефективності підготовки майбутніх спеціалістів-медиків до професійного спілкування використовувалися такі методи: описовий, статистичний та емпіричний: спостереження, тестування, анкетування.

Висновки показали, що учасники позитивно ставляться до використання автентичних ресурсів і віддають перевагу їм перед неавтентичними. Автентичні ресурси сприятливо впливають на розвиток мовних навичок студентів у їхній професійній сфері. Перспективи подальшого вивчення в поглибленому аналізі різних способів оптимізації володіння англійською мовою.

Ключові слова: автентичні підручники, неавтентичні підручники, професійне спілкування, англійська мова спеціального призначення.

Main part

Introduction. The knowledge of English is extremely important for modern healthcare professionals, as it helps them gain new opportunities for learning and share experience with colleagues abroad. Moreover, the problems of teaching a foreign language to students of medical institutions of higher education are extremely important. This is primarily due to the need for specialists in various fields of medicine to communicate, study in foreign medical institutions and share experience. In fact, there has been a gap between the language taught in the university and the language used in real life. It is suggested that the language taught in a learning environment should reflect how it is used by native speakers. Thus, authentic materials have become popular.

The topicality of the research is determined by:

- the need of modern society for highly qualified specialists capable of constructive communication in a professional environment and the development of the communicative competency of medical students;

- the need to update the professional communication training aimed at future doctors and pharmacists.

The purposes and tasks of the research are to optimize the educational process, perform a comparative analysis of English language manuals for medical professionals; to obtain the data on the basis of a questionnaire filled out bymedical students of two universities; to assess different aspects of both authentic and non-authentic materials. The ultimate goal of the analysis is to determine the educational efficiency of the afore-mentioned textbooks and the students' motivation for English learning.

Research materials and methods. Analyzing the effectiveness of training future medical specialists for professional communication, the following methods were used: descriptive, statistical and empirical methods (observation, testing, and questionnaires).

Research results. Along with the reform of the health care system and the implementation of the Bologna process, there are also changes in medical education, which significantly expands the functions of medical staff. However, the availability of only subject knowledge is no longer the key to successful professional activity. Graduates will work in a changed structure of medical care, with a significant increase in the publication of professional medical literature in a foreign language and the wider introduction of modern medical and diagnostic equipment in the health care system. As a result, the professional competence of a medical professional includes not only general care for patients, but also the knowledge of a foreign language.

At the present stage, scientists are paying more and more attention to improving the existing methods of teaching foreign languages for specific purposes and the development of new technologies in the process of educational, independent and individual activities.

The problem of authentic materials and the need for their use under modern conditions of learning a foreign language, which contributes to the formation of communicative and cognitive motivation and the formation of intercultural competence, has been studied by many Ukrainian and foreign scholars.

Recent research shows that it is the use of authentic manuals that will help students develop the skills they will need in their future careers, ensure competitiveness, and help them adapt to today's world. Such scholars as Gilmore (2007) and Guo (2012) argue that the prime teaching content of textbooks does not fulfill the learners' needs for communication skills. They claim that using authentic materials is more effective than non-authentic textbooks. Gilmore (2007) mentions that non-authentic resources do not present real language but authentic texts do, because they reflect the natural language as it is spoken (Gilmore, 2007).

The purpose of this article is to determine ways to optimize English learning for medical students using authentic and non-authentic resources.

The basis of learning any language is not only the possession of lexical and grammatical material, but above all the ability to communicate in a professional environment. Communication reveals the level of vocabulary awareness, the ability to competently construct structures and the ability to operate with professional vocabulary depending on the topic and situation.

Firstly, an analysis of current non-authentic English textbooks for medical students was made, in order to determine the quantity and quality of exercises, as well as tasks aimed at developing professional English communication skills.

The basic textbooks for medical students were: «Textbook of English for medical students» edited by T. Shchedrina, alongside «English in Medicine» and «Practice of reading and speaking» by the same author. The content of these professional materials of the textbooks makes them useful for all faculties of medical higher educational institutions. The main task of these textbooks is to create language and speech (practical) training which enables students to further improve their ability to read and translate English scientific literature, to prepare reports and messages, as well as to participate in discussions, and to write summaries and articles in English. Accordingly, these textbooks include textual and reference materials, as well as training exercises on the main sections of grammar and the ones aimed at mastering general medical vocabulary. Each section of the textbooks includes a workshop, text material, commentary on texts and exercises that allow medical students to expand their information field on the topic and to get acquainted with the specifics of the medical social environment in English-speaking countries. The tasks formulated with a focus on the activity approach in the learning process include elements of independent work. Regarding the shortcomings of these manuals, they lack variability of exercises aimed at developing communication skills.

The manual by M. Muraviova, L. Orlova «English for Physicians: Thistextbook for students, graduate students, doctors and researchers» is intended for graduate students, doctors and researchers working in various fields of medicine. The purpose of this manual is to teach students to read and understand original literature in various fields of medical science. Despite the currently widespread untranslatable method of teaching a foreign language, the authors of the manual adhered to the traditional structuring of educational material and paid special attention to the development of translation skills. The manual contains a large number of exercises for translation from Russian into English. Unfortunately, the analyzed manual is aimed at Russianspeaking audiences, and this may cause some difficulties in the process of teaching Ukrainian-speaking students. In addition, this manual does not contain professional communicative situations which motivate students to implement various creative tasks.

The textbook by G. Ogarkova «Modern medicine potential», recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, considers a wide range of issues related to modern medicine: well-known practices, the latest developments in this field and the main types of traditional and alternative medicine. The aim of the manual is to improve the skills of reading and understanding professional texts in English, expanding learners' professional vocabulary and developing conversational skills in the medical field. The main achievement of the textbook, in our opinion, is the provision of information on issues that are not usually covered in academic medical journals.

Thus, this review of the textbooks suggests that modern manuals written for Ukrainian higher medical educational institutions are focused mainly on the development of reading and translation skills of specialized literature and do not have a sufficient practical basis for the formation of the English professional communication skills needed for future doctors, nor do they provide a sufficient scope of material for KROK-1 preparation, which is one of the main tasks of the national medical education in terms of creating a common European educational space.

Therefore, our analysis has shown that in higher medical educational institutions full-fledged professional English-language training of future medical professionals is not provided. This necessitates an improvement of the content of the discipline «Foreign Language» in higher medical schools by using authentic English textbooks for more effective development of the English language skills.

The formation of speech competence, as an important component of teaching a foreign language in a professional field, is provided by authentic materials.

Authentic materials are materials taken from original sources, characterized by natural lexical content and grammatical forms and situational adequacy of language use that illustrate cases of authentic word usage and which, although not intended specifically for educational purposes, can be used in foreign language teaching (Banchuk, 2007: 25).

Authentic textbooks are the best source of development and improvement of communicative and discussion skills based on acquired knowledge, a good reason to create a certain situation that provokes dialogue, discussion, etc. involving some elements of reflection, assertion, debate and beliefs. The possibility to get closer and feel a foreign language environment through a certain authentic material has a positive effect on students' motivation in learning a foreign language, gives an opportunity to show acquired knowledge in formulating evaluative and comparative judgments, and develops the ability to form an authentic text.

The current relevance of using authentic materials in a foreign language study lies in the content, informativeness and modern orientation of the text selected for study and analysis which reflects the characteristics of the people whose language is studied or establishes a contact with a foreign culture. It is the authentic text that can convey the full depth and diversity of a professional foreign language.

The information and training function of authentic materials is expressed through the fact that they recreate the conditions of natural speech communication and transmit information about the country of the studied language, thus allowing a clearer presentation of a communication situation.

The organizing-controlling or motivating function is manifested through the fact that the authentic materials providing a «presence effect» or «complicity effect» stimulate speech act identity.

An integrative function is manifested because authentic materials serve as a link between parts of their work, thus contributing to the organization and systematization of educational stages.

An illustrative and visual function is actualized because authentic materials are a synthesis of all types of visualization and serve as a means of deep immersion into natural environment at all stages of learning, thereby most often compensating for the lack of full, daily physical immersion.

In the process of learning English for professional purposes with medical students and pharmacists, teachers use these authentic textbooks: «English for Specific Purposes (Medical, Nursing, Medical Equipment Repair, Physiotherapy, Physician Assistant)», «Professional English in Use (Medicine)», «Medicine 1, 2 (Oxford English for Careers)», «English for the Pharmaceutical Industry (Oxford Business English)» and others.

«The Career Paths: Medical' is a new English language course for medical students and medical professionals who want to improve their professional language skills. The textbook is organized into three levels of difficulty. Each level contains 15 two-page units and English-English vocabulary of above 400 terms and phrases. Each thematic section of the textbook gives step-by-step instructions that immerse students in the four key language components: reading, listening, speaking and writing. All units start with speaking «Get ready!». This pre-reading exercise offers some questions for discussion to find out how knowledgeable students are about this topic. Short realistic texts are followed by three exercises (true/ false statements; definitions; and correct choice of the word or word-combination). The book consists of 45 professionally-oriented dialogues and tasks for listening practice.

The next book under analysis is «Professional English in Use (Medicine)» by Eric H. Glending and Ron Howard. It was published by Cambridge University Press in 2007. It is intended for medical students in the clinical phase of their studies, doctors and other medical professionals who need to use English at work to communicate with patients, their relatives and medical colleagues either in their own country or abroad. The authors aim at preparing medical staff to learn to use English for career purposes.

Each unit of the textbook is divided into two sections: theoretical and practical which include realistic activities to practice all different kinds of skills. The first part introduces useful lexical material on different medical topics which present diseases and symptoms, investigations, treatment, examining and prevention. The second part of each unit consists of different exercises, such as matching medical terms with definitions, filling in blank spaces using active vocabulary extracts taken from real patients' complaints or doctors' examinations.

The practical part in each unit finishes with a speaking activity which is called «Over to you». This section allows learners to apply the vocabulary they learn to their own studies and working lives. Some chapters include photographs and schemes related to the content. The book also introduces general medical vocabulary related to parts and functions of the body, medical and paramedical personnel, education, training and research, as well as presentations. There are no special grammar activities or explanations, as it is assumed that students already know English grammar, though some tasks require the usage of appropriate grammar forms. Finally, the book is completed with six appendices which provide medical terms and abbreviations, types of medications, symptoms and pain, a list of the verbs used in instructions, lay terms and definitions.

This book includes a coverage of functional language and communication skills such as «Discussing treatment» and «Giving bad news» which give students valuable practice. Lastly, «Professional English in Use (Medicine)» has been carefully researched using the Institute for Applied Language Studies medical corpus; it is a must for medical professionals in their work.

The language of the book is authentic and appropriate for medical students and medical personnel who want to use English in their work as well as when reading special medical literature. The real-life English situations are rather motivating for medical students. According to the authors, all extracts are taken from authentic medical histories or cases and were drawn from a variety of specialties such as neurology, dermatology, gynecology, etc.

The textbook «Medicine (Oxford English for Careers)» is a new, up-to-date course where students can learn what they need to know for a future career in medicine. Medicine is aimed at training medical specialists to be qualified, the ones who intend to get a job in medicine. It equips them with English from a wide variety of medical fields and situations, develops their communication skills and provides them with background in major medical and care concepts.

This manual includes two parts: Medicine 1 and Medicine 2. The first part (Medicine 1) presents the language, information and develops skills necessary to start a career in medicine. It includes the topics as follows: «Presenting complaints», «Working in general practice», «Instructions and Procedures», «Explaining and reassuring», «Dealing with medication», «Lifestyle», «Parents and young children», «Communication», «Working in Psychiatry», «Terminal illness and dying», «Working in a team,» and «Diversity at work.»

Medicine (Part 2) provides everything needed for developing a medical career and working in medicine. In this part, these topics are under discussion: «Emergency medicine», «Accidents», «Sports medicine», «Obstetrics», «Psychiatry», «Geriatrics Dermatology», «Surgery», «Cardiology», «Respiratory medicine», «Tropical diseases», and «Technology».

The textbook contains several sections. The section «Check-up» is designed as a warm-up activity to the unit. It usually consists of a number of pictures and often introduces key vocabulary and concepts to focus students on the topic. In the section «It's my job», the information is based on authentic interviews and sources. Students will read about a variety of people in different medical environments and gain insight into the skills required. General focus questions for «It's my job» are: «What do you think his / her job involves?», «What skills and experience does he / she need?» and «Would you like to do it?». Then students need to build up a portfolio of other «It's my job» features and do a project. This encourages students to take an active role in the learning process both in terms of their English language work and the subject of medicine itself.

It is not enough for medical practitioners to have technical skills, qualifications and knowledge of the field. Doctors must be skilled communicators, not only with fellow care professionals but with patients, their families and friends. They also need to be able to convey instructions to patients in a sympathetic but clear way, which can be extremely demanding. The section «Patient Care» provides students with the above - mentioned important skills. The section «Signs and symptoms» focuses on common diseases and conditions that are relevant to a particular unit providing students with the vocabulary for describing common signs and symptoms of illness.

Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing tasks give realistic and communicative practice of language skills needed in medicine. In the listening activities, students are exposed to situations related to medicine, including doctor patient consultations, conversations with colleagues, and presentations. They also hear a variety of English accents, from both native speakers and non-native speakers. In the reading sections, students meet a variety of medicine-based texts. Speaking sections involve some discussions. Writing practice is designed as a consolidation and extension of the topic with structured, meaningful writing tasks.

The «Teacher's Book» assumes that a teacher of English for medicine is unlikely to be a doctor, and information is given throughout to help with medical terminology. The «Teacher's Resource Book' provides everything required to teach English for medicine with confidence: background information and specialist knowledge of the subject, photocopiable class activities and grammar tests and other resources.

In addition, the textbooks under discussion include two CDs which can be used to improve students' listening skills.

In our opinion, such authentic textbooks have certain advantages. They offer step-by-step instructions for mastering four key speech activities at once: reading, listening, speaking and writing. These series of textbooks are organized by levels of difficulty, which greatly simplifies the mastery of basic lexical and grammatical skills from elementary to the most difficult levels. Extracts for reading and given vocabulary are selected from real medical articles and texts. Each topic includes listening recordings which allow speakers to hear the correct pronunciation of each word and orally reproduce vocabulary and text intonation. In addition, these textbooks offer tasks for understanding the information heard: choosing the correct version of the sentences, answering questions, determining false or correct statements, etc. They are aimed at developing the skills of auditory perception and communication skills.

These authentic resources have an appealing colorful glossy cover and are perfectly structured in a successful «in use» format. They recreate natural speech communication conditions, give the information about the country of the studied language, allowing a clearer presentation of the communicative situation. The studied materials provide a «presence effect» or «complicity effect» which stimulates speech acts of identity. Such textbooks cover a wide variety of medical vocabulary that gives learners the confidence and ability to function in English in a medical environment.

To identify students' attitude and motivation to learn English for specific purposes by medical students, the research was conducted.

The survey was aimed to solve the tasks as follows:

- to determine the motivational level of students to study a foreign language for specific purposes;

- to compare the level of students' knowledge of a foreign language obtained at the university with previous school knowledge;

- to identify whether a professional foreign language course was taught at a sufficient and accessible level;

- to define difficulties that arose during the study of a foreign language for specific purposes;

- to find out the students' opinion about the use of authentic materials in the process of learning a professional foreign language;

- to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using authentic materials.

Conclusions. The use of authentic materials in foreign language lessons allows teachers to carry out training more effectively, to simulate immersion in natural speech environment, and to form students' abilities to take part in the process of real communication in compliance with the national-cultural specifics of the target language country. Moreover, authentic materials can be regarded as beneficial tools in teaching English for specific purposes since they reflect the naturalness of the language, contain cultural content and improve communicative competence. We see the prospects of our further study in the in-depth analysis of different ways of optimizing the English language proficiency.

References