Medical English material

Question

Hi. I work at a school in Vancouver that has been offering a medical English course since 2001. Please let me know if you know of any cool materials out there for our classrooms that are more audio-visual.  I would really appreciate it!

Yokota · Accepted Answer

Unfortunately I myself don't have any cool materials for a medical English course.
I practice medicine in Japan and sometimes see foreign patients. Usually the common language is English, of course. And occasionally I present my paper at an overseas medical conference.
Educational materials using current audio-visual technology would be quite impressive, especially when we learn English conversation. I don't deny the value of those materials, but in my opinion, when we want to get acquainted with 'Medical English', the first thing we have to confront is to build up the medical vocabularies enough for us to practice medicine and present papers at an international conference wherever we live in the world. I find it interesting that you are teaching medical vocabularies. Teaching and learning, face-to-face interaction between faculty and students is still the best foundation. Building up vocabularies may be a low-profile effort, but it is the key to medical science in general, just like anatomy is the key to medicine.
Just a comment on the significance of vocabulary building in medical English. Thank you.

Melodie · Answer

Hi! I have workbooks available: English for Nurses and Medical Personnel. I am a Nursing Instructor and English language teacher! Check my website at www.nursingesl.com . Click on the Products page. <>. Melodie Hull, Canada
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David · Answer

Take a look at www.englishmed.com This was promoted by me and funded by the E U. One of the partners was from ATIN in Spain. Five countries were involved.

Guest · Answer

Congratulations - a brilliant initiative indeed. Pity that it seems that this page has now expired. I've found it very useful.l

Chris · Answer

Hi guest, problem solved, the site has been fixed!

Realmedicalenglish · Answer

Hi, I'm a professional nurse and English teacher and there are free medical English materials here:

[please leave links and contact details in your profile only - mod]

Enjoy

Malco · Answer

Oxford English for Careers, 8 books in all: Medicine 1 and Medicine 2, Nursing 1 and Nursing 2 plus the four teachers manuals which accompany each text have been the mainstays of all the Medical English Courses I have taught. Allied fields are not so well covered in texbooks though OET in Australia publish very good, but expensive, exam course notes for allied fields such as dentistry, pharmacy etc. OET or IELTS are the two exam courses that a certain grade must be attained in, to practice in Australia as any sort of foreign trained health professional. OET is specifically for health professionals. I have taught both OET and IELTS as well as English for Health Professionals courses and standard ESL courses at all levels.

Generally I tap the knowledge bases of students' work areas, using medical English, according to their levels of understanding and structure lessons accordingly. I am not teaching them their subject areas, which presumably they are well versed in, just giving them the tools to say what they need to say or write in English, either to other health professionals or to lay people i.e. patients. However techniques of eliciting, concept checking, error correction etc are necessary as is considerable experience as a standard and qualified ESL teacher.

Medical English is an area in which you must be able to think on your feet. It is not absolutely necessary to have a health field backround but familiarity with the work area and hospital environment is a huge advantage as these are second nature to the students usually. Many students are savvy and will pick you up on areas where your own knowledge is patchy. I worked as a general registered RN for 25 years in the Australian public hospital system and have ten years experience as an ESL teacher. Using any set materials will be insufficent as it is an area which is taught according to students' needs, which are constant variables, which is why familiarity with ESL teaching methodology and doing student's needs assessments is so vital in this teaching field..to a far greater extent actually than just teaching standard ESL.

Medical English material

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