Pálinkás, M. – Sirokmány, V. – Gyenes, G. – Gátos, A. – Fogarasi, K. (2024): Assessing medical students’ specific language proficiency regarding mediation skills. Porta Lingua. 2024/1. 129-135

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48040/PL.2024.1.14

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Absztrakt

In 2019, a compulsory English for Specific Purposes (ESP) language examination was introduced for medical students at Semmelweis University, Budapest, with optional preparation courses. Both the examination and the optional preparation courses were adapted from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR ) guidelines to help medical students become independent users of English in clinical practice. After consulting clinicians, we chose clinical handover as a written mediation task, the latter also serving as a basis for this paper, in which we present a comparative analysis of students’ language proficiency. While preparing students for handover, we identified lexico-grammatical units in authentic English-language clinical teaching scenarios in material developed in cooperation with a clinician, using the SBAR system. Solutions of the written mediation tasks by 66 examinees (divided into two groups: instructed and non-instructed group) were digitalized and analyzed using the Sketch Engine software. After investigating the most frequently used language patterns and the percentage of their correct use, we found a significant difference between the two groups. In the instructed group, 80.14% of the patterns included in the course material were used correctly. In the non-instructed group, a higher ratio of non-instructed students either used none of the identified patterns or used them incorrectly. We concluded that self-study ESP material should be made available for students, even at high levels of general English, who are unable to attend the courses.

Keywords: clinical handover, concordance analysis, ESP phrases, terminology, mediation