Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap Geoffrey Hooke MedSenior Instructional Designer Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Presented by Geoffrey Hooke Senior Instructional Designer Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences

2 Abu Dhabi Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

28th February 2011English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap 3 English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap or clutching at straws?

4 Outline  The Gap  Zone of Proximal Development  Scaffolding  Second Language Acquisition  FCHS Common Year – English Gap  How to start bridging the gap Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap image:

5 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) The gap between what learners have already mastered and what they can achieve when provided with educational support. (Vygotsky). Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap Image:

6 Scaffolding  assistance given by teachers or more knowledgeable peers providing comprehensible input and moving learners into the zone of proximal development (Jerome Butler)  things that teachers do when they predict the difficulties that students have with particular tasks  For example: –the activation of background knowledge at beginning of lessons –review of key vocabulary at end of lessons –Process Writing Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap Image:

7 i + 1: Comprehensible Input  Stephen Krashen proposed a similar notion for input that students need to acquire second language  the gap i + 1 (i = input at current level proficiency)  ESL students cannot cope with or learn from language input i+6 etc.  input must be made comprehensible  comprehensible input is a sufficient condition for language acquisition Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

8 FCHS Common Year English Gap Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap Adapted from: 40 weeks to progress at MUELC? 40+ hrs ESL week Immersion in 2L

9 Bridging the gap  Task-based learning  Vocabulary comes first  Academic Word List  Moodle Glossary Activity  StudyMate learning activities  Assessment  Linking formative & summative assessments  Open book exams  PowerPoint Video Lectures Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap Image:

10 Task-Based Learning  Learning built around the task  Educationally sound, effective and efficient strategy for delivering relevant education  Ensures learning outcomes are achieved  Provides a focus in problem-based learning  1111/2FCH English for Health Professionals 1 & 2:  Research, write & present a healthcare reports  Watch, read summarise healthcare lectures & texts:  Critically review healthcare literature  Rehearse and perform healthcare role-plays Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

11 HCT MLP Students Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

12 Vocabulary first  lexical items carry the basic information load of meanings  In the communicative approach to second language teaching, the idea that incidental learning provided learners with sufficient comprehensible input and that L2 vocabulary acquisition would take care of itself. However, the research makes it clear that this not tenable.  Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning should be complementary activities  For beginning and intermediate-level learners to have a rich L2 lexicon it is necessary to re-visit unfashionable methodologies such as regular rehearsal of words, rote learning, and training in word recognition  The first priority in vocabulary teaching is to focus on high frequent lexicon. Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

13 Vocabulary objectives 1111FCH English for Health Professionals 1 Course Objectives At the completion of this course students should be able to: 1.Identify and discuss the roles, duties and responsibilities of healthcare professionals working in the fields of pharmacy, physiotherapy, medical imaging and paramedics. 2.Recognise, understand, use, spell and pronounce basic healthcare and academic terminology and vocabulary. Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

14 Academic Word List  The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed by Averil Coxhead of Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand.  The list is divided into 10 sublists of word families and contains 570 words selected because they appear with great frequency in a broad range of academic texts.  The sublists are ordered such that the words in the first sublist are the most frequent words and those in the last sublist are the least frequent.  1111FCH focus on the first 3 sublists  1112FCH focus on the next3 sublists Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

15 Mustafa – focus on vocabulary & fluency Academic Word List:  IELTS Academic Writing 5.5 – 6.5 in 6 weeks  IELTS Academic Speaking 6.0 – 7.0 in 6 weeks Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap video:

16 Moodle Glossary Activity  allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary  can be used in many ways: –the entries can be searched or browsed in different formats. –a glossary can be a collaborative activity or be restricted to entries made by the teacher. –entries can be put in categories. –The auto-linking feature will highlight any word in the course which is located in the glossary  1111FCH English for Health Professionals 1 Glossary Activity: –3 items per week x 10 weeks = 30 items –10% course Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

17 StudyMates  Helps students "master the basics" of course material through learning activities, self-assessments, and games. A dozen activities – such as flash cards, crosswords, quizzes, matching, spelling – engage students with course content in an individualized way  Students access StudyMate activities using computers, tablets and smartphones StudyMate integrates seamlessly Moodle  1111FCH English for Health Professionals 1:  1171FCH Introduction to Psychology: Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

18 Link Formative & Summative Assessments Respondus created Moodle tests  Easily and quickly create and manage Moodle tests  Supports up to 15 question types  Import questions from MS Word  Import StudyMate files Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

19 Open Book Exams  students can consult selected references or materials  assess ability to find not remember information  emphasises the ability to locate, discriminate and select  conducive in assessing problem solving and creativity  reflects real-world healthcare workplace Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

20 PowerPoint Video Lectures: 1111FCH & 1171FCH  YouTube “unlisted” videos  option for closed captions in the future  1111FCH Oral Presentations Unit  1111FCH English in Medicine Unit  1171FCH Introduction to Psychology Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

21 Conclusion Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

22 Discussion Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap  What scaffolding strategies do you use in your classrooms that help your students bridge the English gap?  List some specific learning activities that work at FCHS that would you recommend to the Monash academics preparing course materials.

23 Video Links  Academic Word List  Oral Presentations Unit  English in Medicine Unit 1:  Abnormal Psychology  How Pandemics Spread  Mustafa Al Shaer IELTS Speaking practice test  Al Bidiya Mosque and Fort  StudyMate Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap

24 References  Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding D.htm D.htm  L.S. Vygotsky: Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes  Scaffolding:  Bruner, J. S. (1975). The ontogenesis of speech acts. Journal of Child Language, 2,  Task-Based Learning: an educational strategy for undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education  ESL Students in the Director's Seat:  John Read (2004). 7. RESEARCH IN TEACHING VOCABULARY. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics,24, pp doi: /S  Closed book, invigilated exams versus open book, open web exams: An empirical analysis: Tuesday, 7 June 2016English Language Skills in the Health Sciences: Bridging the gap