Readiness Of Medical Students To Process A Specific Text In English Pedagogická konferencia 2013 (JLF UK, Martin) Kurikulum medicínskeho vzdelávania quo vadis Petra Zrníková Department of Foreign Languages Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin Comeníus University in Bratislava
1. Language proficiency of medical staff in the UK 2. EMP/ESP teaching a branch of EFL teaching 3. Reading comprehension from a psycholinguistic perspective the models of text processing 4. Cloze-test 5. The reading comprehension experiment (2012 2013) Outline
Daily Mail Online (24.2.2013): Foreign doctors will have to prove they can speak English to work in NHS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283666/foreigndoctors-prove-speak-english-work-nhs.html The Telegraph (24.2.2013): English test could see EU doctors barred from Britain http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9889697/englishtest-could-see-eu-doctors-barred-from-britain.html BBC News / Health (24.2.2013): NHS foreign doctors must speak English say ministers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21547513 Language proficiency of medical staff in the UK
English as foreign language (EFL) English for specific purposes (ESP) English for medical purposes (EMP) An important prerequisite for future academic and professional life of students Main principles of ESP: Discourse analysis approach Student s needs analysis A specific text with a specific textual characteristics written for a specific situation used in a specific environment EMP/ESP teaching a branch of EFL teaching
The 3-level model of text processing (van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983) The construction-integration model (Kintsch, 1988) Situational model Discourse strategies Text information + prior knowledge Construction + Integration Schema activation Schema re-organisation Text base Semantic strategies Sentence meaning Surface code Grammatical strategies Decoding letters and words Reading comprehension from a psycholinguistic perpective
A technique of reading comprehension development An assessment tool of reading comprehension An measuring tool of text readability (difficulty) A research tool of high validity, reliability and correlation Assessment scale: Level 1 an excellent, independent reader (100 90%) Level 2 a good, avarage reader (89 60 %) Level 3 a poor, help demanding reader (59 0 %) Sources: Taylor (1953), Chall (1996), Gavora (2008/2009), Petrasová (2003), Greger (2005), Kamalski (2007), Zrníková (2012) Cloze-test
Participants: 122 students 65 the 1st year students 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 57 2nd and 5th year students 2013/2014 Procedures: the same text in cloze-test form omitted every 12th word 30 items in total clues in mixed order Data analysis: total performance 3 levels of reading comprehension skills item analysis of text difficulty based on the words difficulty The experiment 2012-2013
The 1st year students The 2nd 5th year students 23% 26% 14% 23% 51% 63% The results L1 L2 L3
1st year students 2nd 5th year students Average performance 23,10 points 23,42 points L1+L2 77 % 86 % Item analysis 77% 78 % Error Analysis: surface code, text-base and situational model scientific language medical terminology tenses passive voice prepositions The conclusion
1. Current calls of the globalized world: Is (Should be) EMP a by-product or an equal course of the curriculum at medical faculties? 2. Approach to EMP: student needs analysis, discourse analysis and error analysis 3. Psycholinguistic models of reading comprehension 4. Cloze-test implementation: good measuring tool for reading comprehension skills and text readability assessment 5. The experiment: sufficient reading comprehension skills 6. Future education and research: from B2 to B2+ / C1 changes in EMP syllabus new course-book / e-learning course a workbook for reading comprehension development with methodological guidelines for teachers Certificate of Medical English UNIcert III (C1 level) Summary and discussion
1. Van Dijk, T. A. Kintsch, W. (1983) Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York: Academic Press. 2. Kintsch, W. (1988) The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension. A construction-integration model. IN Psychological review, vol. 95, no. 2, 1988, pp. 163-182. 3. Gavora, P. Šrajerová, H. (2008/2009) Porozumenie textu zisťované cloze-testom vzhľadom na obtiažnosť učebného textu. IN Slovenský jazyk a literatúra v škole, roč. 55, č. 1 2, pp. 193-99. 4. Greger, D. (2005) Možnosti zjišťování a měření obtížnosti didaktického textu. [Dizertačná práca]. Praha: Karlova univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta. 5. Chall, J. S. (1996) Varying approaches to readabillity measurement IN Reveu québécoise de linguistique, vol. 25, no. 1. 6. Kamalski, J. (2007) Coherence Marking, Comprehension and Persuasion. On the Processing and Representation of Discourse. [Dizertačná práca]. Utrecht: LOT. 7. Petrasová, A. (2003) Práca s náučným textom na 1. stupni ZŠ. Prešov: Pedagogická fakulta, Prešovská univerzita. 8. Taylor, W. L., (1953) Cloze procedure: a new tool for measuring readability. IN Journalism Quarterly, 30, pp. 414-438. 9. Zrníková, P. (2012) Charakteristiky textu a ich vplyv na porozumenie v čítaní. [Dizertačná práca] Trnava: Trnavská univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta. References
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