Scientific English aims to develop students’ communicative competence in academic, scientific and professional English within the field of Health Sciences.

Students will practise and acquire communicative competence through the use of different written and oral genres (e.g. dialogue, description). Consequently, students will be able to reflect not only on the language, but also on other essential factors which affect their career (i.e. role in society, intercultural competence, and the social construction of processes and concepts such as health, illnesses, medicine and practitioners). In addition, through English, students will have a basic contact with medical specialities and health processes (see Contents).

It is recommended that the student's level of English at the beginning of this course be B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

• Contribute to the development of the general communicative competence in English (within levels B1 - B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference).
• Familiarise oneself with the textual and grammatical structures that are characteristic of a formal register.
• Develop the knowledge of the lexicon, especially in connection with academic, scientific and professional English within the field of health sciences.
• Acquire the necessary skills to understand and produce oral and written texts, basically in a formal register, on topics related to the field of health sciences.

Learning outcomes for this course:

RAM1 Students' communicative competence.

RAM2 Vocabulary in academic, scientific, and professional English for Health Sciences.

RAM3 Command in written and spoken expression in a foreign language (English).

RAM4 Effectively and clearly communicate, both in writing and speaking, with patients, next of kin, and other professionals.

 

Part 1 (Whole group)

Language and communicative skills specific to medical practice will be dealt with in the first part of the course. It is based on a course book (see Bibliography) and a students’ centred methodology (see Methodology). Course book units:

1. Emergency                

2. Accidents                 

4. Obstetrics               

5. Psychiatry                 

6. Geriatrics                  

10. Respiratory medicine

In addition, students will produce an academic review of a scientific article (Article Review).

Part 2 (Split groups A & B)

The second part of the course will deal with these communicative situations and course book units:

Discussion: Health Topic

Patient Assessment

7. Dermatology

8. Surgery

9. Cardiology

 

This course is planned to develop students’ capacity to learn by doing and, therefore, the methodology is learner-centred. It is while working to achieve this aim and the subjects’ objectives that students will work on the contents and competences of Scientific English.

Scientific English implies around 150 hours of classroom plus individual work (6 credits, 1 ECT= 25/30h). Bear in mind this is orientative. The amount of work necessary to pass the course will mainly depend on the student's involvement and effort. 

 

A calendar is available to students in Resources, at the course setting in UdL online campus, with the timetable of lectures, along with submission deadlines for graded assignments.

Continuous Assessment

Assessment for this course is continuous (see table below), where each assignment has a specific weight in the final course grade. In order to pass the course, students must get a final course grade of 5 or higher. Any assessment submitted past its deadline will be graded zero <0>.

Only these graded assignments can be retaken:

- assignments making up the assessment block Units (Exam 1, Exam 2),
- assignments making up the assessment block Writing (Article Review, Patient Assessment). 

The corresponding retake will take place on the day, place and time set in the Course Calendar (Resources). After all retakes have been graded a pass, the highest possible final grade for the subject will be 6.99.

These are the graded assignments on students' work and progress along the term, with their weight in the final course grade (s. dates in Course Calendar in Resources):

 

BLOCK	ASSIGNMENT	CONTENTS / DELIVERABLE	SUBMISSION	GROUPING
Writing	Article Review (15%)	Review of an article from a medicine journal, aimed at lay readers.	online	Individual
Units	Exam 1 (25%)	Exam on Units Part 1.	in class	Individual
Speaking	Discussion: Health Topic (20%)	Recorded discussion about a relevant medical or health topic.	online	Threesomes
Writing	Patient Assessment (15%)	Written assessment and follow-up of a patient.	online	Individual
Units	Exam 2 (15%)	Exam on Units Part 2.	in class	Individual
Participation	Participation (10%)	Contributions to class, carrying out ungraded tasks.	-	Individual

 

Submitting fewer than 50% of the score for assignments will lead to a final course grade of NO PRESENTAT / NO-SHOW, in compliance with UdL regulations (Normativa d'Avaluació de la UdL, art. 12.6). Submitting 50% or more of the score for course assignments will mean that the student's final course grade will be the result of applying corresponding weights to the score for continuous assessment, as shown above.

Alternative assessment:

Students’ assessment is continuous. However, those students who simultaneously study and have a full-time job are entitled to take Alternative assessment, where they would be exempt of regular attendance. They should contact Secretaria Académica of the Medicine School at UdL at the beginning of the term for an official request to be accepted to Alternative assessment.

Alternative assessment consists of the same assignments, and with the same guidelines, as those part of continuous assessment, although submission dates will be specific. Dates for Alternative assessment will be announced to students involved at the beginning of the term.

Fraudulent performance in assessment

Fraudulent assessment is any willing behaviour conducive to deceive or falsify assessment results, one's own or others', carried out in order to pass a subject or to achieve academic recognition (Normativa de convivència acadèmica de la UdL, art. 40).

According to Normativa de l’Avaluació i la Qualificació de la Docència en els Graus i Màsters de la UdL, students will not employ, under any circumstances, unlawful procedures / devices when carrying out assignments or tests. Those who employ any fraudulent means, and/or bring electronic devices not allowed, will have to stop their assessment and leave the classroom, and will remain subject to the due consequences applicable from the aforementioned regulation or from any applicable regulation from UdL.

Whenever fraudulent assessment is carried out, the coordinator of the subject will apply the corresponding punishment. Punishment could include, among others, and according with the seriousness of the fraudulent action, failing an assignment or test, failing the subject, loss of the right to be assessed for the subject, loss of the right to enrole for a term or an academic year, or expulsion up to three years (art. 9).

Should a submitted assignment have an unclear authorship, the student who submitted it will have to carry out a similar activity in the presence of the course lecturer. If the assignment shows a different level or authorship from the one shown in the first assignment, the course lecturer may decide to consider the grade for the second assignment as final, or to award any other grade that includes a penalty for fraudulent academic performance.

 

Course Book

• McCarter, S. (2010) Medicine 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-456956-9

 

Complementary bibliography

• Basterrechea Moreno, J.P. (2001) Curso de inglés para profesionales sanitarios. Madrid: Harcourt
• Check your English vocabulary for medicine. London: A. & C. Black, 2006
• Collin, P.H. (1993) Dictionary of medicine. Middlesex: Peter Collin
• Collins Cobuild Dictionary.  (alternatively, any other learner’s dictionary)
• Glendinning, Eric H. & Holmström, Beverly A. (1998 2^nd edition) English in Medicine. Cambridge University Press
• Gotti, M. (1984) English for Medicine. Zanichelli
• Greenhalgh, T. (1993) Medicine today. Longman.
• Jablonski (1998) Dictionary of Medical Acronyms and Abbreviations. Philadelphia: Hauley and Belfus, Inc.
• James, David V. (1992) Medicine. English for Academic Purpose Series. Prentice Hall
• Longman Language Activator.
• Luttikhuizen, F. (1996) English for Academic Purposes (Health Sciences). Edicions Universitat de Barcelona
• Maclean, Joan (1975) English in Basic Medical Science. English in Focus Series. Oxford University Press
• Master, P.A. (1986) Science Medicine and Technology. English Grammar and Technical Writing. Prentice Hall Regents
• McCarter, S. (2009) Medicine 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Simon and Schuster’s International Dictionary, English/Spanish, Spanish/English
• Tiersky, E. & Tiersky, M. (1992) The Language of Medicine in English. Prentice Hall Regents.
• Willis, Marjorie C. (1996) Medical Terminology. The Language of Health Care. Williams & Wilkins

Internet resources

http://www.quantumleap.cat/intro/ (online learning environment for English language learning at university level)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ (audio, exercises, glossaries and other material based on the World Service broadcasts)

http://www.cnn.com/videoselect (CNN news reports with videos)

http://www.english-forum.com/interactive (interactive exercises on grammar and vocabulary)

http://www.eslbee.com/  (advanced composition skills for non-native speakers)

http://www.ruthvilmi.net/hut/help/grammar_help/ (interactive exercices)

Multimedia

The Human Body [Enregistrament vídeo]. London: BBC TV, 2001, 1998 (a DVD version is also available)

Books for further reference

General

Cassell, E. J. (1991). The nature of suffering and the goals of medicine. New York: Oxford Univ

Coulehan, J. L., & Block, M. R. (2006). The Medical Interview Mastering Skills for Clinical Practice. (5th Ed.). Philadelphia: Davis Co.

Lown, B. (2000). The Lost Art of Healing. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Molinuevo B. (2011). La comunicación no verbal en la relación médico-paciente. Barcelona: Aresta.

Cinema

Apple, R. D., & Apple, M. W. (1993). Screening Science. Isis, 84 (4), 750-754.

Boon, T. (2008). Films of Fact: A History of Science in Documentary Film and Television. London/New York: Wallflower Press.

Brigidi, S. (2016). Cultura, salud, cine y televisión. Tarragona: Publicacions de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili. (pp. 295- 308 list of online and book resources)

Friedman, L. D. (2004). Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

Gabbard, K., & Gabbard, G. O. (1987). Psychiatry and the Cinema. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Mendiguchía, I., & Santiago, J. A. (2003). La medicina en el cine. Madrid: PBM.

Revista de Medicina y Cine <http://revistamedicinacine.usal.es/>

Seale, C. (2004). Media and Health. London: Sage.

Tabernero, C. (2006). L'Audiència-meca: ciència, tecnologia i la condició humana en el cinema de Stanley Kubrick i Steven Spielberg. Mètode, 48, 71-76.

_____________. (2016). Cine, ciencia y ficción: La máquina de Stanley Kubrick. In P. Bernat (Ed.), Ciencia y ficción (pp. 185-192). Barcelona: Taliots/IEC/SCHCT.

_____________. (2016). Terapias de cine. Barcelona: