Teaching code

4S001657

Teacher

Nicola Pelizzari

Coordinator

Nicola Pelizzari

Credits

3

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-LIN/12 - LANGUAGE AND TRANSLATION - ENGLISH

Period

1° semestre dal Oct 2, 2023 al Dec 22, 2023.

Location

VERONA

Courses Single

Not Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The present course aims at providing students of medicine and surgery with the necessary specific linguistic competences and structures to comprehend and produce written and spoken medical-scientific texts. For this reason, special attention will be paid to the lexical, syntactic and pragmatic aspects of the English language in the medical and academic fields.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Before starting this course students should have acquired a fairly good competence in English level B1 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). We strongly suggest further practice of basic skills for those who do not have this prerequisite.

Program

The course plans to develop the students' competences on reading, analysis and comprehension of medical and academic texts as well as on conversational situations that take place in English between patients and physicians.
Specifically, the focus is on the following topics:
Medical language throughout history (Historical overview, Greek-Latin terminological core, National medical languages, English influence on Italian medical language, Medical English today)
Linguistic features of English for medical purposes (Lexical features, Metaphors, Syntactic features)
Patient and the language of medicine (Doctor-patient interactions, Health literacy, health communication and intercultural communication in healthcare)
Focus on the body systems (from anatomical, physiological and pathological perspectives)
The language of research (Understanding qualitative and quantitative Research)
Patient information leaflets (Diachronic overview of PILs, Normative aspects, the language of PILs today)
Focus group work and discussion -> This is a group activity + presentation which will allow students to gain up to 3 points to add to the final exam grade.
The lessons will consist in explanations concerning the main topic and in practical exercises and detailed analyses to consolidate the content of the lesson. Each lesson will be integrated by online activities (video lessons, videos for listening comprehension, forums, material to be commented) in English on the course’s moodle platform in order to apply and reflect on acquired knowledge. Such activities are part of the course and programme and must be completed in order to access all the material on the platform and prepare for the exam.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Lectures and e-learning lessons, instructional videos to support the study of the monographic material and the student’s study of academic vocabulary. Lectures provide students with the necessary tools to analyse and discuss oral and written texts concerning the main areas of English for medical purposes and academic English, as well as ones that are fundamentals for the mastery of linguistic-communicative and pragmatic-linguistic skills that are required to understand and produce texts in English at a B2 level.

Learning assessment procedures

The final exam will consist in a written exam containing both theoretical, comprehension questions and practical exercises based on the content of the lessons and video lessons presented during the course and on the exercises completed in class and on the online platform. The final grade will be expressed in thirtieths.

Evaluation criteria

The exam consists of the following sections:
Listening Comprehension 8 points
Reading comprehension 7 points
Use of Medical English 10 points
Medical writing 6 points.
The Listening and Use of Medical English sections include completions or multiple choice questions. The medical writing part verifies the skills of critical writing regarding the topics covered during the monographic part of the course.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

For each correct answer 1 point is awarded. For each question not answered, or answered incorrectly, no points will be awarded. Students who reach 31 points will be awarded honors.

Exam language

English