Interdisciplinary Approaches in Concept Based Learning and Teaching English ()
1. Introduction
In the modern world, where the borders of different countries are becoming easier to overcome, especially for specialists in the field of medicine, the importance of the English language is noticeably increasing. Globalization and accelerating the exchange of information require knowledge of the language of interethnic communication and, in particular, its features and the use of terminology in medical and related professions.
In the globalization period with its fast-developing knowledge, the society calls for an interdisciplinary approach of teaching foreign languages. That English is of growing importance in modern medical communication indicated to some degree by the widespread teaching of English in medical schools throughout the world. The university, which is going to be one of top 20 among Central Asian universities that is Osh State University, is an example for this. Nevertheless, what empirical evidence is there to support this view and to continue to justify English teaching in medical curricula? We can point to the spread of English in some medical education systems first by referring to longitudinal data on languages of instruction as supplied by medical schools of individual countries and second by longitudinal analysis of the language of articles listed in Index Medicus (Dummett & Hird, 2011).
Turning to the field of biomedical communication, a recent study has described global trends in language preference. A computer-based investigation of Index Medicus showing the language of journal articles over a 17-year period (1966-1983) indicates that the number of articles published in English has increased steadily (19%) over this period. In 1980, the total (189 616) included 20% published in countries other than the USA and the UK. About 8% were published in three countries: Japan, Germany and France. This increase in the volume of English language articles was not matched by a similar increase in the number of German-language articles, which had fallen 5% during the same period (Glendinning & Holmström, 1987). In terms of the volume of medical publications by national grouping, whilst the USA accounts for a substantial 32.2% of all articles written in English internationally the geographical spread of publications in that language is significant. In India, Singapore and Pakistan, for instance, where English is used as a functional first language in the professional medical domain and in commonwealth countries such as Australia and Canada there is a steady production of English-language writing in medical journals. Nevertheless, if we compare, for example, the number of articles in Japanese journals with that of English-speaking Canada, Australia and New Zealand, we find surprisingly that Japan, where English is a foreign language, produced more medical articles in English in 1980 than all of these English-speaking nations combined.
Consequently, mastering the English language becomes mandatory to acquire reading skills and a good understanding of medical literature in English to achieve a level of communication with colleagues in India, Pakistan, USA, UK, Australia, Israel and other countries known for their significant achievements in the development of medicine.
2. Analysis of the Importance of Research
The aim of the article is to consider the role of English in teaching a medical student and prove the high importance of the English language in the modern world. However there a lot of evidences that the importance of the English language is noticeably increasing; Particularly in the field of professional development of teachers of medical universities, develop the ability to find high-quality data and information about the latest scientific discoveries and research, as well as replenish the stock of knowledge with high-quality information. As the rationale of choosing medical students as the research subjects lies on the language necessity of modern world. Language proficiency is crucial for doctors as they communicate with patients, peers and other healthcare professionals. Although proficiency in English is part of admission requirements, there is a gap in the knowledge of medical students’ perception of factors enhancing English language skills during training in international medical programmes.
English is the language of the world community; (Jordan, 2012) over 700 million people around the world speak in it. In modern reality, the English language has acquired a global character, as it has penetrated into all spheres of society: medicine, high-precision technology, the fashion industry, culture, etc. Every educated person understands and realizes how important it is to be able to speak English, as today the most competitive in the labor market are those specialists whose resume, in addition to experience, indicates knowledge of several foreign languages. In communication, a direct connection between language and culture is obvious. The foregoing once again emphasizes the relevance of the topic.
As it is mentioned above science and medicine of the 21st century in English-speaking and European countries are at a high-tech level, which allows conducting scientific research and experiments, as well as finding answers to questions about the treatment of certain pathologies and diseases that are considered incurable. Undoubtedly, articles in English on medicine are of indisputable value. Here is the following example. Searching for the same information in Internet sources will have different results if you look for it on Russian-language and English-language sites. English-language articles are richly illustrated, the text is without superfluous words, the information provided clearly and concisely (Raikan, Sonayim et al., 2020). This, in our opinion, is one of the main advantages of knowing English in teaching medical students. The second advantage, also no less important than the first, is that that knowing English can save a person’s life. This is indeed a fact that people face very often. Here we would like to give the following example. Doctors diagnosed a patient with cirrhosis of the liver, and a liver transplant was required. Treatment in Kyrgyzstan did not give good prognosis and relatives began to look for information about the treatment of this disease abroad, particularly in India. Consultations with doctors were held in English via Internet telephony (What’s app), and electronic correspondence was conducted. As a result, the patient received an answer that doctors guarantee the treatment and recovery. Of course, without knowledge of the English language, it would be much more difficult and time-consuming to resolve this issue. A month later, the family was already in India. It is also important to note that the attending physician was a student of the International Medical Faculty of Osh State University. Having successfully graduated from university in Kyrgyzstan, he left for his hometown, India. He also spoke Kyrgyz and Russian, so it was easier for them to understand each other, now he is a successful specialist. Moreover, the patient returned cured, healthy. Therefore, here one cannot but agree with the statement of Francis Bacon “knowledge is light, and ignorance is darkness”.
3. Survey Results
Unfortunately, today the majority of university employees do not fully realize the importance of English in their future career. This is evidenced by the indicators obtained in the course of the survey conducted in the framework of this study. The participants of the experiment were the participants of the project “Academic English”—teaching staff of the International Medical Faculty of Osh State University. The total number of respondents was 78 people, including 25 teachers with academic titles and 53 young teachers without a degree (Table 1).
Participants were asked to answer the following questions: 1) How often do you use English language in teaching? (often, rarely, never); 2) How often do you turn to English-language sites for scientific articles, study guides, in order to acquire new knowledge and improve your professional skills? (often, rarely, never); 3) Would you like to attend English courses? (yes, not really); 4) Why do you rarely turn to English-language sites as sources of information? (insufficient knowledge of the language, ignorance of the existence of these sites or lack of access to the Internet? (Gramer & Ward, 2015)
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Figure 1. Results of the survey, who answered the questions related to the English language.
Based on the results of the survey in Figure 1, the following results were obtained: 94% of the respondents conduct classes in English; the percentage of teachers who often use English-language sites/teaching aids is the minimum proportion of respondents—4.1%; those who rarely apply—33.1%, and 62.8% are those who have never applied. In our opinion, these are rather pessimistic data, which prove that today’s young teachers have not yet formed a culture of dealing with foreign literature. The reason is insufficient knowledge of the language and lack of awareness, ignorance about the existence of such sites. However, according to Figure 2 the following result is obtained: 94% of those surveyed expressed a desire to attend English language courses, while the remaining 4% were negative about this proposal.
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Figure 2. Results of the survey, who expressed the desire to attend English language courses.
The selection was carried out on the basis of an interview and testing on the basis of International Medical Faculty of Osh State University. The project teachers determined the level of English proficiency and grouped the participants into the following groups—Pre Intermediate, Intermediate and Upper Intermediate. In total, 4 groups were created, each with 13 - 15 participants. The project was carried out in 2 stages from November 2021 to March 2022. The first phase was 90 hours, as well as the second phase (180 hours in total), during the week 3 sessions of 120 minutes were held. The first part focuses on learning English with a view to applying it in the second part of the project and in a professional setting. Participants gained communication, reading and writing skills through case studies and current events provided in the “Open Mind” learning material. Teaching material included audio and video materials, grammar presentations, materials for additional language practice for the Life Skills section, practice tasks, tests and a glossary for each section. The educational complex allowed project participants to acquire written competencies that correlate with academic English. Starting from writing individual sentences and ending with writing a summary, which form the basis of an Academic English course.
The project participants provided with the basic language skills necessary for further education (for example, the ability to perceive correctly and remember information in English, write essays, articles in the English language).
Upon completion of the first stage of the course, students improved their skills in various types of speech activity. For example, in a letter—write down the main thoughts, facts (from texts), maintain business communication using e-mail; compose letters of gratitude, complaints, as well as write blog posts or social networks, write essays, etc.
In the second stage, students mastered the use of various methods and techniques aimed at developing such skills as searching for the necessary information, putting forward a hypothesis, summing up and formulating conclusions when writing a scientific article. The training program included the following tasks: to plan the structure, clearly set tasks, clearly justify the relevance of the chosen research direction, point to reliable literary sources, think over the methods that will be used and what planned results will be achieved.
The organization of the curriculum also creates conditions for students to master independently the educational material (Maher, 1986). When working independently, participants in small groups should determine the topic and goals for writing an article. At this stage, the groups choose possible sources of information, a way to collect and analyze information, a way to present the results, discussion, distribution of tasks and responsibilities among group members. At the research stage, it was necessary to search for information, solve intermediate tasks: interviews, surveys, observations, experiments and draw conclusions. By the end of the project, the participants summed up the results and are writing articles. To date, 5 participants have been able to write scientific articles in English and publish in international journals.
Results of this project demonstrate how participants perceived the importance of Academic English language skills as a professional and social requirement during medical training and for future practice. It also informs that setting English language admission pre requisites need to be complemented with opportunities to practice context specific communication skills. Thus, international medical programmes should embed diverse and inclusive strategies to support and develop students’ English language skills.
4. Conclusion
Thus, from the foregoing, we can conclude that knowledge of the English language plays a significant and important role in the internationalization of higher education, medicine and the medical profession. However, this requires high knowledge and promotion of the study of English in medical schools with English as the language of instruction.
Thanks to the knowledge of English, you can freely read foreign medical journals, most modern books on medicine, read publications in English on medical websites. In addition, of course, in terms of the volume and relevance of such information, it greatly benefits from information available in Russian or Kyrgyz.
Knowledge of English will allow you to take part in medical conferences abroad. Prestigious clinics are interested in ensuring that their doctors take part in various events abroad, such as conferences on various medical issues. Therefore, if you work in a medical university, clinic or research institute, you have the opportunity to go on a business trip abroad, but for this you need a good knowledge of English, because such events are usually held in English. Knowledge of English allows you to constantly improve your skills and keep abreast of advanced methods of diagnosis and treatment. Scientific publications are primarily available to a wide range of readers only in English, and it may take a long time before they are translated into Russian or Kyrgyz. In the scientific community, and not only, English is the language of interethnic communication.
English as a foreign language instructed as an obligatory subject in numerous medical schools throughout the world, but with conceivably less necessity than the sociolinguistic substances of present-day universal medicine requests. Fluency in reading abilities is the least pre-requisite not as it was for comprehension of worldwide journals but also for local in-house publications in countries where English is a foreign language. In addition, the capacity to compose precisely in English will be a developing requirement (especially for postgraduate students around the world) but acknowledgment of these linguistic needs must be made in the early stages of medical education (Maher, 1987). These conceivable pedagogical outcomes, combined with the progresses now being made in our understanding of doctor-patient interaction and medical discourse in general emphasize the significance of applied linguistics to medicine. Moreover, the above study proved once again the importance of the English language and its role interdisciplinary approach noticeably increasing.
Founding
Based on the results of the project “Academic English” at Osh State University, Kyrgyzstan.