47 - Medicina e Chirurgia

Anna Loiacono
gua inglese
432. Organizzare nella sua impostazione generale un
testo scientifico su argomento Biomedico
433. Comprendere e discutere con capacità critica articoli
di ricerca medica in lingua inglese
434. Inglese scritto di report di vario genere per attivare
ed ampliare il lessico
435. Conoscere i termini di base e i mezzi di comunicazione
alternativa per rapportarsi a pazienti di lingua
non europea ,in particolare nell’emergenza
436. Descrivere i mezzi o le strutture organizzative
(presenti nel proprio territorio, informatiche, accessibili
in rete,etc. atte a facilitare la traduzione simultanea da
e per qualsiasi lingua)
437. Utilizzare la metanalisi e le revisioni sistematiche
per la ricerca delle soluzioni di problemi
clinici specifici
438. Decodificare e disegnare alberi decisionali e/o flow
charts come strumenti di supporto nelle
decisioni cliniche (in casi veri o simulati)
439. utilizzare dati epidemiologici per la stima della
probabilità a priori di malattia e per la corretta
utilizzazione dei fattori di rischio
440. Utilizzare un programma di statistica sanitaria
441 Experimental research articles (GCP, RCT, cohort
trial, case-control and cross sectional
Studies,etc.) (lettura e commento)
442. Genre Analysis: review articles, systematic r. and
meta-analyses, management and economic studies
443. Tutorial per verifica progressi linguistici e difficoltà
incontrate attraverso la peer group evaluation
444. Ampliamento finale e valutazione in tutorials del
portfolio (che contribuisce per il 30% alla prova scritta
finale
More than a workshop would be needed to check
out for discussion these directives which blend language
functions and personal skills, and fall short in grading
from simple to complex genre activities. Besides,
the main problem of special lexis remains open: who
should supposedly determine the necessary minimum
thesaurus of medical terms, from “anatomy” to “urology”
through all the specialties? Most books available
for medical teaching fail in presenting sequential units
all inclusive of medical terminology and functions and
the objective difficulties are by far too evident to the
linguist too.
Nonetheless, an example of effective application of
the directives stated above, is demonstrated by volumes
1 and 2 of English for Medicine, (B.Bettinelli;N.Carlini;
P.Catenaccio,2005.2006). The two volumes, whose
series, Domain Specific English is edited by G.
Iamartino and published by Hoepli, introduce the most
significant medical themes making grammar and syntax
the subordinate instruments to the main teaching focus
i.e. the special purpose.
Moreover, it is worth quoting an advanced research in
Medical Discourse Analysis, edited by M Gotti and
F.Salager-Meyer (2006): in the volume, oral and written
medical contexts are distinguished and their features of
genre and functional structures are examined; the focus
on the patient-nurse roles and Doctor-Patient consultation
is topical as these roles are worthy further introspections.
2032 Med. Chir. 47, 2030-2032, 2009
Teaching translation skills is also to be much implemented,
considering the frequent pleas, among professionals,
for their needs of submitting abstracts and articles
to international reviews.
In 2008, a research study was carried out in Foggia
and medical students were monitored and compared in
translating from Italian into English: they showed great
committment and cooperation and some results were
given at the Aahrus International Conference for the
Study of English. (A. Loiacono, forthcoming)
The present claim for a greater amount of teaching
hours in medical English implies the urgent definition
of stardardized language descriptors and shared content
units for the discipline.
When the debate for common reference language
levels was at its heights, the problem of description
issues was being laid forward also for general English.
It is worthy quoting a statement that can be applied to
special English as well:
“ These criteria are very difficult to meet, but are useful
as a point of orientation.
They can in fact be met by a combination of intuitive,
qualitative and quantitative methods. This is in contrast
to the purely intuitive ways in which scales of language
proficiency are normally developed. Intuitive,
committee autorship may work well for the development
of systems for particular contexts, but have certain limitations
in relation to the development of a common framework
scale. The main weakness of reliance on intuition
is that the placement of a particular wording at a
particular level is subjective. Secondly there is also the
possibility that users from different sectors may have
valid differences of perspective due to the needs of their
learners” (Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages.3.1)
The aim of Foggia workshop will be to identify a
shared model of teaching Medical English, based on
theories of language competence and worked out by
the combination of methods quoted above, by pointing
out at proficiency descriptors whose requirements of
objectivity and topicality might be fulfilled,
“ con la consapevolezza che è in ogni caso proprio dei
linguaggi e dei testi specialistici mirare a soddisfare i
criteri di veridicità, informatività, pertinenza, perspicuità
e ordine, in obbedienza allo statuto epistemologico
delle discipline di cui sono espressione” (G.
Iamartino in the Preface to Vols 1 and 2 on English for
Medicine)
References
1) Caruso G., C. Panella, H. Snelgrove. “L’insegnamento dell’Inglese
Medico nel CLM in Medicina e Chirurgia”, in Med Chir, 2008, n. 42
2) Bettinelli B., N.Carlini, P.Catenaccio. English for Medicine, Hoepli,
Milano, 2005, vol.1
3) Bettinelli B., N. Carlini, P. Catenaccio. English for Medicine, Hoepli,
Milano, 2006, vol 2
4) Gotti M. & F. Salager-Meyer (eds.) Advances in Medical Discourse
Analysis: Oral and Written Contexts, Peter Lang, Bern, 2006
5) Loiacono A. (forthcoming) “Improving English through syntax
arrangement”, ESSE 9th, Aahrus, Aug.2008.