American Familiar Language and the FMG Psychiatric Resident

Abstract

The emotional level of communication in American psychiatry relies heavily upon American familiar and slang expressions. The authors’ experience in teaching interviewing to FMG psychiatric residents and the results of their testing 60 of them in American standard- and slang-language competence revealed much greater deficits in slang than in standard language (nine native American first-year residents were the controls). The language-coaching-and-testing component of an experimental 55-hour course in American familiar language, culture, and interviewing for first-year psychiatric residents is described. An instrument to test familiar- (slang) versus standardlanguage acquisition consisting of two equivalent subtests was used to gauge the progress of 35 first-year FMG residents and three third-year residents who took the course in the first three years it was given, as compared with 22 first-year FMG controls who did not take the course (a representative seven of whom were matched with themselves) in tests at the beginning and end of their first residency year. The test scores indicated that the course markedly improved the familiar- (slang) language capabilities of the residents who took the course (an effect independent of their individual initial language abilities), while the control group did not significantly improve their scores in familiar language, improving only in their standard-language scores. Although the third-year FMG residents improved more as a result of the course, their original scores in familiar language before the course did not differ significantly from those of the first-year group. The role of language is discussed in relation to other barriers to being in touch. The teaching of familiar language provided a convivial and supportive setting for learning culture-appropriate effective responses to the situations of strong emotion that occasion slang usage.