Capacity to handle complexity – The importance of contextual awareness in healthcare communication in English as a lingua franca

Alexandra Vivien Bakó

doi:10.47282/economica/2014/7/4/4415

Abstract

Hungarian healthcare providers – as most of their colleagues around the world – engage in interaction with foreign patients, whom they do not share a mother tongue with, in English as a lingua franca (ELF) most of the time. These communicative situations pose great challenges to healthcare providers, as they have to be capable of adjusting their language use to their patients’ cognitive, linguistic and communicative-pragmatic schemata which often differ from their own. In order to develop such a capacity, ESP classes must focus on improving health science students’ awareness in exploring various ELF contexts which form ground for making informed decisions on the use of terminology. The present research aims at showing the complex dynamic nature of these ELF contexts based on empirical data collected via interviews with Hungarian healthcare providers who have extended experience in working with patients in international environments. The results can inform the everyday practice of ESP teachers in the field of the health sciences.

Highlights

INTRODUCTIONCommunication with patients is a challenging task for healthcare providers even if they share a mother tongue, as plenty of features must be ECONOMICA 2014 4. szám
Communication with patients is a challenging task for healthcare providers even if they share a mother tongue, as plenty of features must be Alexandra Vivien Bakó: Capacity to handle complexity – The importance of contextual ...attended to in order to ensure the highest level of efficiency possible in the given communicative situation
The present paper wishes to explore these contextual features in communication with patients based on interview data with Hungarian healthcare providers who have worked with patients with various linguacultural backgrounds while using English as a medium in communication with them

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Communication with patients is a challenging task for healthcare providers even if they share a mother tongue, as plenty of features must be ECONOMICA 2014 4. szám. In the case of ELF (English as a lingua franca) communication, where there is a smaller amount of shared linguacultural background among healthcare providers and patients, the situation gets even more complex. In order to prepare health science students for these challenges, they have to be enabled to handle this complexity. Since it is impossible to predict all the future situations healthcare providers can find themselves, the aim of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) classes should be to raise health science students’ awareness of the complex dynamic nature of communicative situations in ELF, and to improve their capacity to handle this complexity and adjust their language use . It is assumed that the findings can add to the efficiency of ESP classes for healthcare purposes, as by raising students’ awareness of the various features of ELF contexts, their language user autonomy could be improved

The context of healthcare communication

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

METHODOLOGY

CONCLUSION