“INDICATION – QUALIFICATION – FRUSTRATION?”: TEACHING “GERMAN FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONS”

Abstract

To meet the high demand for qualified staff within the German healthcare system, nurses are recruited from abroad. For taking up a nursing job, they must, among other things, pass a language test to demonstrate German language skills at the B2-level of the Common European Frame of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The preparation for the test takes place in vocational language training courses, usually entitled “German for healthcare professions”, taught by teachers of German as a Foreign/Second Language (GFL/GSL). Teaching these courses, however, means to be confronted with considerable difficulties due to the lack of an adequate background in nursing and medicine. Based on my own experiences, this article addresses some of these challenges for teachers, yet also attempts to outline ensuing consequences for the training of future teachers in these Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) courses for the medical professions. I argue that already during the course of study an intensified and demand-orientated language teacher training is pivotal with a more closely interlinked interdisciplinary cooperation with medicine departments and professional nursing.