The Context-based Approach to Teaching English for Medical Purposes in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The present day healthcare means intense international cooperation. Discussion of theoretical and practical matters, ongoing technological development, equipment upgrade and implementation of the newest robotic minimally invasive methods of surgery as well as mutual projects, overseas training, internship and employment become routine reality of the Medical Doctors from the large federal medical centers. It is hereby evident that spheres of medicine, which are better equipped, are ahead of the less technologically developed fields of medical practice. Doctors’ mobility, variants of remote or direct communication with the leading foreign specialists, international consulting in the format of telehealth put the English for Medical Purposes (EMP) competence in the spotlight. English for Medical Purposes (EMP) comprises two registers: English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). According to the Federal Russian standards of EMP teaching, graduates of the Medical Universities have broader objectives than comprehension of the English texts and communication with foreign interlocutors. Modern communicative competence implies application of English language as a tool of professional communication, monitoring, and active analytical activity, ability to do research in a target language, speak in public, and discuss professional matters. In the context of higher medical education English language as lingua franca of the international professional medical community becomes a tool of formation of a new physician who is ready to ongoing personal and professional development. The researchers view EMP competence as a complex category, i.e. a meta-concept, comprising cognitive, functional, social competences of the modern medical practitioner. It can be analyzed through three parameters: language ability, interactional competence, clinical communication. During teaching EMP and EAP, grammar is not viewed as an ultimate goal, it is used as the instrument of cognition, and the system of scaffolding becomes a priority (scaffolding, in this respect, means supporting teaching, which is based on contextual explanation, situational transparency and clarification of difficult phenomena in the format of case studies). The context-based approach to teaching grammar and academic writing is explained on the examples of deductive and inductive ways of grammar rules presentation for the students.