International Language Of Science Research Articles

Challenges and opportunities of English as the medium of instruction in diploma midwifery programs in Bangladesh: a mixed-methods study

BackgroundEnglish is generally recognized as the international language of science and most research on evidence-based medicine is produced in English. While Bangla is the dominant language in Bangladesh, public midwifery degree programs use English as the medium of instruction (EMI). This enables faculty and student access to the latest evidence-based midwifery content, which is essential for provision of quality care later. Yet, it also poses a barrier, as limited English mastery among students and faculty limits both teaching and learning.MethodsThis mixed-methods study investigates the challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation of EMI in the context of diploma midwifery education in Bangladesh. Surveys were sent to principals at 38 public midwifery education institutions, and 14 English instructors at those schools. Additionally, ten key informant interviews were held with select knowledgeable stakeholders with key themes identified.ResultsSurveys found that English instructors are primarily guest lecturers, trained in general or business English, without a standardized curriculum or functional English language laboratories. Three themes were identified in the key informant interviews. First, in addition to students’ challenges with English, faculty mastery of English presented challenges as well. Second, language labs were poorly maintained, often non-functional, and lacked faculty. Third, an alternative education model, such as the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) curriculum, has potential to strengthen English competencies within midwifery schools.ConclusionsESP, which teaches English for application in a specific discipline, is one option available in Bangladesh for midwifery education. Native language instruction and the middle ground of multilingualism are also useful options. Although a major undertaking, investing in an ESP model and translation of technical midwifery content into relevant mother tongues may provide faster and more complete learning. In addition, a tiered system of requirements for English competencies tied to higher levels of midwifery education could build bridges to students to help them access global evidence-based care resources. Higher levels might emphasize English more heavily, while the diploma level would follow a multilingualism approach, teach using an ESP curriculum, and have complementary emphasis on the mother tongue.

RETHINKING THE ARABIC LITERATURE CURRICULUM: A BRIDGE TO WRITTEN ARABIC (FUṢḤĀ) AND A MECHANISM FOR CULTURAL CHANGE – CASE STUDY OF THE PALESTINIAN MINORITY IN ISRAEL

As in neighboring countries, Palestinians living in Israel attend schools in which Arabic is the language of instruction. However, their situation is unique in that Arabic is the minority language, and students and teachers alike have to learn and function in the majority language – Hebrew – as well as the international language of science and commerce – English. In this article I present an overview of the particular problems this situation creates in terms of the accessibility of written Arabic – fuṣḥā. This inaccessibility is compounded by the choice of texts for the Arabic literature curriculum which neither engage the students nor contribute to the development of their critical thinking, that essential skill for progress and success in the 21st century era of pluralism, diversity and non-conformity. Within the context of the Sanctuary (ma‘bad) Theory of Kamāl ’Abū Dīb and the Diaspora Theory of Ilan Gur-Ze'ev, I demonstrate a model of such teaching with a poem by the Syrian author, ’Adūnīs.

RELEVANCE OF SIMPLIFIED TECHNICAL ENGLISH IN KAZAKHSTAN IN THE FIELD OF AVIATION

English is the international language of science and technology. English is not often the first language of technical documentation readers. Most are limited in knowledge of the English language. sentence structure and the large number of meanings and synonyms that many English words possess are complex. Correctly understanding the maintenance and operation documentation is very important in aviation, it also affects the work of safety to protect human lives. The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of the ASD-STE100 document for students of the Academy of Civil Aviation in Kazakhstan. In this document, we will consider the relevance of applying this document during training in the aviation industry, as well as touch on the requirements for proficiency in technical English and summarize the basic rules aimed at facilitating the study and understanding of the English language.

Multilingualism in academic writing for publication: Putting English in its place

We are living in an era characterized by multilingualism, global mobility, superdiversity (Blommaert, 2010), and digital communications. Mobility and multilingualism, however, have long characterized most geolinguistic contexts, including those where monolingual ideologies have influenced the formation of contemporary nation states (Cenoz, 2013). As language is a pillar of both curriculum and instruction, in many academic spaces around the world efforts are on the rise to acknowledge the colonial origins of English, decenter the dominance of Standard English(es), and decolonize knowledge production (e.g., Bhambra et al., 2018; de Sousa Santos, 2017). Additionally, many ‘inner circle’ (Kachru, 2001) Anglophone contexts have long witnessed the centrifugal forces of multilingualism. Yet what prevails in institutional academic contexts is a centripetal pull toward what has been captured in phrases such as ‘linguistic mononormativity’ (Blommaert & Horner, 2017) or ‘Anglonormativity’ (McKinney, 2017). Nowhere is this pull more evident than in the sphere of writing for publication, relentlessly construed as an ‘English Only’ space, as exemplified in Elnathan's (2021) claim in the journal Nature: ‘English is the international language of science, for better or for worse.’

Eugene Garfield’s Ideas and Legacy and Their Impact on the Culture of Research

Eugene Garfield advanced the theory and practice of information science and envisioned information systems that made the discovery of scientific information much more efficient. The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), which he founded in Philadelphia in 1960, developed innovative information products that have revolutionized science. ISI provided current scientific information to researchers all over the world by publishing the table of contents of key scientific journals in the journal Current Contents (CC). Garfield introduced the citation as a qualitative measure of academic impact and propelled the concepts of “citation indexing” and “citation linking”, paving the way for today’s search engines. He created the Science Citation Index (SCI), which raised awareness about citations; triggered the development of new disciplines (scientometrics, infometrics, webometrics); and became the foundation for building new important products such as Web of Science. The journal impact factor (IF), originally designed to select journals for the SCI, became the most widely accepted tool for measuring academic impact. Garfield actively promoted English as the international language of science and became a powerful force in the globalization of research. His ideas changed how researchers gather scientific information, communicate their findings, and advance their careers. This article looks at the impact of Garfield’s ideas and legacy on the culture of research.

Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva in China,An Updated Review

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare autosomal genetic disease that results in abnormal bone formation (heterotopic ossification) in areas of skeletal muscles and connective tissues. Genetic studies have identified the causative mutations in Activin-like kinase 2 (ALK2), a type I receptor of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs). Currently no effective treatments are available for FOP, and the disease is often misdiagnosed for less awareness. It is believed that China has the largest number of FOP patients in the world due to its population. However, most Chinese FOP studies were reported in mandarin, instead of English, the international language of science. In this article, I have identified 126 reported Chinese FOP cases by literature search and analyzed these cases from aspects of disease epidemiology, great toe clinical sign, causative mutations and onset ages. In addition, I summarize the most updated knowledge as well as current ongoing clinical trials in FOP field.

An Investigation into Medical Students' English Language Needs

Due to the acceptance of English in twentieth century as international language of science and medicine, a considerable body of medical research and literature has been produced in English. This dominance of English in medical accounts paves the way for emergence of a new ESP branch (English for Specific Purposes) as EMP (English for Medical Purposes). The basic insight into this trend is to offer course design, content and materials by being responsive to target language learners’ own agenda. Therefore, it is necessary to find out first what is specifically appropriate, available and applicable for the target situation and target language learners in terms of their needs. In discovering their needs, needs analysis is regarded as an integral part of decision making processes in EMP. Without conducting a needs analysis process, using a medical English course book might not be enough for a medical student studying in an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context like Turkey since most of the medical English course books in use are mostly addressing the needs of students in an ESL (English as a Second Language) context. Accordingly, as a part of a needs analysis process, this study aims to investigate academic English language needs of first year medical students who are attending advanced English course at the Faculty of Medicine at Karadeniz Technical University. The data was collected via a structured questionnaire with 47 items. It covers five different parts focusing on medical students' purposes of learning English, significance of learning English, their preference of learning environment, language learning needs of major language skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening), their preference of assessment type. The questionnaire was administered to 169 students at the Faculty of Medicine at Karadeniz Technical University. Descriptive statistics was employed in order to analyze the data.

I nomi della follia

We present the results of a research on the language of psychiatry in Italy between the nineteenth century and the twentieth century. In it, we describe the origins of the terminology of this branch of medicine and the network of synonyms, hypernyms and hyponyms which were used to describe mental illness in the beginnings of modern psychiatry. Furthermore, we give an overview on the names of the psychiatric hospitals and of the asylums, as well as on the description and the names of the instruments used in the observation or in the treatment of mental illness. What emerges from the study is a rich and differentiated terminology, part of a terminological framework in which the international language of science still predominant at the time, the French, plays a leading role, accompanied in psychiatric ambit by German and English.

English for Specific Purposes (ESP): A Holistic Review

English for Specific Purposes, known as acronym-'ESP', has been a distinct activity in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) since 1960s. The flowering period of ESP has been identified due to many incidents like the second world war in 1945, the rapid expansion in scientific, the growth of science and technology, the increased use of English as the international language of science, technology and business, the increased economic power of certain oil-rich countries and increased numbers of international students studying in English Speaking countries. Needs analysis is the key essence of ESP. The paper reviews the history and development of ESP, the notion of needs analysis in ESP setting and some important components of ESP needs analysis. Finally the paper critically reviews the ESP needs analysis models. TSA (Target Situation Analysis), PSA (Present Situation Analysis), LSA (Learning Situation Analysis), MA (Means Analysis) and Language Audit are the salient features of needs analysis in any ESP context. In the field of ESP, there are a number of models of needs analysis such as Munby (1978), McDonough (1984), Hutchinson & Waters (1987), Robinson (1991), West (1994), Jordan (1997) and Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998). These theoretical models are s imilar to a certain extent that they aim at identifying the English language needs of the learners. The paper provides the readers with a solid review on some ESP needs assessment models.

The First Comprehensive AO Classification System for Fractures of the Craniomaxillofacial Skeleton.

The First Comprehensive AO Classification System for Fractures of the Craniomaxillofacial Skeleton.

Whose Lingua Franca? The Politics of Language in Transnational Medical Education

Abstract The lingua franca promoted at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar belongs to few as a first language. The implementation of an English-medium curriculum at Qatar's only medical school has proved a double-edged sword. Despite English being deployed out of necessity as part of a strategy geared to improve health care provision and medical research in Qatar, its use has had some unintended consequences. Student engagement with this international language of science and its perceived impact on identity, pedagogy, and professional engagement is explored in the article.

The Role of English as a Lingua Franca in Academia: The Case of Turkish Postgraduate Students in an Anglophone-centre Context

In the media of scholarly publications, English is considered to be the language of science in academia (Crystal, 2003). Although a majority of scholars are able to improve their English locally in the peripheral countries, others have benefitted or will benefit from opportunities to study in an Anglophone-centred context. To the best of my knowledge, scant research has been undertaken on the next generation of scientists. This preliminary study aims at investigating the perceptions of Turkish post-graduate students who have been studying in the United Kingdom and the United States of America regarding the use of English as the international language of science. The data were collected through interviews (n=32). Participants’ perceptions was investigated regarding language and scientific communication, including their perceptions about the benefits and drawbacks of English as the primary language of communication in scientific fields and about whether they believe they are at a disadvantage or at an advantage when participating in professional activities. The main findings indicate that these students believed that the benefits of English as academia's primary language outweighed its negative aspects; the participants focused on English as a universal mode of communication to share research and meet professional needs, although most of the post-graduate students (78.125%) felt they were operating at a disadvantage.

„Das ist das Problem, das hinzukriegen, dass es so klingt, als hätt’ es ein Native Speaker geschrieben.“ Wissenschaftliches Schreiben und Publizieren in der Fremdsprache Englisch

The predominant use of English in scientific publications is a well-documented fact. As a consequence, anglophony is the communicative norm in almost all scientific disciplines. Sincejournal publications in English have become the essential indicator for research performance and assessment internationally, it seems obvious that non-native researchers have to cope with an additional problem, namely the linguistic-communicative challenge, a fact which very often puts them at a communicative and a concomitant research disadvantage. The main research questions dealt with in this article focus on the problems, problem-solving strategies and attitudes of German-speaking scientists publishing in English. The empirical part of the research is presently based on 24 interviews conducted with researchers from four disciplines (biology, mechanical engineering, German linguistics, history) at different universities in Germany, and eight interviews with journal editors of the same subjects (two of each discipline). The paper starts out by marizing the current state of research, the aims, design and methodology used in the study and further elaborates on the main research questions. This is followed by an exemplary case study analyzing a natural scientist’s attitudes and reactions to the use of English as an international language of science. The analysis is enriched by observations on non-native speakers’ use of resources when writing in English and by the different perceptions of the functions of language in the natural sciences as opposed to the humanities. The article concludes with a summary and some perspectives for future research.

Whose Lingua Franca?: The Politics of Language in Transnational Medical Education

The lingua franca promoted at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar belongs to few as a first language. The implementation of an English-medium curriculum at Qatar’s only medical school has proved a double-edged sword. Despite English being deployed out of necessity as part of a strategy geared to improve health care provision and medical research in Qatar, its use has had some unintended consequences. Student engagement with this international language of science and its perceived impact on identity, pedagogy, and professional engagement is explored in the article.

Translanguaging Practices and Language Ideologies in Puerto Rican University Science Education

The undisputed position of English as the “international language of science” has resulted in a push for its use in college science classrooms in non-English-dominant contexts worldwide. This study uses classroom observation and interviews to examine the use of Spanish and English in college science classrooms at a land-grant university in Puerto Rico. Using an ecology of languages framework, and particularly drawing on Hornberger's Continua of Biliteracy for the study of learning in bilingual contexts, analysis of 15 class observations and interviews showed that professors used multiple classroom translanguaging practices to teach science. At the same time, they held strongly to the ideology of English as “the language of science” and believed it was important for all science students to use English. Thus, professors' practices and their ideologies rested on opposing ends of the context continua of biliteracy.

A short history of 'glomerulus'.

After enjoying Kettritz's and Luft's Nephroquiz [1], I enjoyed even more their reply [2] to my comment, which they ended by posing an interesting dilemma: should we use the terms ‘glomerulus/glomeruli’, masculine gender, or ‘glomerulum/glomerula’, neutral gender? Though I am not a learned scholar (only relying on my four-year high school Latin, long forgotten), I have done some homework and delved a little into the history of the word as well as of the nomenclature of the renal structure we now call ‘glomerulus’. In the fourth century, the Byzantine physician Oribasius (Pergamon 325-Costantinople 403), chief doctor to the staff of the emperor Julianus the Apostate, described in his Snopsis the circulation of the kidney [3] as composed of “τα σωματα των vɛφρωv” (ancient Greek for renal bodies) and defined the anastomosis of the renal artery with the vein through the capillaries, using for the first time the term ‘Tριχοɛιδής’ (capillary, hair-like). The first microscopical description of the ‘glomeruli’ dates back to the work of the Italian anatomist Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694, Figure 1 [4]), who in ‘De renibus’ a section of ‘De Viscerum Structura Exercitatio Anatomica’ [5], published originally in Bologna, Italy in 1666, and in London in 1669, gave an accurate description of their structure; he did not denominate them ‘glomeruli’, though, defining them as dark vascular structures resembling fruits suspended on a branch (… quae sanguineis vasis atro liquore turgidis in speciolae arbori formam productis, velut poma appenduntur) or ‘glandulae’. The term ‘glomerulus’ actually belongs, rather than to ancient, to modern Latin, with its first recorded use, according to the Merriam's Webster and the Oxford dictionaries [6, 7], dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. It appears to be derived from the ancient Latin word ‘glomus’ (plural glomera), third declension, neutral gender, which means ‘a clew, ball made by winding’ [8]. Fig. 1. Portrait of Marcello Malpighi [4]. The term ‘Glomus’ transgendered into masculine in the seminal dissertation ‘de Structura renum’ (1782, Figure 2) [9], written by Alexander Schumlanski (1758–1795) for his doctoral thesis at the Universitas Argentoratense (Strasbourg, France). Schumlanski deduced by experimenting on pig kidneys, a connection between the circulation and the uriniferous tubules, many years before Bowman proved his theory to be correct. Schumlanski in his dissertation in Latin (the international language of science at those times) used the terms ‘glomeres’ and ‘glomeres glandulosos’, masculine gender. A few decades later, in 1851, Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs published his work on Bright's disease [10], in which he alluded to ‘glomerulus’ as ‘kapsel’ or ‘Capsula Malpighii’. Almost at the same time, William Bowman (together with Robert Bentley Todd) [11] established a definite connection between the glomerular circulation and the urinary tubules (Figure 3). Again, he did not define ‘glomeruli’ as such, but called them ‘Malpighian bodies’ or ‘Malpighian Corpuscles’. The American anatomist Charles Edward Isaacs (1811–1860) also gave an accurate description of the glomeruli [12], defining them as ‘Malpighian coils’ or ‘Malpighian tufts’. The first recorded usage of the word ‘glomerulus’ dates back to the work of the German anatomist and surgeon, Wilhelm Busch (1826-1881), who published his research on the excretory apparatus of snakes in 1855 [13], quoted by Isaacs (Dass der glomerulus wirklich, in einer kapsel …). Fig. 2. Cover of Alexander Schumlanski's dissertation [9]. Fig. 3. Drawing of a glomerulus [10]. Finally, reverting to the original semantic dilemma (glomerulus/glomeruli versus glomerulum/glomerula), though of course both are correct, I tend to favour slightly, as the ancient Latin progenitor is neutral gender, the neutral binomium ‘glomerulum/glomerula’. This short historical note does not have the ambition of being either exhaustive or comprehensive, and more learned contributions are welcome.

Lexical borrowing from English into Danish in the Sciences: An empirical investigation of ‘domain loss’

The emergence of English as an international language of science has generated prolific debates in the Nordic countries about ‘domain loss’, here defined as the national Nordic languages failing to develop adequate scientific terminology. This paper sheds some much needed empirical light on domain loss by examining the language practices of 10 scientists delivering undergraduate courses in chemistry, physics and computer science at the University of Copenhagen. Focusing on lexical borrowing from English into Danish, it is found that there is considerable variation within the scientific domain, with the sub‐domain computer science exhibiting significantly more lexical borrowing than physics and chemistry. The paper discusses the findings in relation to the concept of domain loss, and offers some alternative reasons for the concern that has been expressed.Det engelske sprogs rolle som internationalt forskningssprog har skabt debat i de nordiske lande om ‘domænetab’, her forstået som det forhold at de nationale nordiske sprog ikke udvikler adækvat fagterminologi. Denne artikel forsøger at kaste tiltrængt empirisk lys over domænetab ved at undersøge sprogbrugen hos ti videnskabsfolk som underviser på bachelorniveau i kemi, fysik og datalogi på Københavns Universitet. Ved at fokusere på leksikalske lån fra engelsk i dansk vises at der er stor variation inden for det videnskabelige domæne, idet sub‐domænet datalogi har betydeligt flere lån end fysik og kemi. Artiklen diskuterer resultaterne i forhold til begrebet ‘domænetab’, og foreslår alternative årsager til den bekymring der er blevet udtrykt.

Continuity and change

Continuity and change

Language Planning for International Scientific Communication: An Overview of Questions and Potential Solutions

This paper proposes a range of improvements to international science communication. It pictures the contemporary language situation in international scientific communication as well as its recent history with the rise of English as its most notable feature and offers explanations for this development. It discusses in which sciences languages other than English still play an international role and analyses problems and advantages which different scientists encounter as a consequence of the preferred language choices in today’s scientific communication. Problems appear severe for the scientists of recently declined international languages, while for Anglophones and for small language communities advantages predominate. The paper also discusses whether the reduction to one single international language of science may have downsides for scientific progress altogether but arrives at a contrary conclusion as long as other languages continue to function as additional languages of science on the national level. Suggestions for language planning comprise, among others, a campaign for raising awareness among Anglophones of the difficulties faced by non-Anglophones using correct English and the idea of a gradual change in the norms of the international language of science, which should, in the long run, even give rise to a new language (‘Globalish’) with a pluricentric structure.

An International Nursing Community of Scholars? A Community of Scholars for International Nursing Science? Or Both?

Several recent publications addressing international nursing scholarship (Hegyvary, 2005) and the concept of a community of scholars (Bunkers, 2005; Ferguson-Pare, 2005; Parse, 2005; Roy, 2005; Woude, 2005) piqued my interest as the editor of Research and Theory for Nursing Practice (RTNP). Why? I was hoping they might offer some food for thought on the nature of scholarship for an international nursing journal. It seemed fitting to inform my opinion with the contemporaneous thinking of scholars of the matter. After all, my previous editorial had just challenged RTNP readers, authors, reviewers, and editorial board to define international scholarship! Hegyvary's (2005) editorial was a series of responses to readers' questions about international scholarship as presented in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, the official organ of Sigma Theta Tau International. Her thoughtful replies highlighted the importance of relevant content, an international-rather than an ethnocentric-perspective, generalization to and across populations, integrative comparisons of results, and authors' adherence to common standards of scientific rigor and of written expression in English, which is the international language of science. Also important to the question of what constitutes international nursing scholarship was her acknowledgment that international applies to us all as a collective with a common concern for the phenomena of human health and common foundations in theory, methods, and concept development. Certainly, these commonalities provide some cohesion for us as a discipline, regardless of our country of origin or residence or any ethnic group within it. Though not specifically stated, the notion of a community of scholars was certainly a given in Hegyvary's editorial. It led me to wonder: So, how do contemporary thinkers define this concept and how might it apply to an international journal? Some answers came in a column published in Nursing Science Quarterly in which Bunkers (2005) included a series of five short pieces on this concept, some written by leading scholars of nursing science. Although the authors took different slants in elaborating their meaning of the idea, a few characteristics were expressed over and again. A synthesis of these views produces the following characteristics for a community of scholars: (a) a loose group with open membership; (b) a conviction, vision, or focus on learning about a certain significant something; (c) engagement in an ongoing critical dialogue; (d) a spirit of collegiality or solidarity, support, and enablement (Bunkers, 2005; Ferguson-Pare, 2005; Parse, 2005; Roy, 2005; Woude, 2005). …