Job Discussion Forums

[kaikou]

I have a medical background and was wondering if anyone knows of any demand for someone who can teach medical English terminology?

I've seen a few reports here and there about Universities offering positions here and there, but have come up empty handed.

[Mr_Monkey]

I've definitely seen medical English positions in Tokyo advertised - on JALT's "The Language Teacher" jobs website, iirc.

There is probably a fair bit of hidden demand - doctors tend to be wealthy and I've met a fair few doctors studying English because they need it for work, but they always seem to get shoehorned into general or academic English classes.

[Glenski]

Just to teach the terminology is pretty routine, and you'd have to offer more than that in a group class. People would be more interested in learning how to use the terminology than just memorizing the words.

Mike Guest teaches an oral communications course (or 4-skills course) which he labels as medical English. It's for first-year uni students, if I'm not mistaken. The thing about it is, it's billed as medical English because students are pretty much told that at their stage of education, their 6 years of JHS/HS English courses have prepared them with the basics of grammar, and he does not expand on that, but instead forces them to encounter medical topics to use it. Students learn, among other things, how to read a medical chart and interview a patient.

Judy Noguchi has authored a textbook on medical English (Gateway to Medical English). She has also published on her technique for explaining to students how to learn such a topic in all 4 skills, or as she puts it, how to raise awareness of the discourse skills needed.
http://www.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp/j/publication/for-2003/40-45.html

Eric Skier who teaches pharmacists at a university. It involves a lot of work, and he even takes them to a military base for hands-on practice with medical staff. I think he has 1 book out now, and maybe he is working on a second.

Beyond those 2 people, I've seen only a couple of others where it was specifically designed for the university that asked for it. In one case, the foreign co-teachers were told to leave it alone after a short time, and the Japanese (medical) teachers took it over. In the other case, it was designed by an American doctor who, if I'm not mistaken, had military experience and a lot of support to put it into the uni. Very high level stuff. That doctor/teacher is not longer there.

Aside from that, you'll find the occasional textbook that claims to help teach medical English, but they are very hard to use, IMO.

Medical English is by its very nature a very specialized branch of ESP (English for Specific Purposes). Some universities will have classes related to it, and unless you end up with a business English job where your students are all in the medical profession, you will probably teach medical English only to uni students or the occasional private lesson.