Creating and using interactive activities for teaching foreign medical students

Abstract

The purpose of creating and using interactive materials in teaching foreign medical students is to draw attention to the unique contribution that interaction with other students in a Medical English classroom makes to language learning and to give some advice on how teachers can help students get the most out of these activities and interaction in general. Medical students deal with medical jargon that is a language full of words of Greek-Latin origin, lexis that describes processes and parts of the human body, medical procedures, diseases, disorders and conditions. A teacher’s task is to present the target language, give students a chance to practise the new terms, and what is more, promote using the acquired language in a real-life medical context. This paper presents three interactive activities (taboo game, board game, role-play) that are adapted to the medical context, thoroughly planned and practised in class. The main aims of the activities, type of interaction, timing, scaffolding, instructions, instruction-checking questions, types of feedback, error correction, a suitable number of students in a group and anticipated problems are defined. The experiment proceeds in 6 stages: 1) adapting an interactive activity to the medical context; 2) creating a worksheet for students; 3) making a plan of setting up the activity for teachers; 4) using the planned activity in the classroom; 5) observing students in the process of performing/speaking/playing; 6) pointing out advantages and disadvantages of each interactive activity. Final results were obtained after the activities were used in the classroom, furthermore, observation and reflection helped to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each activity in a medical context. As a result, it was found that effective classroom management techniques will reduce the number of disadvantages.