Investigating the Role of Continuing Education in Enhancing English Language skills of Healthcare Professionals

Abstract

The need for English as a professional language in medical sciences is nowadays beyond doubt. In this context, the present research aims at investigating the effectiveness of a Medical English course offered to a group of 25 healthcare professionals in a Hospital setting for the sake of identifying the role of Continuing Education in enhancing the English language skills of healthcare professionals in medical institutions in Algeria. Our research intends to design an effective ESP course for medical professionals who expressed their urgent need to learn this international language. A pre-test questionnaire was designed to analyze the needs of 25 healthcare professionals regarding the use of English language in medical contexts in Algeria, and a post-test questionnaire was designed to trace the progress of our informants. Thus our research is quasi experimental. Additionally, we designed an EMP course so as to teach it for the selected 25 healthcare practitioners in period of threemonth in hospital setting “Lalla Kheira” of Mostaganem . The aim of such types of courses is to prepare the learners to handle any situation in a given medical context as in international conferences. The results showed that healthcare professionals need to improve their English reading skills in order to stay updated. In addition to that, physicians and other healthcare professionals consider speaking as a crucial skill for them as it is required to carry on conversations with foreigners, and to ask questions during conferences. The overall findings of this study revealed a significant improvement in the participants’ English language skills after the course. As a matter of fact, we conclude that there is a need for integrating Medical English language courses in Continuing Education programs to assure an effective teaching of medical English to Algerian healthcare professionals.