Creating an online training course for medical students to prepare them for professional communication in English

I. N. Ulianov Chuvash State University 428015, Cheboksary, Russia

^* Corresponding author: myasnikovaia@inbox.ru

Abstract

The modern stage of social development requires medical specialists to be proficient in a foreign language using it as a means of communication to solve professional and social problems. To achieve this purpose, it is necessary to establish a close link between the training process and the criteria and the content of the trainee’s professional activity. This involves solving the next task - identifying the communicative needs of a medical specialist when using a foreign language. To solve this problem, we undertook a study, which used a complex of methods: the study and analysis of scientific literature on the research topic, a survey using the developed questionnaire; methods of mathematical statistics for processing the results obtained during the survey. The survey was carried out among medical specialists of different categories working in medical institutions of the town of Cheboksary of the Chuvash Republic. The study revealed that the communicative needs of a medical specialist when using a foreign language are primarily pragmatic, so the process of teaching a foreign language should be profession-oriented, be subject to the main professional activity and contribute to solving professional problems. The result of the given study is the creation of an online English course for higher medical schools students with the help of distance educational technologies. This course is created taking into account the functional and psychological features peculiar to this contingent of students as well as specifics of their future work activity, past language experience and specific aims and objectives.