2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Developing In-Service English Training Programs for Doctors and Nurses in Japan
| Project/Area Number |
18K00653
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| Research Institution | Kagawa University |
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Principal Investigator |
Willey IanDavid 香川大学, 大学教育基盤センター, 准教授 (90403774)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
鈴木 裕美 香川大学, 医学部, 助教 (00644733)
G・M McCrohan 香川大学, 大学教育基盤センター, 准教授 (20448351)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | in-service learning / Medical English |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In 2019, we held two courses for medical staff and faculty at Kagawa University Hospital, in the spring and autumn.
The spring course was four weeks long with one meeting per week. 19 medical staff and faculty joined this class (primarily medical doctors, nurses, and graduate students). In our first year we learned that participants would prefer to learn professional-level skills, and we set the course theme as Conference Skills. Participants were given advice on how to structure and deliver oral presentations, and practiced mini-presentations in small groups. Feedback on the course was obtained through a post-course questionnaire; reactions from participants was largely positive, though the homework load may have compelled several participants to drop out.
The autumn course focused on Poster Presentations. For this course, we attempted a radicaly different approach. All participants were given a book on preparing poster presentations (paid for by the grant) and participants were limited to 15. A pre-course/post-course survey on participants' Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and international posture was also conducted to assess the impact of the course on participants' WTC and interest in international activities. However, due to poor attendance and dropout the survey did not generate significant findings. However, post-course surveys and interviews indicated that courses in 2019 were received more positively than those conducted in 2018, indicating that a shift in focus to professional-level skills may have been successful.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Although we were successfully able to offer two English courses for medical staff and faculty in 2019, irregular attendance and dropout prevented our pre-course/post-course survey of participants' Willingness to Communicate and international posture were inconclusive. These surveys must be conducted again when our next courses are offered. However, we were able to gather a sizeable amount of qualitative data (from post-course interviews and discussions) on these courses to further refine our understanding of the English needs and difficulties of medical staff and faculty.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In 2020, we planned to change our approach by 1) offering weekend seminars rather than month-long weekly courses, and 2) establishing a "Conference Club" with regular members and periodic meetings. By offering weekend seminars, it is our hope that we will be able to overcome problems with irregular attendance and participant dropout, which were significant issues in the first two years of this study.
Also,in the past two years several medical staff and faculty members have participated regularly in our courses, and in post-course interviews we have learned that they would prefer a regular course with periodic meetings of the same members; for this reason we decided to establish a Conference Club.
Both courses will be an opportunity to collect qualitative data on participants' English needs, through focus-group and one-on-one interviews as well as pre/post surveys of participants' WTC as well as participants' compassion. However, due to the current Covid-19 crisis classes for 2020 have been suspended indefinitely. We hope to be able to offer classes using Zoom or another remote learning system in the near future, if circumstances allow.
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| Causes of Carryover |
During 2019 only one research was able to attend an international conference, resulting in money leftover for this term. We hope to be able to use this money to allow one presenter to attend an additional international conference, if circumstances permit.
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