Listening Instruction for ESP: Exploring Nursing Education Where English is a Lingua Franca

Abstract

Focusing on the specific area of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in the healthcare industry, this chapter explores a departmental needs analysis on the teaching and learning of listening. To investigate the ability of nursing students to understand patient information, the authors asked students to listen to healthcare scenarios and answer questions. With varying outcomes observed, the authors suggest specific steps that can be taken for listening in ELF healthcare training as well as other contexts where English is used for specific purposes.

Appendices

Appendix: Health Assessment Scenario

Shift Change

You are giving a shift report to the ongoing staff. Mr. Saddi is an 84-year-old with congestive heart failure who has developed pulmonary edema and has also acquired C-difficile in the hospital and has become dehydrated. Medications include furosemide (Lasix) 20 mg PO qd, digoxin 125 mg PO qd, potassium chloride (K-Dur) 20 mEq PO qd. He has vomited twice today, and you are not sure he kept his pills down. He is also stating that he ‘feels funny and I’m seeing halos around the lights—I wonder if I am going crazy’.

You report on the following:

• admitting diagnoses

• report vital signs (BP 180/82, P 92 R 26)

• urinary output hourly over the last eight hours

• auscultation: diminished air entry, inspiratory crackles throughout (review what this could be)

• cough is moist and non-productive

• tachycardic

• pulse irregular

• recent lab values show potassium level increasing

• disorientation

• patient opening eyes in response to touch

Questions for Reflection

• 1. To what extent does listening instruction in your program emphasize receptive skills? Interactive skills?

• 2. How consistent is the focus in your program with the professional learning needs of your students?

• 3. To what extent does your program use ‘the native speaker’ as the target model for listening instruction? What practical steps could you take to broaden listening instruction to include a variety of Englishes?

• 4. In what ways does listening pedagogy in your program address the three areas of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and interpretability? Are there any ways you could extend what is currently included for these areas in your listening instruction?

• 5. Few programs have access to medical simulation labs, flight simulators, or other similar resources. What could you or your program do to create some realistic experiences simulating students’ future professional contexts?