Methodological Approach to English for Biomedical Scientists

Abstract

English is the global language of communication in all major scientific, medical and technological fields today. For biomedical sciences in particular, English has now become the norm for communicating and sharing scientific information. Therefore, biomedical scientists require not only scientific skills and expertise, but also the capacity to communicate effectively in scientific English. The majority of non-English biomedical scientists would have normally studied English as a second language at some point during their training. They are likely to read English without major problems. This is as long as it is just reading silently to themselves (?). Reading aloud is a totally different issue. The real challenge commences when faced with the fact that in order to be part of the global biomedical scientific world, they will require to understand and to express themselves using professional English for international presentations and meetings. Although these challenges are common to doctors in many medical specialties, as seen in other books of this series, the case for biomedical scientists is even stronger. As a professional group, international biomedical scientists are very likely, actually they are almost expected, to move to a foreign laboratory at some point in their careers, most commonly to an English-speaking country, in order to continue professional training and career development. For this reason, their English needs go well beyond reading, writing, and presenting, to actually being capable of applying for jobs, writing résumés, facing job interviews in English, and settling into a new working environment in English. In addition to biomedical scientists, biomedical scientific English is becoming a common requirement for international medical doctors from nearly every medical or surgical specialty. Many medical doctors from a variety of specialties complete their clinical training with laboratory-based research training periods.