UCL CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES
& INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
SSCs 2015-2016
Spanish for Professional Purposes – Medicine
Prerequisite for entry
Successful completion of Spanish Current Affairs and Culture (Social, Historical and Political) at the UCL CLIE, or equivalent
qualifications/experience.
Course duration
Year 1 students: double-block (16 x 3-hour classes. Block 1: 8 x 3-hour classes; Block 2: workshops and tutorials related
to Project).
Year 2 students: single block (8 x 3-hour classes).
Self-Study
40 hours in total.
Course codes
LCSM6007.
Aims and Objectives
The course is designed for very advanced level students requiring the language for professional purposes.
It comprises knowledge and understanding both of the structure of the language and its use in professional environments,
such as presentations, meetings and conferences. The course covers career development in the target language countries,
business culture and conventions, negotiating and interacting, reading specialist medical texts, note-taking and debates
as well as other related topics. These areas will be related back to medicine.
The course will enhance knowledge and use of linguistically complex structures (a variety of styles and registers from a
range of authentic material). Various transferable skills will also be further developed.
Functions
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expressing specialised opinions, critical medical-related comments;
debating, commenting, negotiating;
suggesting, accepting, refusing;
describing, medical organisations and institutions;
defining specialised, professional concepts;
composing written pieces of information for professional purposes;
conducting presentations on complex professional topics;
summarising professional information from English to Spanish (and vice versa);
note-taking.
Course Content
Main topics/themes to be covered
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NGOs. Their structure and objectives. The need for them and why governments do not fulfil their function;
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The Spanish Health system. Employers/employees;
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Private medical insurances and National Health. Comparison and advantages/disadvantages;
Traditional and alternative medicine. Scientific research and results;
Medical Ethos. Hippocratic Oath;
The College of medicine as an institution;
The Ministry of Health;
Scientific Societies;
Electronic medical records versus paper records.
Skills
Reading
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reading for gist, scanning for specific information in professional sources;
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in-depth analysis of professional topics in relevant publications.
Writing
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CVs and formal business letters;
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note-taking from presentations;
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writing up presentations.
Listening
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radio, TV, audio- and video-tapes;
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presentations;
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professional debates.
Speaking
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formal and informal discussions, debates, round table;
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presentations.
Linguistic Structures
Discourse Strategies
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analysing/comparing various professional sources (different text types, styles and registers);
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preparing oral contributions for different audiences;
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spoken versus written professional communication.
Main Aspects of These Strategies
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structuring (logical structures);
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linking devices (lexical, grammatical);
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stylistic levels and their usage;
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professional vocabulary.
Learning Resources
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Nueva gramática de la lengua española, manual (Espasa Libros) – optional – ISBN: 9788467032819
The Oxford Spanish Dictionary, New Second Edition (OUP) – ISBN: 9780199543403
Materials for the course will be drawn from:
Authentic written material from various sources to be advised by tutor;
Authentic audio and audio-visual material.
In addition there is a wide range of language learning materials available for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.