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  • SAS Core Learning: AHq
  • Language Taught In: Taught in French
  • Instructor: Karmarkar, Medha
  • Credits: 3

This course is intended for Majors and Minors, and students interested in health careers or public health.

Prerequisite: 132, 137, or placement at the 200 level.

Course Description:

As we live through an unprecedented global health crisis, never before have we felt a more urgent need to understand and help others navigate their healthcare encounters. A language and culture barrier often creates obstacles when it comes to communication between medical workers and patients. This course provides the necessary vocabulary, writing and oral communicative tools for students who plan to enter the medical profession, work with French-speaking patients, or volunteer in a francophone country in a medical setting. Students will have the opportunity not only to improve their fundamental oral and written language skills, but also their understanding of the central roles language and culture play in assuring communication across disciplines. Through various activities (role-plays, graphics, digital audio & video etc.), we will explore the nuances of the healthcare field focusing on the need to be sensitive to linguistic and cultural differences in the francophone world.

Course URL: A Canvas site will be available at the beginning of the semester

Course Satisfies Learning Goals:

  • Develop proficiency in spoken and written communication in French and master grammar structures, as well as basic skills in critical thinking needed to interact with patients in a medical context.
  • Develop a glossary of medical terms and expressions specific to their own medical field of interest.
  • Acquire tools necessary to identify the importance of the intercultural dimension of the medical field.
  • Effectively apply medical knowledge in simulations of a variety of cultural contexts.

Exams, Assignments & Grading Policy:

Attendance & Participation: 25%
Homework Blog: 10%
Quizzes (4): 20%
Two 2-page papers & two Infographics: 15%
Group project: 10%Final Exam: 20%

Course materials:

Articles, videos and exercises available on the course LMS (Canvas)
Hadley's French Medical Phrase Book: Hadley's Guide Anglais de Phrases Medicales by Susan Kirkham & Alan S. Lindsey (2004)

Schedule of Undergraduate Courses