MITA Past Meetings

Required courses (total 40 hours)

Electives

Medical English 3 (Clinical Spoken English)
Extracurricular activities (ER Evening, Extra Medical English, Oral Presentation Training)

The purposes of the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine's Medical English program:

to improve students' passive and active command of English through development of reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills (language instruction),
to increase students' medical vocabulary and thereby their understanding of medicine (enrichment),
to accustom students to non-Japanese norms and behavior (acculturation),
to prepare students to function in non-Japanese professional settings (training for overseas clerkships and internships and active participation in international conferences), and
to humanize students' medical education (re-humanization).

Activities in ME2 included notably:

First day: demonstrations of extracurricular ER Evening and Extra Medical English program
Worksheets (for reading assignments & listening exercises)
Templates (for next-speaker introduction, drug explanation)
Readings, summarization
Mini-presentations (on a medical specialty, a symptom or sign), explanation (of a drug mechanism, indications/contraindications, side effects)
Morning Report case presentation
"What I Learned in Class Today"

Feedback data: Free-form self-assessment:
("What I Learned in Medical English 2 This Semester")

Total responses from four classes: 9/10, 10/13, 7/8, 12/24 = 38/55 (69%)

Student comments (paraphrased), from most to least frequent:

I learned/improved my presentation (communication) skills (23)
I learned medical facts (about autism, depression, malpractice, specialties, clinical skills) (13)
I learned medical terms, vocabulary (11)
I read (interesting) essays, (useful) case presentation materials (demonstrating importance of non-medical factors in disease, improving summarizing skills) (11)
I practiced listening (10)
I practiced role playing, history taking (8)
I realized my need for more study (7)
I learned correct pronunciation, realized the importance of correct pronunciation (6)
I practiced writing, WILICT (5)
I had opportunities for discussion, speaking English (5)
ME2 was too difficult, especially the listening exercises (5)
ME2 requirements competed with club activities, Monday exams (5)
I reviewed medical facts I had learned earlier in Japanese (3)
I realized my need for more reading and writing practice (2)
ME2 eased my anxiety about speaking English/my reluctance to speak English (2)
The homework was too difficult (2)

Other points raised by one student each: