9Identifying and responding to learner needs
at the medical faculty: the use of audio‑visual
specialised fiction (FASP)
Rebecca Franklin-Landi1
Abstract
S ince the development of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in
the 1980’s, learner needs have been central to English for Specific
Purposes (ESP) teaching and learning, including in the field of English for
Medical Purposes (EMP). This paper reports on two studies, conducted
at Nice University Medical Faculty between October 2015 and March
2016, designed to analyse and respond to learner needs in EMP. While
the first study was a needs analysis of medical students, the second
one concentrated on certain needs previously identified and sought to
satisfy them using audio-visual specialised fiction or ‘Fiction À Substrat
Professionnel’ (FASP). It focusses on the use of a clip from a medical
television series and how it was used in the classroom to reinforce good
medical practice through the identification of on-screen procedural
problems. Qualitative data were collected using questionnaires and
interviews and data analysis showed an evolution in students’ critical
analysis and in their cultural and medical practice awareness. The study
therefore suggests that it is possible to satisfy a demand for quality
language education with students who are not language specialists and
that audio-visual FASP seems to be an interesting and useful pedagogical
tool in ESP to meet the differing needs of specific professions.
Keywords: task-based language teaching, specialised fiction, FASP, EMP, learner
needs, sociocultural approach.
1. Nice University, Nice, France;
How to cite this chapter: Franklin-Landi, R. (2017). Identifying and responding to learner needs at the medical faculty:
the use of audio-visual specialised fiction (FASP). In C. Sarré & S. Whyte (Eds), New developments in ESP teaching and
learning research (pp. 153-170). Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2017.cssw2017.750
© 2017 Rebecca Franklin-Landi (CC BY) 153
,Chapter 9
1. Introduction
EMP has been a flourishing field of research in English-speaking academia for
several decades since Maher’s (1986) article clearly set out the state of the art in
this speciality. Within the French academic world, specific EMP research became
popular during the late 1980’s and 1990’s in parallel with the development of
ESP. As ESP finds itself at the intersection of several disciplines, researchers tend
to concentrate on particular areas dependent on their own academic interests or
backgrounds (Sarré & Whyte, 2016) and this heterogeneity is equally found in
EMP. It is for this reason that different approaches within ESP/EMP research
have developed (Gledhill & Kübler, 2016; Sarré & Whyte, 2016) didactics and
classroom practice, concept-oriented linguistics, and context-oriented linguistics.
It is important, however, to emphasise the fact that these differing research
directions do not function independently and inter-relations exist between them.
In the field of didactics and classroom practice in particular, learner needs have
been central to ESP teaching and learning since the 1980’s, as it is usually the
starting point of ESP course design (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). This chapter
will contribute to this area by reporting on two studies related to EMP needs,
including a pedagogical intervention using audio-visual specialised fiction
(FASP) designed to develop EMP students’ cultural knowledge. This contribution
therefore has two main objectives: (1) to identify the needs of EMP learners at a
French medical faculty; and (2) to evaluate to what extent the use of audio-visual
specialised fiction can meet these needs. After reviewing the relevant literature,
we will present the methods used in both studies and the results obtained, before
discussing how these results compare with similar studies.
2. Literature review
Applied linguistics, described as “the theory and practice of language acquisition
and use” (Kramsch, 2000, p. 317), was perhaps the first attempt by academic
researchers to apply language theory to real-life situations. It forms the basis for
many of the pedagogical and language-acquisition theories that have developed
154
, Rebecca Franklin-Landi
over the years. The two principal applied-linguistic approaches to ESP are
the concept-oriented approach and the context-oriented approach (Gledhill &
Kübler, 2016). The concept-oriented approach concentrates on the technical
language and linguistic structures employed within a specialist domain, for
example through metaphor analysis (English, 1998), whereas the context-
oriented approach considers the social or cultural context when analysing
specialist language. Within the context-oriented approach to ESP, we find the
specific branch of discourse analysis, which concentrates on the vocabulary,
grammar, and sentence construction used in ESP texts. Discourse analysis
can, among other pedagogical uses, provide the basis for glossaries, medical
dictionaries, and vocabulary lists, as suggested in a study on deceptive cognates
in English and Spanish medical articles (Divasson & León, 2002).
The third main branch of ESP research, that is didactics, developed with the
evolution of TBLT in the 1980’s and 1990’s (Ellis, 1994, 2003, 2013; Foster,
1999) where classroom practice became the subject of academic research.
TBLT has been widely put into use in the EMP classroom (Faure, 2003; Pavel,
2014) and is still being researched today. Indeed, task-based language teaching
is at the root of a communicative approach to EMP in which role-play and
simulations of specific medical situations are employed to develop the learner’s
oral professional autonomy (Hoekje, 2012). Didactics has often, however, been
considered as being the “poor relation” to the two more linguistically-based
research specialities (Sarré & Whyte, 2016, pp. 150-151). Concentrating more
closely on what is actually done in a language classroom and on the concrete
methods and techniques that teachers employ to help their students acquire the
target language, didactic research is accused of being too context-specific to be
easily replicated and for the pedagogical practices reported on to be adopted
on a wider scale (Whyte & Sarré, 2016). This negative image has recently
been called into question by Sarré and Whyte (2016), who demand that a clear
research framework for ESP didactics be established to avoid an anecdotal style
in academic articles and to enable this research to be recognised at its true value.
Despite, or perhaps because of, this tendency to discount practical teaching
analysis, attempts have been made to analyse the different currents present in
didactic research.
155
at the medical faculty: the use of audio‑visual
specialised fiction (FASP)
Rebecca Franklin-Landi1
Abstract
S ince the development of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in
the 1980’s, learner needs have been central to English for Specific
Purposes (ESP) teaching and learning, including in the field of English for
Medical Purposes (EMP). This paper reports on two studies, conducted
at Nice University Medical Faculty between October 2015 and March
2016, designed to analyse and respond to learner needs in EMP. While
the first study was a needs analysis of medical students, the second
one concentrated on certain needs previously identified and sought to
satisfy them using audio-visual specialised fiction or ‘Fiction À Substrat
Professionnel’ (FASP). It focusses on the use of a clip from a medical
television series and how it was used in the classroom to reinforce good
medical practice through the identification of on-screen procedural
problems. Qualitative data were collected using questionnaires and
interviews and data analysis showed an evolution in students’ critical
analysis and in their cultural and medical practice awareness. The study
therefore suggests that it is possible to satisfy a demand for quality
language education with students who are not language specialists and
that audio-visual FASP seems to be an interesting and useful pedagogical
tool in ESP to meet the differing needs of specific professions.
Keywords: task-based language teaching, specialised fiction, FASP, EMP, learner
needs, sociocultural approach.
1. Nice University, Nice, France;
How to cite this chapter: Franklin-Landi, R. (2017). Identifying and responding to learner needs at the medical faculty:
the use of audio-visual specialised fiction (FASP). In C. Sarré & S. Whyte (Eds), New developments in ESP teaching and
learning research (pp. 153-170). Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2017.cssw2017.750
© 2017 Rebecca Franklin-Landi (CC BY) 153
,Chapter 9
1. Introduction
EMP has been a flourishing field of research in English-speaking academia for
several decades since Maher’s (1986) article clearly set out the state of the art in
this speciality. Within the French academic world, specific EMP research became
popular during the late 1980’s and 1990’s in parallel with the development of
ESP. As ESP finds itself at the intersection of several disciplines, researchers tend
to concentrate on particular areas dependent on their own academic interests or
backgrounds (Sarré & Whyte, 2016) and this heterogeneity is equally found in
EMP. It is for this reason that different approaches within ESP/EMP research
have developed (Gledhill & Kübler, 2016; Sarré & Whyte, 2016) didactics and
classroom practice, concept-oriented linguistics, and context-oriented linguistics.
It is important, however, to emphasise the fact that these differing research
directions do not function independently and inter-relations exist between them.
In the field of didactics and classroom practice in particular, learner needs have
been central to ESP teaching and learning since the 1980’s, as it is usually the
starting point of ESP course design (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). This chapter
will contribute to this area by reporting on two studies related to EMP needs,
including a pedagogical intervention using audio-visual specialised fiction
(FASP) designed to develop EMP students’ cultural knowledge. This contribution
therefore has two main objectives: (1) to identify the needs of EMP learners at a
French medical faculty; and (2) to evaluate to what extent the use of audio-visual
specialised fiction can meet these needs. After reviewing the relevant literature,
we will present the methods used in both studies and the results obtained, before
discussing how these results compare with similar studies.
2. Literature review
Applied linguistics, described as “the theory and practice of language acquisition
and use” (Kramsch, 2000, p. 317), was perhaps the first attempt by academic
researchers to apply language theory to real-life situations. It forms the basis for
many of the pedagogical and language-acquisition theories that have developed
154
, Rebecca Franklin-Landi
over the years. The two principal applied-linguistic approaches to ESP are
the concept-oriented approach and the context-oriented approach (Gledhill &
Kübler, 2016). The concept-oriented approach concentrates on the technical
language and linguistic structures employed within a specialist domain, for
example through metaphor analysis (English, 1998), whereas the context-
oriented approach considers the social or cultural context when analysing
specialist language. Within the context-oriented approach to ESP, we find the
specific branch of discourse analysis, which concentrates on the vocabulary,
grammar, and sentence construction used in ESP texts. Discourse analysis
can, among other pedagogical uses, provide the basis for glossaries, medical
dictionaries, and vocabulary lists, as suggested in a study on deceptive cognates
in English and Spanish medical articles (Divasson & León, 2002).
The third main branch of ESP research, that is didactics, developed with the
evolution of TBLT in the 1980’s and 1990’s (Ellis, 1994, 2003, 2013; Foster,
1999) where classroom practice became the subject of academic research.
TBLT has been widely put into use in the EMP classroom (Faure, 2003; Pavel,
2014) and is still being researched today. Indeed, task-based language teaching
is at the root of a communicative approach to EMP in which role-play and
simulations of specific medical situations are employed to develop the learner’s
oral professional autonomy (Hoekje, 2012). Didactics has often, however, been
considered as being the “poor relation” to the two more linguistically-based
research specialities (Sarré & Whyte, 2016, pp. 150-151). Concentrating more
closely on what is actually done in a language classroom and on the concrete
methods and techniques that teachers employ to help their students acquire the
target language, didactic research is accused of being too context-specific to be
easily replicated and for the pedagogical practices reported on to be adopted
on a wider scale (Whyte & Sarré, 2016). This negative image has recently
been called into question by Sarré and Whyte (2016), who demand that a clear
research framework for ESP didactics be established to avoid an anecdotal style
in academic articles and to enable this research to be recognised at its true value.
Despite, or perhaps because of, this tendency to discount practical teaching
analysis, attempts have been made to analyse the different currents present in
didactic research.
155
