Testing English for Medical Purposes: the effects of traditional and distance education on learning outcomes
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Anna Barnau
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about new cultural and social phenomena that changed social interaction and communication. In this new situation, teachers teaching English for Medical Purposes (EMP) at the Jessenius Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Martin (JFM) had to adapt the courses to the educational needs of the students. This study explores the effects of traditional and distance education on learning outcomes in advanced English learners during three academic years. The sample consisted of 346 students. Three groups (G1, G2, G3) of first-year students attended online as well as face-to-face English courses and took EMP exams at the end of each summer semester. The test results were compared and evaluated. The methods of EMP teaching and testing were different in each group. G1 attended asynchronous online classes, G2 participated in synchronous online classes conducted in real-time, and finally, G3 participated in traditional classes. G1, G2 took online tests, and G3 took a pen-and-paper test. The questionnaire revealed that students appreciated the self-organization of study during online classes, but most criticized the lack of face-to-face communication, the classroom atmosphere, and technical difficulties during online teaching. Students participating in traditional classes missed their own time management and appreciated discussion in the classroom as well as teachers’ feedback on EMP performance.
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© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Introduction: the variety of realities of language learning and teaching in Higher Education throughout the world. A step forward to keep on sharing ideas
- Research Articles
- Model United Nations: a thematic analysis of Japanese EFL students’ reflections on intercultural communicative competence
- Japanese tertiary students’ perceptions of group work with explicit scaffolding
- A critical literacy class: beyond English learning and teaching in Higher Education
- Predictors of English Medium Instruction academic success in Vietnamese Higher Education
- University English-medium instruction in Türkiye – what instructors say
- Testing English for Medical Purposes: the effects of traditional and distance education on learning outcomes
- Using corpora in teaching vocabulary to advanced EFL learners in a higher education context
- Digital multimodal PechaKucha presentations in ESP: insights from students’ learning experiences
- From face-to-face tuition to online classes: ‘Re-styling’ a course of English for academic purposes
- Turning the tables on online exam cheating via language mediation tasks
- Attitudes to Spanish language variation. A study on Portuguese students of Spanish as a Foreign Language
- “Mur de paroles” – ou tentative de promotion de l’expression orale en langue française
- Activity Reports
- « Being plurilingual is a gift we make to ourselves. » : amener les étudiants à valoriser et développer leurs compétences plurilingues et pluriculturelles
- International collaborative tasks in language courses for engineers integrated in a multidimensional teaching format
- Training citizens as users of languages and digital technology. Real-world tasks to tame the digital wilds
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Introduction: the variety of realities of language learning and teaching in Higher Education throughout the world. A step forward to keep on sharing ideas
- Research Articles
- Model United Nations: a thematic analysis of Japanese EFL students’ reflections on intercultural communicative competence
- Japanese tertiary students’ perceptions of group work with explicit scaffolding
- A critical literacy class: beyond English learning and teaching in Higher Education
- Predictors of English Medium Instruction academic success in Vietnamese Higher Education
- University English-medium instruction in Türkiye – what instructors say
- Testing English for Medical Purposes: the effects of traditional and distance education on learning outcomes
- Using corpora in teaching vocabulary to advanced EFL learners in a higher education context
- Digital multimodal PechaKucha presentations in ESP: insights from students’ learning experiences
- From face-to-face tuition to online classes: ‘Re-styling’ a course of English for academic purposes
- Turning the tables on online exam cheating via language mediation tasks
- Attitudes to Spanish language variation. A study on Portuguese students of Spanish as a Foreign Language
- “Mur de paroles” – ou tentative de promotion de l’expression orale en langue française
- Activity Reports
- « Being plurilingual is a gift we make to ourselves. » : amener les étudiants à valoriser et développer leurs compétences plurilingues et pluriculturelles
- International collaborative tasks in language courses for engineers integrated in a multidimensional teaching format
- Training citizens as users of languages and digital technology. Real-world tasks to tame the digital wilds
