Interdisciplinary Co-teaching Positively Changes the Perceptions of Cultural Elements of English Academic Writing among Health-science Graduate Students: A Pilot Study

10.6145/jme201405

Paul R. Saunders；Mei-Ling Tsai；Kuan-Lin Chen

English academic writing ； content-and language-integrated learning ； co-teaching ； cross-cultural

Journal of Medical Education

18卷1期（2014 / 03 / 01）

33 - 43

英文

To improve academic English of budding Taiwanese researchers to support their professional development, we developed an introductory elective course entitled ”Academic Writing in Rehabilitation Science.” In this course, an expert in rehabilitation sciences research and a language specialist collaboratively implemented an innovative approach. In this approach, the concept of ”content- and language-integrated learning (CLIL)” was integrated with the pedagogical practice of ”interdisciplinary co-teaching.” The course stressed conventions of English academic writing, with the main task being to write thesis proposals. An anonymous questionnaire was used to evaluate students' perceptions of their changes in English competency, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Both the quantitative and qualitative results indicated an overall positive response and general acceptance by graduate students of the collaborative efforts of a discipline expert and a language specialist teaching academic writing. The course raised students' awareness of one's cultural background in both thinking and learning styles. Specifically, students perceived that recognizing cross-cultural differences helped them to develop their abilities to communicate in English, particularly by increasing their confidence in managing and understanding of the use of English for scientific research. In conclusion, the integrated approach demonstrated the feasibility of applying CLIL in graduate programs. Future courses integrating language with other disciplines may enhance the academic English proficiency of graduate students in non-English speaking countries.

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