Teaching Czech to Foreign Students at Medical Schools in the Czech Republic - Approach, Problems and New Challenges
Abstract
For medical students in English study programme in the Czech Republic, knowledge of the Czech language is an important tool for successful communication with Czech patients and for practicing their practical skills in medicine. However, most of them meet Czech for the first time in the first year of their medical studies.
This predetermines certain specifics of teaching this language, which in a very short time must progress from A0 level to a language for specific purposes - i.e., medicine. Given that Czech is only a marginal subject for foreign future doctors with a relatively small time allowance, it is necessary to effectively balance the grammar part with the practicing of appropriate doctor-patient communication using an adequate vocabulary.
This is a challenge not only for the students themselves, but of course also for the teachers who prepare the concept of the subject and create the contents of the courses. The following article aims to map the current situation in the teaching of Czech as a foreign language at Czech medical schools and to outline some problems and challenges.