In this first book-length treatment of MELF, the authors assert that MELF represents an important contribution to our understanding of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), in that existing ELF research has been limited to relatively low stakes communicative situations, such as interactions in business, academia, internet blogging or casual conversations. Medical contexts, in contrast, often represent situations calling for exceptional communicative precision and urgency. Providing both evidence from their own research and analysis from (the limited number of) existing studies, the authors offer a counterpoint to the optimism regarding communicative success prevalent in ELF. The book proposes a theoretical perspective on how the various features of healthcare communication serve as important variables in shaping interaction among speakers of ELF, further enlarging our understanding of this emerging sub-field.

This edited volume brings together diverse international perspectives on the growing worldwide phenomenon of Medical English as a lingua franca, where speakers of other first languages use English as a vehicle for medical communication. A subset of the larger field of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), only a handful of studies of healthcare ELF communication have been published previously, despite its global expansion and potential impacts upon quality healthcare and patient safety. This book is inherently interdisciplinary nature, intersecting fields such as applied linguistics, English language teaching, medical education, and healthcare communication. The contributors and their research settings represent multiple national and linguistic backgrounds, and bring perspectives from their professional lives as healthcare workers and educators, and as language teachers and researchers. This volume contributes to filling a gap at the intersection of ELF and healthcare communication, and thus represents an area of study accessible to a broad range of professionals from numerous disciplines, and one that can be of benefit to multiple stakeholders: researchers, educators, healthcare institutions, and practitioners, as well as patients and their family members. The topics discussed in these pages will be of importance to a wide audience of readers, since accurate communication is at the centre of quality healthcare delivery.

In this first book-length treatment of MELF, the authors assert that MELF represents an important contribution to our understanding of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), in that existing ELF research has been limited to relatively low stakes communicative situations, such as interactions in business, academia, internet blogging or casual conversations. Medical contexts, in contrast, often represent situations calling for exceptional communicative precision and urgency. Providing both evidence from their own research and analysis from (the limited number of) existing studies, the authors offer a counterpoint to the optimism regarding communicative success prevalent in ELF. The book proposes a theoretical perspective on how the various features of healthcare communication serve as important variables in shaping interaction among speakers of ELF, further enlarging our understanding of this emerging sub-field.

This edited volume brings together diverse international perspectives on the growing worldwide phenomenon of Medical English as a lingua franca, where speakers of other first languages use English as a vehicle for medical communication. A subset of the larger field of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), only a handful of studies of healthcare ELF communication have been published previously, despite its global expansion and potential impacts upon quality healthcare and patient safety. This book is inherently interdisciplinary nature, intersecting fields such as applied linguistics, English language teaching, medical education, and healthcare communication. The contributors and their research settings represent multiple national and linguistic backgrounds, and bring perspectives from their professional lives as healthcare workers and educators, and as language teachers and researchers. This volume contributes to filling a gap at the intersection of ELF and healthcare communication, and thus represents an area of study accessible to a broad range of professionals from numerous disciplines, and one that can be of benefit to multiple stakeholders: researchers, educators, healthcare institutions, and practitioners, as well as patients and their family members. The topics discussed in these pages will be of importance to a wide audience of readers, since accurate communication is at the centre of quality healthcare delivery.

This edited volume brings together diverse international perspectives on the growing worldwide phenomenon of Medical English as a lingua franca, where speakers of other first languages use English as a vehicle for medical communication. A subset of the larger field of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), only a handful of studies of healthcare ELF communication have been published previously, despite its global expansion and potential impacts upon quality healthcare and patient safety. This book is inherently interdisciplinary nature, intersecting fields such as applied linguistics, English language teaching, medical education, and healthcare communication. The contributors and their research settings represent multiple national and linguistic backgrounds, and bring perspectives from their professional lives as healthcare workers and educators, and as language teachers and researchers. This volume contributes to filling a gap at the intersection of ELF and healthcare communication, and thus represents an area of study accessible to a broad range of professionals from numerous disciplines, and one that can be of benefit to multiple stakeholders: researchers, educators, healthcare institutions, and practitioners, as well as patients and their family members. The topics discussed in these pages will be of importance to a wide audience of readers, since accurate communication is at the centre of quality healthcare delivery.

This book outlines the present needs for biomedical information in europe and describes services and networks available for the infor- mation of health personnel in the main areas of the region. The in- creasing use of on-line data bases, for example, shows how clinical and medical research needs facilities for the retrieval and aquisiti- on of information. In the management and primary health care, infor- mation and documentation are often inadequate.