 |
Susan Eggly (center) holds a ceremonial gift given to her by students in Uzbekistan |
Most classes teaching English as a second language begin with simple vocabulary words like house, car, please and thank-you. Instructor Susan Eggly had a much more difficult time translating words such as x-ray, clinical trial, antibiotic and statistical validity. Teaching conversational English to a non-native speaker is one thing. Teaching technical, medical English to a physician is quite another.
Susan Eggly, internal medicine instructor, traveled to Uzbekistan with support from the Open Society Institute, an organization dedicated to building the infrastructure and institutions of an open society in the nations of the former Soviet Union. Her program, called "English for Professionals," was established to teach the language to professionals in Tashkent, Uzbekistan who want to learn more about American law, medicine and journalism.
For two weeks, Eggly taught the medical component of the course, in which she trained medical workers and English teachers to share their own language skills with other professionals. "In the coming years, increasing numbers of Uzbekistani doctors and scientists will be attending international conferences and they need a working knowledge of the English language to collaborate and share with their colleagues," said Eggly. "They want to access and interpret the latest academic medical research and eventually, they would like to contribute to it.".