TESOL教学方法应该如何运用

It was 25 years ago when I, as an ESL person, was living in Australia. One day my right-leg joint hurt suddenly. Then I went to see a General Practitioner (GP). It was easy for me to quickly describe the symptoms to the GP. Following the GP’s advice, an X-ray checkupwas made but no disease was diagnosed at that stage.

Then I started to get confused with the advice made by the GP. Reading the X-Ray report, he suggested me to either see a rheumatologist or an orthopedist. But due to my limitedknowledge of medical terms, those two specialists’ areas made no sense to me. I could not tell the difference between a rheumatologist and an orthopedist.

Therefore, sitting in the clinic office I had to repeatedly ask for clarification on those medical terms. The response from the GP related to some medical jargon such as “arthritis” “autoimmune diseases” and “skeletal system” which I had never heard of by that moment. And back to 25 years ago there were no electronic dictionaries. So, what I could do was to walk home first and look it up from a dictionary. Eventually, it took quite a hassle for me to digest the instructions given by my GP.

My following questions, however, remained unsolved after the initial consultation. “Whatis causing my joint pain? Can anything treat my joint pain? Is that treatment designed to simply relieve the pain or cure it for good?”

Apparently, that communication difficulty was a result of my inability to fully comprehend those English medical terms I had encountered. At that time, I of course felt embarrassed with those language barriers I was facing.

It was a day fraught with frustrations. My experience at that very moment was similar to the research finding that, ESL “customers may struggle to communicate what they want or even get necessary information regarding products or services.”^[28] For ESL patients with limited English ability, a study shows that language barriers affect genetic counseling sessions with them and that the available resources are ineffective in bridging communication barriers. Coping with language barriers impacts patient satisfaction.^[29]This kind of unsatisfaction is very true in my case as mentioned above.

Overall, (Lauring, 2008) argues that language is more than just a communication tool. It goes further to influence different aspects of the service encounter for ESL customers.^[30]

Specifically, Steinberg, et al (2016) have identified six themes that emerged relevant to health care across settings: the battle of managing language barriers, preference for bilingual providers, negative bias toward interpreted encounters, getting by with limited language skills, fear of being a burden, and stigma and discrimination experienced by LEP families.^[31]

In fact, fear of being a burden was a very strong feeling when I realized there had been so many confusions pending for clarification from my GP.

It is therefore crucial to build vocabulary. The more I increase my vocabulary in general, and specifically in areas like healthcare, technology, and so on, the better able I become to understand the English society, and the more deeply the discussions and debates I can get involved.