Needs analysis in teaching professional Turkish as a foreign language: Medicine

In this study, it is aimed to determine the needs of international medical and international medical specialty students for professional Turkish as a foreign language. The research was designed as a case study. The sample of the study was determined by criterion sampling technique, which is one of the purposeful sampling types. The sample of the study consisted of 125 international students studying undergraduate and medical specialty education in the faculties of medicine of 8 different universities in Turkey. The qualitative data of the study were obtained from the needs assessment form and semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher based on the literature in line with the purpose of the study. After obtaining official permissions, the needs assessment form was sent to international medical and international medical specialty students via e-mail for online responses and data were obtained from 115 students. The data obtained from the needs assessment form were analyzed by descriptive analysis. In order to examine the professional Turkish language needs of international medical and international medical specialty students in depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 international medical faculty and international medical specialty students. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed by content analysis. . The findings obtained from the needs assessment form and semi-structured interviews were compared with the information in the literature to determine the professional Turkish language needs of international medical and international medical speciality students. In the study, it was generally determined that international medical and international medical specialty students generally need communicative language skills in the practice of the profession and have difficulties in using language skills in the professional context. In addition to their communicative language skills, these students also had difficulties in written expression and reading skills in their field courses. It has been determined that the approaches, methods, techniques, programmes, syllabuses and course materials applied in the context of general purpose language teaching are insufficient to meet the professional language needs of the specified students. It has been determined that in addition to language instructors, instructors working in the field of medicine should take an active role in the planning processes of teaching professional Turkish to students who have reached a certain language level. It has been determined that it is necessary to teach cultural elements that are thought to be/will be an obstacle to communication in the professional field. Based on all the findings, it has been concluded that it is necessary to determine the professional language needs of international students separately for each class (undergraduate and specialty) in the field of medicine and to prepare the curriculum, course syllabus, course materials, measurement and evaluation tools in this context.