Developing Medical Students’ English-Language Clinical Communication Competence through Simulated Clinical Scenarios

Abstract

This paper examines the pedagogical potential of simulation-based doctor- patient interactions in teaching English to medical students. Drawing on international studies, it proposes a three-stage instructional model integrating language learning with clinical practice, together with scenario-based tasks and criteria for assessing communication skills. The model comprises a preparatory stage devoted to topic-specific terminology and patient- friendly explanatory expressions, a stage of simulated clinical encounters in which students rotate through the roles of doctor, patient and observer, and a stage of criterion-based reflection supported by video recording or an observation checklist. The paper is theoretical and methodological in character: it does not report the results of a pedagogical experiment conducted by the author, but proposes an approach for practical implementation on the basis of a review of existing research.