Vocabuláry Course for Trainee Nurses

Abstract

Within the curricular units of the doctoral program in linguistics at the University of Évora, a project was developed that led to the implementation of an English course, 16 hours for undergraduate nursing students. The first step involved an analysis of needs to identify linguistic gaps, areas of interest, and students’ expectations. The analysis of the questionnaires lead to three main ideas: the majority of the students had an intermediate level of English; they expressed interest in expanding specialized vocabulary; and they had never studied English in this specific area.The course was structured to promote vocabulary learning through games, naming activities, as well as reading/comprehension. Among the highlighted topics are the heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, and diabetes. Course materials were created and adapted from TedEd videos, specialized books, platforms, and games for vocabulary reinforcement. Through this project, it was observed the need for the implementation of specialized courses in this field.