On this page, I will try to keep readers updated regarding medical English conferences, with a focus on the East Asian region. If you know of such an event, please send the details to me through the contact us form on this website or at michael@med.miyazaki-u.ac.jp
Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, early 2021 is still not a good time for conferences. However, there are some tentative dates and (fingers crossed) scheduled conferences that should be noted. Scroll down to see them.
- One conference that Medical English teachers can look forward to is the 2021 EALTHY (European Association of Language Teachers for Healthcare) to be held in Belgrade (University of Belgrade), Serbia on Sept. 17-18, Sept, 2021. A call for papers can be found here. Closing date for abstracts is Feb. 15/2021. (UPDATE – This conference will be postponed for one year, so expect details for Sept. 2022)
2. A conference of note that was cancelled in 2020, but appears to be on schedule for May, 2021 is the Languages In Focus conference to be held in Malta. This is a multi-disciplinary conference with a strong ESP focus. I expect that submission details will be uploaded soon. (Update: The 2021 event was also cancelled and the status and location for 2022 is as yet unknown).
3. The annual Japan Society for Medical English Education (JASMEE) will hold its 24th annual conference in Kanazawa, Japan, on July 17-18th, 2021. The Call for Papers is open until March 22nd. For more information look here. (Update: This event was conducted online. A summary of presentation content will appear in the Japan Association of Medical English Education (JMEE) Journal in October. I will link it when it appears.)
4. The Japan Association for Nursing English Teachers (JANET) 3rd annual conference will be held in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, June 27/28th (UPDATE Feb. 08, 2021 – The conference was held ONLINE). The JANET Online magazine, Nursing English Nexus, is regularly seeking articles discussing the teaching and practice of Nursing English which can be found here.
5. The Japan Society for Medical Education (JSME) Conference was held online in Tochigi, Japan, on July 30/31st, 2021. There is an international section within this conference which hosts many visiting researchers and students from ASEAN countries. More information can be found regarding future conferences can be found here.
6. On Dec. 15/2020, Voronezh N.N. Burdenko State Medical University, one of the most active and progressive seats of medical English education in Russia, held an online international conference on ‘Languages in Medical Education‘ for which I was invited to be a plenary speaker. Here, I addressed the topic of ‘How Studying Clinical English Discourse Can Be Beneficial to Medical Students not Living in Anglophone Settings‘. The slides used for this presentation can be obtained by request from EAMET at michael@med.miyazaki-u.ac.jp.
Reports:
At the top of our ‘must do’ conference list for 2019 was the EALTHY (European Association of Language Teaching for Healthcare) conference held at Universität Jaume I, Castellon de la Plana, Spain, on October 3-4, 2019. This is likely the best conference for EAMET members to attend or present at outside Asia. Below is our 2019 EALTHY Conference Report:
This year’s conference exuded the same small-scale, personalized flavour of its predecessor, held in Switzerland two years ago, with just under 30 presentations, workshops, and seminars, 15 posters, and two keynote speeches. Over 90 participants from all over Europe attended — with a handful more from the U.S. and Asia. All were practitioners and/or experts and/or active members within the field of healthcare English, dividing themselves among the three presentation rooms on the Jaume I University campus, just over 2 hours south of Barcelona. The fact that every EALTHY presenter works within Healthcare and English communication in some capacity means that every presentation or seminar/workshop is relevant to participants.
Outside of the posters and presentations, there was also a Wine Night (most apropos for Spain!) and a ‘Hot Tips for Teaching’ rapid-fire session of twelve three-minute ‘good practice’ classroom tips.
The themes at EALTHY Conferences revolves around English communication in Healthcare, particularly under the rubric of the medical humanities (for a short personal essay on the pros and cons of the notion of medical humanities see my essay here). Prof. Elena Semino of Lancaster University (U.K.) was one such keynote speaker, focusing upon a corpus-based analysis of the role of metaphor in medical communications, particularly in the fields of cancer and pain management. The other keynote speaker, Dr. Jim Parle (Birmingham University, U.K.), reviewed how the concept of medical communication training has changed over his 40 years of service and what could be done to advance the field even more. Several of Dr. Parle’s interesting comments are referred to in my essay on the pros and cons of the current status of the Medical Humanities.
Virginia Allum hosted an interactive session on teaching Nursing English. EAMET member Simon Capper reports:
‘In the first part of her talk, Allum elicited potential study topics derived from deceptively simple images such as cartoons or photos. For example, a photo of a urinalysis stick could be used to elicit alternative medical terminology. The second technique demonstrated the development of vocabulary groups from flash cards, for example how a word like ‘vomit’ can generate related terms.’
The next EALTHY Conference will take place in 2021 (it is a bi-annual event) and as soon as the location and other details are announced I’ll be sure to post them here.
The Japan Association of Nursing English Teachers (JANET) held its 2nd annual conference on June 22nd and 23rd in Nagano, Japan. This is, as far as I know, the only conference in Asia that focuses solely upon nursing English. Once again, participants were treated to a wide variety of presentations that ran the gamut from theory, to practice, to research, to reports, to practical hands-on training suggestions. Kudos to JANET coordinators Mathew Porter and Simon Capper (both EAMET members) for another successful conference. Next year’s conference will take place at the Aiina Center in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, June 27-28th. The Call for Papers is open from Dec. 15, 2019 to March 30th, 2020.
The latest issue of the JANET’s online magazine, ‘Nursing English Nexus’, can be viewed here.
An interesting item that came by my email inbox recently was an announcement from Specialist Language Courses (SLC) headed by Chris Moore (who I recently met in Spain) with numerous contributions made by Nursing English expert Virginia Allum. This is a fully accredited UK-based group that specializes in creating online medical English materials and indeed they have carved out specialized online courses in English for Medical Academic Purposes (EAMP), including specialized skills such as presentations. Russia’s leading Sechenov University uses these materials and recently uploaded a link focusing specifically upon how they viewed and managed a clinical case report/presentation. You can see for yourself here. The fact that these materials are so particular and focused should be intriguing to EMP teachers anywhere, but especially to those of you who work in non-English speaking environments. Chris has kindly provided me access to the site and I’ll be reporting upon it soon.
5. One of Japan’s leading organizations in terms of medical English education is JAMI, the Japan Association for Medical Informatics. They sponsor/manage a number of interesting events as can be seen at: https://www.jami.jp/english/
Previous conference reports:
The Japan Society for Medical English Education (JASMEE) held its annual conference at the Nippon University Dental School in Tokyo on July 28th and 29th, 2018. https://jasmee.jp/21st-academic-meeting-2018-7-28-29/
‘Tekipaki’ is a Japanese word that translates roughly to ‘smooth, organized, efficient.’ As you probably know, many aspects of Japan are ‘tekipaki.’ This would also apply to the annual JASMEE Conference, held recently in Central Tokyo. Over two full days 26 regular presentation sessions and 4 special guest speaker sessions were held, with an additional 10 poster presentations, plus a final 12-member Pecha-kucha (Google it!) session.
As standard presentations are only 12 minutes (plus 3 for Q&A), the pace of the conference moves quickly. And although all presentations take place within one lecture hall, participants are able to roam freely in the poster and exhibition areas. Perhaps most invigorating for potential presenters or participants is the fact that all presentations focus specifically upon aspects of medical English education — which you can never find at larger, more widely-scoped conferences.
This is probably the pre-eminent medical English event in Japan, if not Asia (if I’m wrong please let me know!) as it brings together a combination of medical English teachers, scholars/researchers, and medical practitioners sharing ideas, research results and networking among peers. Attendance this year was split approximately 50/50 between Japanese and non-Japanese, however it would be good to see medical English teachers from other parts of East Asia here as it presents a wonderful opportunity to further the scope of your research, practice, or simply making international connections.
The related JMEE Journal will be publishing outlines of several presenter’s research as presented at the conference later in 2018. Hopefully, this might stimulate the appetite of readers to visit next year, when the same event will again be held in Tokyo.
The Japan Association for Nursing English Teaching (JANET) held its first ever conference in Fukui, Japan on June 23rd and 24th, 2018. If you are interested in establishing nursing education exchange links with a Japanese nursing school this conference represents a great opportunity to do so. A report on this event can be read below:
The First Annual JANET (Japan Association of Nursing English Teachers) Conference. Fukui, Japan June 23-24, 2018
Rather than give you a generic report of this conference let me try to capture your interest by first stating that this was the inaugural, the very 1st, JANET conference and one of the very, very few conferences I know of anywhere in Asia that focuses solely upon Nursing English education. For that reason alone, if you are involved in nursing English education this could/should be a conference that gets marked on your calendar.
This conference was a very manageable, agreeable gathering – half a Saturday and half a Sunday morning all contained within one room, with 12 30-minute presentations, 7 posters, and a very congenial atmosphere.
Here’s where it gets most interesting for EAMET members and readers outside Japan:
a. A large number of JANET presentations discussed the establishment and operation of international nursing English exchange/practice programs, with some taking place in South East Asia. If you would like to establish such a relationship with a Japanese university nursing program this conference would be a great way to make acquaintances and connections.
b. In the future, we hope to have English-speaking nurses and nursing program administrators, as well as nursing English teachers, attend and present at the JANET conference. I hope to see some EAMET members from South East Asia attend next year.
The next JANET conference will be held in Nagano (Central Japan), likely in June again. I’ll provide information as this becomes more established. Meanwhile why not peruse the Nursing English NEXUS online magazine? You can see it here. https://www.janetorg.com/nexus
The EALTHY (European Association of Language Teachers for Healthcare) Conference took place in Bern, Switzerland Oct. 28/29, 2017. This may be the most comprehensive medical English teaching conference and organization currently operating. Here is a brief report on the EALTHY 2017 Conference : EALTHY 2017
Check out the link, join if you wish, and consider attending the next EALTHY conference as mentioned at the top of this page.