Teaching Non Zulu-Speaking Medical Students to Communicate with Zulu-Speaking Patients in the Out-Patients' Department
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TEACHING NON ZULU-SPEAKING MEDICAL STUDENTS . TO COMMUNICATE WITH ZULU-SPEAKING PATIENTS .. , , IN THE OUT-PATIENTS' DEPARTMENT THE FORMULATION AND RATIONALE OF A ZULU FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ZSP) SECOND LANGUAGE SYLLABUS FOR THE MEDICAL CONSULTATION SETTING BY JACQUELlNE ANNE COCKERILL A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Human Sciences in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts, in the Department oflsiZulu, University of Natal, Durban. Supervisor: Mrs Beverley Muller December 2002 . ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would like to acknowledge, with thanks, the assistance of the following persons: ~ Mrs Beverley Muller, for guidance and encouragement and for the many hours she devoted to the supervision of this thesis. ~ Or Chris Ellis, Professor Sihawukele Ngubane and Or Thenjiwe Magwaza for their help in providing cultural information relating to Zulu perspectives on health and illness in the context of the medical consultation. ~ Mr Francis Zungu for transcribing and translating twelve of the taped consultations observed during my field-work in the hospitals. ~ The doctors (listed in Appendix D) who agreed to be interviewed by me or who allowed me to sit in on their consultations and observe their dealings with patients. ~ The medical superintendents at McCords Hospital, Bethesda Hospital, Mseleni Hospital, Manguzi Hospital and Mosvold Hospital who facilitated my research in the hospitals. ~ Red Cross and the staff responsible for their "flying doctor" service, for transporting me from Durban to the hospitals in northern Kwa-Zulu Natal. ~ The syllabus designers and administrative staff at the University of Natal Medical School, particularly Professor Michelle Mclean, Mrs Jackie Van Wyk and Ms Veena Singaram, for their assistance in the planning and implementation of the first one-year introductory medical Zulu course introduced at the Medical School in 2001. ~ My mother, Mrs Madeline Cockerill, for assistance with proof-reading and encouragement during the difficult phases of my research. ~ My sister and brother-in-law, Karen and Jonathan Rundle, for guidance and support in the use of the computer. With the exception of the above assistance, the work of this thesis is my own. Jacqueline Anne Cockerill December 2002 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.................................... 1 1.1 THE PROBLEM: THE LANGUAGE BARRIER BETWEEN DOCTOR AND PATIENT 1 1.2 HOW TO BRIDGE THE "LANGUAGE GAP": POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS 1 1.3 THESIS OBJECTIVES ,'" ,... ... .... 3 1.4 DEFINING THE TERM "ZSP"... ... ... ... ... ...... ............ ... ... 4 1.5 OUTLINE OF REMAINING CHAPTERS ,'" .. , ,., 5 CHAPTER 2: SETTING UP A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK & CONTEXTUALlSING THE RESEARCH...................................... 6 2.1 INTRODUCTION 6 2.2 MY APPROACH TO SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: 6 2.2.1 Communicative competency above grammatical mastery.................... 7 2.2.2 The "Design Down" Principle........................................................ 8 2.2.3 A learning-centred (ESP) approach to syllabus design........................ 9 2.3 WHAT IS ESP? 10 2.4 KEY ELEMENTS OF DESIGNING A SPECIFIC PURPOSE LANGUAGE COURSE , '" '" .. , 11 2.4.1 Needs Analysis 11 2.4.1.1 Munby's needs analysis model. 12 2.4.1.2 A shift in thinking about Needs Analysis 13 2.4.1. 3 Target situation analysis vs. learning situation analysis 13 2.4.1.4 Hutchinson and Waters' approach to needs analysis 14 2.4.1.5 Application of needs analysis to my course design 17 2.4.2 Syllabus Design 17 2.4.2.1 Defining syllabus design 17 2.4.2.2 Selecting a syllabus type 18 2.4.2.3 Considerations of my eclectic syllabus design 22 iii 2.4.3 Materials ········································· 26 2.4.4 Methodology 27 2.4.4.1 Learning is an active process 27 2.4.4.2 Learning is an emotional experience ,, 28 2.4.4.3 Pitching the course at the right level. 28 2.4.5 Evaluation ·.······························ 29 2.5 CONTEXTUALlSING THE RESEARCH: A REVIEW OF EXISTING RESOURCES 31 2.5.1 Medical Zulu cources 31 2.5.2 General Zulu second language courses 32 2.5.3 Other relevant resources 34 2.5.4 Contribution to be made by my research 35 2.6 SUMMARY ,., '" .. , , '" ... 36 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGy 38 3.1 INTRODUCTION 38 3.2 PARAMETER 1: RESEARCH APPROACH 38 3.3 PARAMETER 2: RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 39 3.4 PARAMETER 3: DEGREE OF FOCUS AND MANIPULATION OF CONTEXT " '" " .. , 40 3.5 PARAMETER 4: DATA AND DATA COLLECTION 41 3.5.1 Interviews with doctors 42 3.5.2 Observations of doctor-patient consultations 43 3.5.3 Informal consultations with other syllabus designers 45 3.5.4 Workshops on cross-cultural communication in the medical consultation 45 3.5.5 Data collection: gathering texts 46 3.5.6 Course evaluations questionnaires, classroom observations and feedback from learners 46 3.6 ANALYSIS OF RESULTS OBTAINED................................. ........ 47 iv CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH RESULTS 48 4.1 INTRODUCTION , ,. 48 4.2 FINDINGS RELATED TO THE TARGET SITUATION 48 4.2.1 Why is the language needed by the learner? '" '" , 48 4.2.2 With whom will the learner be communicating? ,. 48 4.2.3 Where will the language be used? 49 4.2.4 How will the language be used? 49 4.2.5 When will the language be used? 50 4.2.6 What does the learner need to be able to express? 50 4.2.6.1 Language functions: 50 a. Greeting & Introducing.................................... 52 b. Asking after health... 53 c. Questioning: Taking a patient's history 54 d. Instructing: Conducting a physical examination..... 57 e. Reassuring 57 f. Explaining '" '" '" 58 g. Suggesting further action 58 h. Saying goodbye/closing the conversation 59 4.2.6.2 Vocabulary: 59 a. Pain 60 b. Pregnancy/Birth/Mothering 61 c. Respiratory Problems '" 63 d. Nutrition 64 e. Skin infections , '" '" '" 65 f. Hypertension 66 g. Diarrhoea and Dehydration 67 h. Diabetes '" 68 i. Eye complaints...... 69 j. Genital system 70 k. Sexually transmitted diseases '" 70 I. Nausea 72 m. Fever. '" 72 n. Epilepsy 73 o. Broken limbs 73 p. Inability to sleep 74 q. Inappropriate vs. polite terminology , '" '" 74 r. Days, time, numbers 75 s. Code-switching and borrowed words 76 1. Depression '" '" 77 u. Cancer.......................................... 78 v 4.2.6.3 Grammatical structures: 79 a. Zulu noun class system 79 b. -Na- (to have) 80 c. Nga- (by means of/about) 80 d. Agentive prefixes y- and ng- 80 e. Locatives 80 f. Question words 81 g. Object concords 81 h. Statives 82 i. Passive mood 82 j. Present Tense (positive and negative) 82 k. Future Tense (positive and negative) 83 I. Recent & Remote Past (positive and negative)...... 83 m. Recent & Remote Past Compound tenses 83 n. Subjunctive mood 83 o. Imperatives 84 p. Dependent tense '" '" .. , 84 q. -nga- (can) 84 r. Adjectives 85 s. Relatives '" 85 t. Possessives 85 u. Demonstratives & locative-demonstratives... 85 v. Inclusive and exclusive pronouns: -nke (all) and -dwa (only) 85 w. Se- implication (meaning now) 86 4.2.6.4 Cultural elements: '" .. ,.. , 86 a. Terms of address , 86 b. The cross-cultural medical consultation 87 c. Culture bound syndromes... 88 d. Traditional healers 90 e. Use of euphemism and metaphor... .. 90 f. The "entry ticket" complaint. ,. ... .. .... 92 4.3 FINDINGS RELATED TO THE LEARNING SITUATION 93 4.3.1 Who are the learners? 94 4.3.1.1 Justification for selection of medical students as ideal target learners 94 4.3.1.2 Description of target learners 95 4.3.2 Why are learners doing the course? 97 4.3.3 How do learners learn? 99· 4.3.3.1 An overview of a typical 2-hour lecture 99 4.3.3.2 Reading and writing activities 99 vi 4.3.3.3 Emphasis on oral activities 99 4.3.3.4 Homework assignments & learner evaluation activities 101 4.3.4 What resources are available? 101 4.3.4.1 Handouts ··. 101 4.3.4.2 WebCT , ,, 102 4.3.4.3 Certificates upon completion of course 103 4.3.4.4 Recommended resource for future use: audio tapes 103 4.3.5 Where do learners learn? 103 4.3.6 When does the ZSP course tale place? 104 4.4 SUMMARY 104 CHAPTER 5: APPLICATION OF RESULTS & RATIONALE FOR SELECTION OF SYLLABUS CONTENT 106 5.1 ANALYSING AND INTERPRETING THE RESULTS 106 5.2 DEFINING FEATURES OF THE INTRODUCTORY MEDICAL ZULU COURSE I HAVE DESIGNED 106 5.2.1 It is designed for a specific purpose 107 5.2.2 It has been designed with a specific group of target learners in mind 107 5.2.3 The syllabus aims to promote oral competency 107 5.2.4 There are six mini-syllabuses comprising the eclectic syllabus... 107 5.2.5 60 Contact hours between lecturer & learners 108 5.3 OUTLINE OF THE SYLLABUS I HAVE DESiGNED...... 108 5.3.1 How to interpret the summary table 108 5.3.2 Summary table of the syllabus I have designed for an introductory medical Zulu course 110 5.4 CRITERIA FOR SELECTING SYLLABUS CONTENT 112 5.4.1 Situational need 112 5.4.2 Frequency of occurrence 114 5.4.3 Linguistic knowledge already possessed , 114 5.4.4 Time constraints 115 5.4.5 Emphasis on oral competency 115 5.4.6 Size of class 115 5.4.7 Facilities available 116 5.4.8 Learner motivation and enjoyment.. 116 vii 5.5 ORDERING SYLLABUS CONTENT 119 5.5.1 Unit of organisation ·· ················ .. ··· 119 5.5.2 Grammatical complexity ,,,, 121 5.5.3 Cyclical/spiral syllabus · 123 5.5.4 Dependence on previously taught structures ,, , 123 5.5.5 Priority of needs ,.. ,, ,,,.. ,, 124 5.5.6 Cohesion with other modules in the Medical School syllabus 125 5.6 DISCUSSION OF THE SIX SUB-SYLLABUSES INCLUDED IN THE SYLLABUS I HAVE DESIGNED 125 5.6.1 Themesffopics ··········· 125 5.6.2 Language Functions , , 129 5.6.3 Vocabulary ,,, ,, , 131 5.6.4 Grammatical Structures ·.