Conclusions1)The present situation of teaching English for medical purposes (EMP) in Japanese medical schools is chaotic.2)We need a standardized EMP curriculum and standardized national and international EMP goals.3) Based on Ministry of Education funding, a free Internet platform for EMP educational materials has been established and could be used to develop a national standardized EMP program.

The working group to improve foreign language education in medical schools established in 1994 and chaired by K. Uemura, M.D. sent questionaire about their present curricula and future plans for teaching English to the deans of all 49 public and 31 private medical schools from January 9 to March 9, 1995, and collected the responses from 30 (61.2%) public, 24 (77.4%) private, in total 54 (67.5%) medical schools. The teaching of useful English includes English conversation in 37 (68.5%), medical English in 34 (63.0%), and structures of medical papers in 9 (16.7%) schools. Medical English is also taught as extracurricular and other activities in 40 (74.1%) schools. These figures have increased as compared with the ques-tionaire conducted two years previously. English conversation can be taught to junior (1st & 2nd yrs) students, for whom medical English can only be taught on general medical topics such as the medical care delivery system, bioethics, roles of physicians, and primay care. Therefore medical English is more and more taught to middle-class (3rd & 4th yrs) and senior (5th & 6th yrs) students. It seems necessary to annually conduct a workshop for medical English teachers to improve their strategies of teaching.

“The first workshop to improve ‘Medical English’ teaching” was held on October 7-8, 1995 in Hamamatsu. An invited guest was Mr. Glendinning from Institute of Applied Language Studies, University of Edinburgh. As questionnaires for this workshop were performed, we report a result of questionnaires. Most participants shared their daily wonder or questions about ‘Medical English’ with others, and this was very beneficial for them. The techniques for ‘Medical English’ education, instructed by Mr. Glendinnign, was impressive for participants. As the program of the workshop was a little conceptual rather than practical, this point should be improved for the next time because most participants expected to learn more practical skills. Participants answered that this kind of annual workshop was useful and should be continued.

The working group to improve foreign language education in medical schools established in 1994 and chaired by K. Uemura, M.D. here proposes a model curriculum for teaching useful English in medical schools at three levels. The major objectives are listening, speaking, rapid reading, and sentence structuring including paragraphing for junior (1st & 2nd yrs) students, reading medical papers and charts in English, structures of medical scientific papers, and listening to medical English for middleclass (3rd & 4th yrs) students, and writing and orally presenting papers in English on given medical subjects are for senior (5th & 6th yrs) students.

The Working Group for the Improvement of Foreign Language Education in Medical Schools in Japan, organized in 1994 and chaired by Prof. K. Uemura, M.D. lists here English teaching materials for medical purposes. More than half of the materials listed are those that one of the group members, T. Ohki, has used or wants to use in his classes. The list has been enlarged due to the responses to the questionnare sent to those who participated in the first workshop held in 1995. The list is divided into 12 categories: listening & reading, writing, medical terminology, pronunciation, textbooks for training the four skills, essays on medicine, fictional stories about medicine & medical doctors, medical ethics and terminal care, handbooks for medical students and doctors, writing medical charts, self-teaching materials. and video materials.
It is hoped that the materials listed here will supplement a model curriculum for teaching ‘useful’ English in medical schools, as proposed by the working group.