scholarly journals Professional language use by alumni of the Harvard Medical School Medical Language Program

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Pereira ◽  
Kari Hannibal ◽  
Jasmine Stecker ◽  
Jennifer Kasper ◽  
Jeffrey N. Katz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical School ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Harvard Medical School ◽  
Language Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
Paired Data ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Medical Language ◽  
Language Courses

Abstract Background Despite the growing number of patients with limited English proficiency in the United States, not all medical schools offer medical language courses to train future physicians in practicing language-concordant care. Little is known about the long-term use of non-English languages among physicians who took language courses in medical school. We conducted a cross-sectional study to characterize the professional language use of Harvard Medical School (HMS) alumni who took a medical language course at HMS and identify opportunities to improve the HMS Medical Language Program. Methods Between October and November 2019, we sent an electronic survey to 803 HMS alumni who took a medical language course at HMS between 1991 and 2019 and collected responses. The survey had questions about the language courses and language use in the professional setting. We analyzed the data using descriptive statistics and McNemar’s test for comparing proportions with paired data. The study was determined not to constitute human subjects research. Results The response rate was 26% (206/803). More than half of respondents (n = 118, 57%) cited their desire to use the language in their future careers as the motivation for taking the language courses. Twenty-eight (14%) respondents indicated a change from not proficient before taking the course to proficient at the time of survey whereas only one (0.5%) respondent changed from proficient to not proficient (McNemar’s p-value < 0.0001). Respondents (n = 113, 56%) reported that clinical electives abroad influenced their cultural understanding of the local in-country population and their language proficiency. Only 13% (n = 27) of respondents have worked in a setting that required formal assessments of non-English language proficiency. Conclusions HMS alumni of the Medical Language Program reported improved language proficiency after the medical language courses’ conclusion, suggesting that the courses may catalyze long-term language learning. We found that a majority of respondents reported that the medical language courses influenced their desire to work with individuals who spoke the language of the courses they took. Medical language courses may equip physicians to practice language-concordant care in their careers.

PERMISSION TO CONDUCT THE FIRST STUDY OF THE HEIGHTS AND WEIGHTS OF CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-311
Author(s):  
T. E. C.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Harvard Medical School ◽  
The United States ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
The Public ◽  
Boston Public Schools ◽  
School Committee ◽  
Boston School

The beginning of all growth studies in this country occurred less than a century ago when the Boston School Committee approved the following order permitting Henry Pickering Bowditch, Professor of Physiology at the Harvard Medical School, to measure and weigh children in the Boston public schools. This document is one of the great, and I believe little known, landmarks in modern pediatrics.1 In School Committee, March 9, 1875 Ordered, That permission be given to Prof. Henry P. Bowditch, of Harvard University, to ascertain the height and weight of the pupils attending the public school, through such an arrangement as the respective chairman and the headmaster, or masters, may deem most convenient.

Linguistic Integration and Immigrant Health: The Longitudinal Effects of Interethnic Social Capital

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mesay A. Tegegne
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Immigrant Health ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Linguistic Integration ◽  
The Relationship

The literature on immigrant health has by and large focused on the relationship between acculturation (often measured by a shift in language use) and health outcomes, paying less attention to network processes and the implications of interethnic integration for long-term health. This study frames English-language use among immigrants in the United States as a reflection of bridging social capital that is indicative of social network diversity. Using longitudinal data on self-rated health and the incidence of chronic conditions from the New Immigrant Survey (2003, 2007), I examine the contemporaneous and longitudinal associations between interethnic social capital and health. The results show evidence for a positive long-term effect of linguistic integration on health status, but no cross-sectional associations were observed. Overall, these results highlight the possible role of network processes in linking English-language use with immigrant health and the time-dependent nature of the relationship between linguistic integration and health status.

scholarly journals Long-term Outcomes of the New Pathway Program at Harvard Medical School

2000 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 470-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoinette S. Peters ◽  
Rachel Greenberger-Rosovsky ◽  
Charlotte Crowder ◽  
Susan D. Block ◽  
Gordan T. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Medical School ◽  
Harvard Medical School ◽  
Long Term Outcomes

scholarly journals Perceived structural vulnerabilities among detained noncitizen immigrants in Minnesota

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0252232
Author(s):  
Kazumi Tsuchiya ◽  
Olivia Toles ◽  
Christopher Levesque ◽  
Kimberly Horner ◽  
Eric Ryu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
The Us ◽  
Immigration Reforms ◽  
Collaborative Efforts

Across several decades there has been an unprecedented increase in immigration enforcement including detention and deportation. Immigration detention profoundly impacts those experiencing detention and their family members. An emerging area of research has found that immigrants experience a number of challenges which constrain and limit their decisions, choices, and options for security and integration in the United States due to social, political and structural determinants. These determinants lead to greater structural vulnerabilities among immigrants. The purpose of the current study was to illuminate the perceived vulnerabilities of detained noncitizen immigrants as they are raised and described while attending case hearings at the Bloomington, Minnesota immigration court. Through conducting a thematic analysis of notes derived from third party immigration court observers, three areas of perceived vulnerability were identified. These perceived vulnerabilities include 1) migration and motivations to migrate, 2) structural vulnerabilities (e.g., discrimination, financial insecurity, social ties and family support, stable or fixed residence, English language proficiency, health and mental health) in the US, and 3) challenges in navigating immigration detention. These findings demonstrate that noncitizen immigrants who are undergoing immigration detention are experiencing multiple intersecting vulnerabilities which profoundly impact their lives. Collaborative efforts across sectors are needed to work towards comprehensive immigration reforms including both short-term and long-term solutions to address pressing issues for noncitizens undergoing immigration detention.

The contributions of oral language to English reading outcomes among young bilingual students in the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 136700692093813
Author(s):  
Becky H Huang ◽  
Lisa M Bedore ◽  
Luping Niu ◽  
Yangting Wang ◽  
Nicole Y Y Wicha
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Frequency Factor ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bilingual Students ◽  
Reading Outcomes ◽  
Oral Language Proficiency ◽  
English Reading ◽  
Reading Frequency

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The current study examined the language-reading relationship for bilingual students in two grade levels (grades 1 and 3) and for two reading outcomes (decoding and comprehension) to understand the contribution of oral language in English reading. The study also explored the potential mediating role of oral language between language use, reading frequency, and reading outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: The study included 60 bilingual students from bilingual households that speak a language other than, or in addition to, English. All participants completed a battery of language and reading assessments and a background survey. Data and analysis: Three separate confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to derive an Oral Language factor (from oral language assessments), a Language Use factor, and a Reading Frequency factor (from survey items). A multivariate regression was conducted to investigate whether the language-reading relationship differed by grade and reading outcome. A multivariate mediation analysis was also conducted to examine whether the Oral Language factor mediates the effect of Language Use and Reading Frequency on reading outcomes. Findings/conclusions: Oral language proficiency significantly predicted both decoding and comprehension for both grades. Oral language also mediated the relationship between reading frequency and reading outcomes. Originality: This study investigates the contributions of oral language in young bilingual students’ English reading outcomes, which is an under-explored topic. Significance/implications: The results demonstrated the importance of oral language proficiency in bilingual students’ reading outcomes. Oral language plays a robust role in not only reading comprehension but also decoding. The study also clarified that the effects of reading frequency on reading outcomes are indirect and mediated via oral language. Improving bilingual students’ oral language proficiency coupled with promoting their reading frequency can help promote their reading outcomes.

Long-term language attainment of bilingual immigrants: Predictive variables and language group differences

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
GISELA JIA ◽  
DORIS AARONSON ◽  
YANHONG WU
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Multiple Variables

This study examined the variables related to US immigrants' long-term attainment in English, their second language (L2), and their native language (L1). For 44 Mandarin–English bilinguals, with increasing age of arrival (AOA) in the United States, their accuracy in L2 grammaticality judgment tasks decreased and accuracy in an L1 grammaticality judgment task increased. Moreover, both AOA in the United States and mothers' English proficiency uniquely predicted a significant proportion of the variance for bilinguals' L2 proficiency. Finally, as a group, 72 speakers of three Asian languages showed lower levels of L2 proficiency and stronger AOA effects on the task performance than 32 speakers of six European languages. These differences in language proficiency were associated with differences in language use, language learning motivation, and cultural identification between the two groups. These findings suggest that L2 acquisition in the immigration setting is a complicated process involving the dynamic interactions of multiple variables.

Exile Meets Homeland: Politics, Performance, and Authenticity in the Tibetan Diaspora

10.1068/d2805 ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily T Yeh
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Traditional Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dominant Group ◽  
Tibetan Diaspora ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
The Usa

Tibetans are often imagined as authentic, pure, and geographically undifferentiated, but Tibetan identity formation is, in fact, varied and deeply inflected by national location and transnational trajectories. In this paper I examine the frictions of encounter between three groups of Tibetans who arrived in the USA around the same time, but who differ in their relationships to the homeland. The numerically dominant group consists of refugees who left Tibet in 1959 and of exiles born in South Asia; second are Tibetans who left Tibet after the 1980s for India and Nepal; and third are those whose routes have taken them from Tibet directly to the United States. Whereas the cultural authority claimed by long-term exiles derives from the notion of preserving tradition outside of Tibet, that of Tibetans from Tibet is based on their embodied knowledge of the actual place of the homeland. Their struggles over authenticity, which play out in everyday practices such as language use and embodied reactions to staged performances of ‘traditional culture’, call for an understanding of diaspora without guarantees. In this paper I use habitus as an analytic for exploring the ways in which identity is inscribed on and read off of bodies, and the political stakes of everyday practices that produce fractures and fault lines.

scholarly journals SURZHIK AS A LANGUAGE BARRIER IN THE PROCESS OF MASTERING THE LITERARY NORM OF THE LANGUAGE

2021 ◽  
pp. 151-160
Author(s):  
O. Pryshchepa ◽  
O. Chernysh ◽  
Z. Biloshytska
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Statistical Processing ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
National Language ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Readiness To Learn

The topicality of the study lies in the fact that the level of language proficiency is considered a criterion in characterizing intellectual and cultural development of the society. Nowadays in Ukraine we have the problem of so called surzhik, which is the result of long-term coexistence of Ukrainian and Russian languages in Ukraine. Surzhik is a mixture of grammatical features of two languages − Ukrainian and Russian, thus it is a mixed language that grammatically is neither of the languages mentioned above. Surzhik negatively contributes to the foundations of the national language. Moreover, it is the result of illiterate language use. Therefore, it becomes a serious obstacle in communication between students and teachers during the classes. Furthermore, the results of a poll of 200 students of higher education institutions in Zhytomyr prove that students who speak surzhik speak neither Ukrainian nor Russian fluently. In addition, they have low speech self-esteem. Thus, at least 22% of respondents do not have a clear understanding of which language they speak. Consequently, it signifies about the immaturity of their linguistic personality. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine, based on the survey data, for which language group and to what extent surzhik is a speech barrier in the process of studying the literary norm of Ukrainian and whether there is any relationship between the ability to master its literary norm and readiness to learn a foreign language. The authors use the methods of sociology − questionnaires and statistical processing of data. The results of the research prove that surzhik is a speech barrier not only in mastering the literary norm of native language, but also in learning a foreign language.

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