RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Historical view of medical Spanish instruction in a medical school at the US–Mexico border region
JF Journal of Investigative Medicine
JO J Investig Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP jim-2022-002519
DO 10.1136/jim-2022-002519
A1 Jorge Cervantes
A1 Mark L Francis
A1 Kirsten F Nigro
A1 Lucía Sánchez-Llorente
A1 Gilberto Garcia
A1 Daniel Rios
A1 Arely Munoz
A1 Jose Manuel Delarosa
YR 2022
UL http://hw-f5-jim.highwire.org/content/early/2022/09/05/jim-2022-002519.abstract
AB With a growing speaking Spanish population in the USA, it is necessary to help meet their healthcare needs. The Paul L. Foster School of Medicine is located in El Paso at the US–Mexico border. The medical Spanish curriculum is required for all medical students and begins on their first day of medical school, with conversational Spanish and medical Spanish through the preclerkship years. One of the key elements to the success of this course is the use of instructors with expertise in language instruction with an emphasis on task-based instruction. In addition to language instruction, this course also emphasizes instruction and experience in the culture of the US–Mexico border region. While taught medical Spanish, students are also prompted to understand when their skills are not adequate for the situation, in which case they need to enlist a skilled translator. Students report that, on a daily basis, they productively use what they learned in this preclerkship curriculum.