• Designed specifically for healthcare professionals
• Focus on communication exchanges between professionals and patients/clients and/or patient’s family/caretakers
• Emphasis on speaking and listening comprehension
• Customized training methods to meet learners’ specific language needs

Participation in the English for Healthcare program will give you the confidence to engage in several global healthcare sectors, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Medical establishments abroad

• Medical tourism industry

• International hospitals in English and/or non-English-speaking countries

In all healthcare settings, the ability to communicate effectively for quality patient care is essential.

McGill University’s unique English for Healthcare language program offers busy healthcare professionals both flexibility and accessibility through 100% online training with a range of synchronous and asynchronous activities.

Focused on the adult learner, this program integrates the latest principles in second/foreign language teaching and applies a dynamic pedagogy to promote an active, collaborative, and task-based learning environment. Our instructors have extensive experience in English language training for specific purposes and understand the language needed in health sectors. Their expertise extends to using innovative methods and technologies for hybrid online program & course design, with an emphasis on offering individual student follow-up and support.

The English for Healthcare program has been designed to consider the diversity of professional occupations in healthcare, geographical disparity, and the multiple scheduling constraints that healthcare workers face.

The self-paced, self-directed online asynchronous courses are designed from a situational context and aim to develop grammar in speech, upskill listening comprehension, expand vocabulary, and improve pronunciation. The content is available 24/7 within a structured framework to promote favourable work-family-study balance.

The online conversation courses are held virtually, allowing students to join the instructor and other healthcare professionals in live sessions via web conferencing software. These courses are entirely task-oriented, with learners working in authentic situations directly linked to their working environment.

The English for Healthcare program, although rigorous and rich in content, maintains a welcoming, collegial environment, where language learning stays fun. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or special requests.

Giovanna Julia Mercuri-Albisi
Academic Program Coordinator

This program is a good fit for you if you are a healthcare professional, e.g., a nurse, a nurse educator, or an allied healthcare practitioner.

The English for Healthcare program is designed to enable you to:

• complete a wide variety of routine tasks, elicit, and provide detailed and complex information with confidence and competence
• employ language to fit the needs of individual clients
• deal effectively with a range of complex problems and respond to emotional situations
• employ a variety of communication strategies when dealing with clients, families, or other specialists to communicate precise and sensitive information
• demonstrate a well-developed ability to compensate for an imperfect grasp of some forms or for limitations in vocabulary, by the confident use of communicative strategies, such as paraphrasing, circumlocution, and illustration
• use near-precise vocabulary and intonation to express meaning and often show great fluency and ease of speech

This online program includes five levels (Intermediate 1, 2, and 3, and Advanced 1 and 2).

Each level consists of two courses. It pairs self-paced asynchronous content with virtual face-to-face oral communication practice in a blended, 100% online delivery model.

Online classes are held weekly at a fixed time. Internet connection with stable Wi-Fi is required.

Applicants must take the McGill online English Entrance Placement Test to be registered in one of the YCGL course series.

• Fall 2024: September 30- December 6, 2024