The cultural context of genre used within health related texts

1
The cultural context of genre used within
health- related texts

• Sue Ford- Sumner
• Department of Applied Psychosocial Sciences
• School of Nursing and Midwifery

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Context/ relevance

• Approximately 75 of pre- registration student
  nurses in the school of nursing are from
  overseas.
• 13,000 overseas-trained nurses were registered to
  work in the UK during 2002-03 this involves a
  period of supervised practice and theoretical
  input.
• 1

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The importance of communication (1)

• The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2002)
  highlight that nurses from overseas should
  possess a competent level of English, which is
  essential for
• effective and safe practice without risk of
  misunderstanding...
• 2

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The importance of communication (2)

• Effective communication is widely regarded to be
  a key determinant of patient satisfaction,
  compliance and recovery
• Chant et al (2002)
• 3

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The significance of culture

• Language is culturally contextualised
• Arakelian (2003)
• Culture has an impact upon our control of a
  language
• Briguglio (2000)
• The recognition that language as a social
  phenomenon occurs within different contexts, led
  to the development of English for Specific
  Purposes (ESP)
• Derewianka (2001)
• 4

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CONTEXT OF CULTURE
CONTEXT OF SITUATION
TEXT

• Text in context
• Butt et al (2000)
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CONTEXT OF SITUATION
FIELD
MODE
TEXT
TENOR
2. Parameters of context of situation Butt et
al (2000) 6
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Field, Tenor and Mode

• Field
• What the text aims to achieve
• (for example, to disseminate research findings)
• Tenor
• The relationship between the writer and reader
• (for example, researcher and student)
• Mode
• The type of text created
• (for example, a journal article)
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9
Genre analysis

• Some health- related texts were analysed using
  the principles of systemic functional linguistics
  (SFL) (ongoing)
• SFL is a social theory of language that looks at
  language in context at different levels of detail
• Burns et al 2001
• 8

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Text types

• Recount
• Narrative
• Procedure
• Information report
• Explanation
• Exposition
• Discussion
• Butt et al (2000)

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Field, Tenor and Mode(Mallett and Dougherty
(2000)

• Field
• What the text aims to achieve
• - to standardise and maintain good levels of
  practice in relation to clinical procedures
• Tenor
• The relationship between the writer and reader
• -Expert and practitioner
• Mode
• The type of text created
• - a respected textbook, that has been reprinted
  several times and is associated with a well-
  known hospital.
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Example of discussion
From Mallett and Dougherty (2000) 11
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Culturally transferable?

• Record the findings and report any abnormalities
• From Brooker and Nicol (2002)
• Where should the findings be recorded?
• Which abnormalities should be reported?
• To who?
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Field, Tenor and ModeBrooker and Nicol (2002)

• This text is very much contextually and
  culturally bound.
• Field
• To inform pre- registration student nurses about
  clinical procedures
• Tenor
• Teacher and student
• Mode
• Textbook that informs about clinical procedures,
  to complement practical teaching sessions.
• 13
• 1

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Related work

• A textbook to support international healthcare
  students, based on the principles of ESP (English
  for Specific Purposes) which focuses on
  developing communicative competence in a specific
  field
• Fieldwork with pre- registration student nurses
  using structured reflection, to inform strategies
  to support this group.
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