Teaching and learning Hungarian for Medical Purposes: perceptions and attitudes of international students

Abstract

Global processes have led to a significant increase in student mobility in the past few decades. As a result of this tendency, the student population of many European and Hungarian universities has changed significantly. The trainings offered by the four medical universities in particular enjoy a great popularity; they attract students from all over the world. A multitude of factors contribute to the choice of foreign medical students when they choose their university, for example, many wish to improve their English skills in this way. However, their studies at the Medical School of the University of Pécs require the acquisition of specific Hungarian medical vocabulary, which is an essential prerequisite for professional practice. Nevertheless, learning a language that is often quite different from their own is not an easy task. When foreign students begin their studies at Hungarian universities, they already have certain perceptions and ideas about teaching and learning, based on their previous educational experience. Finding the most effective teaching methods for an ethnically and culturally diverse group is a major task most of the time. The purpose
of this study is to present the results of the first phase of a longitudinal study conducted throughout the spring semester of the academic year 2018/19 at the Medical School, University of Pécs. Relying on convenience sampling as method,
an online questionnaire was filled out by 133 foreign medical students, allowing them to express their views on methods and attitudes related to the teaching and learning process. The results indicate that foreign students have quite similar multicultural groups.ideas and preferences, which may assist teachers in selecting the most effective methods for similar multicultural groups.