Developing a Spanish for Health Professions Course: A Preliminary Mixed-Methods Study

The mixed-methods pilot study described in this article traces the development of a Spanish for Specific Purposes: Health Professions course that was designed to help future health care professionals develop their linguistic proficiency and intercultural abilities. The study included nursing, medical, and dental students and was conducted at a large public university in an area of the southeastern United States that has experienced an increase in the Spanish-speaking Limited English Proficiency (LEP) population. The purpose of the study was to explore students' perceptions of the course and its curricular design, as well as to investigate students' perceptions with respect to a series of motivation constructs. The findings indicated that Language for Specific Purposes courses focused on health professions can have a positive impact on students' perceptions, while preparing language-concordant providers to more effectively and sensitively meet the needs of LEP patients. Benefits were related to the context-specific nature of the course and tasks, while challenges included curricular constraints and schedule conflicts.