As the labor market is becoming increasingly global, the demand for medical professionals with adequate language skills and cultural sensitivity is constantly growing.

International mobility demands interculturally competent individuals who are able to move easily from one culture to another. One way to respond to this challenge is by redefining the goals of ESP. The special position of the English language as the lingua franca of Europe necessitates a different approach to the teaching of the language and inevitably brings about alterations in the teaching culture at universities.

LSMU trains the next generation of medical professionals to deliver high quality, patient-centered health care. Thus, the need for well-constructed Health Care English programs is becoming more and more crucial.

As a result of changes in National Health Service and the professional activity of healthcare specialists, problem-solving in the field of pharmacy is increasingly emphasized. With increasing pressure on doctors’ workload the community pharmacy is widely used as a first port of call for minor illness. Thus, a significant part of pharmacy specialists’ professional activity consists of problem situations the solution of which requires more than competence oriented towards the professional field alone.  Communicative and language competence here becomes highly important.

The changing attitude towards a pharmacist’s profession brings about changes in the professional education and training of pharmacy students. For this reason, the priority fields in the reformation of Lithuanian healthcare system are not only changes in pharmacists’ activity, but also their professional education and training, as well as updating and improvement of the curriculum of that training (Kirikova, Šveikauskas, Leonas, 2008). 

The implementation of the main principles of problem-based learning in the professional language program at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences is a challenge to the traditional system of studies (Šveikauskas, 2008). For this reason, special attention should be paid to the assessment of the process of problem-based professional language learning in order to identify the advantages and the shortcomings of this approach. 

In the modern higher education institution where the traditional teaching paradigm is being replaced by the learning paradigm, the students’ opinion is of special importance in order to reveal major problems in learning, and to plan possibilities for a better organization of the process of ESP teaching/learning.

Research question:

How do the students evaluate the possibilities for the development of language competences in the changing culture of learning?  (The authors present the study conducted at LSMU in 2015).

 Objectives:

1. To evaluate the students’ attitude towards professional language studies with respect to the development of language competences through problem-based teaching/learning.

2. Help students to:

• Develop communication skills
• Master professional language skills
• Collaboratively solve communicative tasks
• Become aware of colloquial language in talking to patients
• Boost students’ confidence and lower their anxiety in the classroom

 Purpose:

1. To discuss the features of the changing culture of learning.

2. To reveal and compare the peculiarities of the development of ESP competences in the context of the changing culture of learning at the LUHS (the students’ attitude)

Conceptual or theoretical framework

The study was based on theoretical positions emphasizing changes in professional education and training, the learning paradigm, and the strategy of problem-based learning (Barman, Jaafar, Rahim, 2007; Beachey, 2007; Conway, Medville Williams, 1999; Foldevi, 1995; Jucevičienė, Gudaitytė, Karenauskaitė, Lipinskienė, Stanikūnienė, Tautkevičienė, 2010; Kirikova, Šveikauskas, Leonas, 2008; Sefton, 1997; Laužackas, 2005; Šveikauskas, 2005; Wood, 2003; Woods, 1994).

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