The elective course English Language 4 at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade is a blended course combining online with hands-on classroom teaching and learning. It includes writing an analytical essay on the rules of composing and delivering a conference presentation; individual designing and delivering of an actual presentation on a given, medicine-related topic; writing an analytical essay on the rules of designing and presenting a conference poster; making and presenting an actual conference poster on a given medicine-related research paper in pairs. The entire course is carried out as a series of intermittent online activities and classroom sessions. This format has been designed and tailored over time to meet the specific needs of medical students. The paper highlights the practical implications of the course and its actual benefits for the students.courses are classroom-based, and, due to space and time constraints, they are taught in large groups (70-120 students) once a week for a period of 1.5 hours. The level of English competency in the groups is far from uniform, ranging from intermediate to proficiency. The same is true of motivation levels.Elective courses: English 3, 4 and 5, lasting one semester, i.e. 15 weeks each, are offered in years 3, 4 and 5, respectively. The focus of English Language 3 is on writing and speaking skills (CV, motivation letter, case report, mock doctor-patient interview, etc.); English Language 4 focuses on conference skills -writing and speaking (conference presentations and posters); while English Language 5 primarily deals with academic writing skills (abstract and research paper). The elective course student groups are significantly smaller (10-30 students) than those for compulsory English courses (E1 and E2), while the level of English competency is more balanced and usually quite high, i.e. most students who select these courses have high scores on their English 1 and 2 tests, and they are usually quite fluent and motivated.Since their introduction at the Faculty of Medicine of Belgrade University (almost 15 years ago) English elective courses have developed and evolved. From the onset, the goal of the courses was enabling students to reach higher level skill sets, beyond just grammar, vocabulary, reading and comprehension. The aim was to help students master skills that would help effectively function in the world of medical reading, writing, presentation and communication (clinical, conference and research settings).Initially, elective courses were all classroom based but have gradually transformed into blended courses combining classroom and online instruction and learning. The rationale behind this transition was a combination of student needs (as assessed by the teachers and resulting from direct feedback from students over the years), student time constraints (medical students have increasingly busier and busier schedules) and the desire to motivate students to participate in these courses by adjusting the design of the courses to ever-changing and ...
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