The Influence of Foreign Language Instruction on History-Taking Skills in Primary Care

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Influence of Foreign Language Instruction on History-Taking Skills in Primary Care

AU - Sadikoglu, Tumay

AU - Yenmis, Guven

AU - Abdullah, Qabirul

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025, Eurasian Society of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Aim: This study aimed to investigate the impact of foreign language acquisition on medical students' history-taking skills in primary care, which is an essential component of undergraduate medical education, and identify any disparities between native language-trained and foreign language-trained medical students. Methods: This study, which involved 136 first-year Turkish medical students, was carried out in two groups with different mediums of instruction: English and Turkish. An Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) was performed to evaluate history-taking skills. The obtained scores were subjected to statistical analysis using Student's t-test. Results: The study compared the duration of history taking and exam scores of students in two groups. There was no significant difference in the performance of both groups (p=0.506; p=0.831). The average grade of female students in Group I was significantly higher than the male students in the same group (p=0.036), thereby demonstrating a notable gender-based disparity. Conclusion: The study revealed that learning a foreign language doesn't significantly impact medical students' history-taking skills, preserving their general competence. This has the potential to prompt alterations in primary care training, hence facilitating the development of future multinational initiatives.

AB - Aim: This study aimed to investigate the impact of foreign language acquisition on medical students' history-taking skills in primary care, which is an essential component of undergraduate medical education, and identify any disparities between native language-trained and foreign language-trained medical students. Methods: This study, which involved 136 first-year Turkish medical students, was carried out in two groups with different mediums of instruction: English and Turkish. An Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) was performed to evaluate history-taking skills. The obtained scores were subjected to statistical analysis using Student's t-test. Results: The study compared the duration of history taking and exam scores of students in two groups. There was no significant difference in the performance of both groups (p=0.506; p=0.831). The average grade of female students in Group I was significantly higher than the male students in the same group (p=0.036), thereby demonstrating a notable gender-based disparity. Conclusion: The study revealed that learning a foreign language doesn't significantly impact medical students' history-taking skills, preserving their general competence. This has the potential to prompt alterations in primary care training, hence facilitating the development of future multinational initiatives.

KW - medical education

KW - medical history taking

KW - primary health care

KW - undergraduate medical education

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105003580743

U2 - 10.33880/ejfm.2025140101

DO - 10.33880/ejfm.2025140101

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105003580743

SN - 2147-3161

VL - 14

SP - 1

EP - 8

JO - Eurasian Journal of Family Medicine

JF - Eurasian Journal of Family Medicine

IS - 1

ER -