Workshop on Medical Terms and their Contexts of Use

This international workshop, sponsored by the Department of Linguistics and Centre for Language Sciences, is the fifth in a series run in collaboration with lexicographers at the College of Languages and Literature at Fudan University Shanghai.  It features current issues in:

1. the formal treatment of medical terminology in bilingual dictionaries (English-Chinese, Chinese-English), and in online termbanks such as the Macquarie HealthTermFinder
2. the variable use of terminology by medical practitioners, trainee doctors and the general public in everyday health care
   
   
   On 23 April, the leading guest speaker is Professor Xu Hai from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, on ethnocentrism in second-language learners’ dictionaries;  and on 24 April, Professor Rosemary Clerehan from Monash University, on research on health literacy in Australia, and Macquarie’s Professor Lynda Yates, on informal medical language used in consultations with patients.

Program

Day 1 Monday 23rd April: Dictionaries and medical terms

Morning Session

11.00 -12.30  Guest lecture by Professor Xu Hai, Ethnocentrism in English Learners’ Dictionaries

1.30 - 3.45  Afternoon session papers

• Professor Gao Yongwei, Medical terms in  A New English-Chinese Dictionary: a diachronic review
• Dr Wan  Jianbo, On the Treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicine Terms in The Chinese-English Dictionary Unabridged
• Dr Ding Jun:  Issues in bilingualizing HealthTermFinder

Day 2 Tuesday 24th April: Medical language in context

Morning session

10.30 -12.30 Guest lectures

• Professor Rosemary Clerehan, Health Literacy
• Professor Lynda Yates, Informality in doctor-patient interaction in Australia

1.30 -3.45 Afternoon session papers

• Dr Marian Casey,  Dr Sarah White, Simulated medical consultations and communicative practices
• Dr Adam Smith and E/Professor Pam Peters, Medical and technical terms needed by Chinese medical students
• Christina Kazzi, Dr Sarah White, Dr Mark Butlin, Changes in the use of eponyms and toponyms to name diseases