PASAA
Publication Date
2016-01-01
Abstract
The rise of medical tourism and the increasing number of international patients from Asian countries have led Thai healthcare professionals to serve a lot of Asian patients and to encounter a complexity of language use in their workplace. There is a necessity for these professionals to strive for an understanding of Asian accents spoken by the patients in order to ensure successful communication and subsequently to best provide them with highquality medical services. Therefore, the ability to understand Asian accents has become necessary for healthcare professionals. To enhance test validity and authenticity and promote beneficial washback, English proficiency tests used in healthcare professions should include a variety of Asian English accents. Unfortunately, these tests limit accents to the inner-circle varieties. With a high tendency of encountering Asian speakers, it seems unreasonable to ignore Asian English accents and expose healthcare personnel to the inner-circle varieties only in listening tests. Thus, the inclusion of Asian English accents in a listening test for healthcare professions is significantly needed. This paper mainly discusses the rationale for incorporating Asian English accents as test input and addresses methodological concerns in the development of a listening test with various accents.
DOI
10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.51.1.8
First Page
215
Last Page
234
Recommended Citation
Suebsook, Khwanchanok and Adunyarittigun, Dumrong
(2016)
"In the Right Place at the Right Time: Asian English Accents in a Listening Test for Healthcare Professions,"
PASAA: Vol. 51:
Iss.
1, Article 9.
DOI: 10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.51.1.8
Available at:
https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/pasaa/vol51/iss1/9