LEARNING THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE BY FOREIGN MEDICAL STUDENTS

Hematology is difficult for students to learn. A beneficial education method for hematology clerkship training is required to help students develop clinical skills. Foreign medical students often encounter communication issues in China. To address this issue, Chinese post-graduates from our institute are willing to assist with educating foreign students. Therefore, we propose a mixed team-based learning method (MTBL) which might overcome communication problems in hematology clerkship. Twenty-two foreign medical Students attended a 2-week hematology clerkship in Fujian Medical University Union Hospital. Twenty-one foreign African medical students were assigned randomly into two groups. Fourteen foreign African medical students were assigned to MTBL group. Each MTBL team included two foreign African medical students and one Chinese post-graduate. Seven foreign African medical students were assigned to lecture-based learning method (LBL) group, which had a foreign medical classmate from Hong Kong or Chinese intern volunteers to serve as translators. The practice test scores of MTBL were significantly higher than LBL group (p < 0.05). The MTBL group had increased motivation to prepare before class, an engaged classroom atmosphere, and an improvement in their understanding of difficult topics. Interestingly, the Chinese post-graduates also benefited from this setting, as they found that this interaction improved their communication in the English language. The mixed team-based learning method overcomes communication problems in hematology clerkship. Foreign medical students and Chinese post-graduates alike can benefit from MTBL. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(2):93-96, 2017.

Objective : Based on the survey of the knowledge-attitude-belief and practice to tobacco control between Chinese and foreign medical students in Soochow University, the authors intended to explore the current situation, differences and influencing factors of Chinese and foreign medical students, in order to provide a reference for tobacco control policies and measures set by the Medical College of Soochow University. Methods : By stratified sampling, we selected 200 Chinese medical students and 200 foreign medical students of Medical College in different grades and different majors, and adopted anonymous questionnaires to investigate. Results : The smoking rates of Chinese and foreign male medical students were 7.4%, 15.5% respectively , while female medical students' smoking rates were 0.0, 8.1% respectively. Foreign medical students’ daily smoking was mostly 4~10, which was significantly greater than the Chinese medical students （ P &lt;0.05）; besides, the identification degree to the responsibilities and duties for smoking control of the professional medical staff were both higher. The influence of the different smoking rates between Chinese and foreign medical students was mainly ethnic background, and the influences of the different smoking behavior mainly depended on their knowledge and attitude towards tobacco control. Conclusion : There is a need for schools to adopt health education measure to promote the school tobacco control based on the differences of the knowledge-attitude-belief and practice to tobacco control between Chinese and Foreign Medical students. Help medical students to translate knowledge of tobacco control they have already mastered into belief, and further affect their behavior.

Background: In Romania, foreign medical students have the possibility to learn the same curricula in Romanian, English, or French. The purpose of the study: To compare students’ satisfaction with training and future career opportunities from the perspective of Romanian and foreign students. Methods: The study was conducted for terminal year medical students divided into two samples, Romanian and foreign language students. The participants were invited to fill in a satisfaction questionnaire about their professional training and to express preferences for future career. Results: Foreign students were more satisfied with the lectures and the teaching staff. They attended optional lectures more frequently in comparison with Romanian students. Foreign students were more inclined to attend medical conferences and to enroll in PhD programs. While Romanian students were more inclined to consider emigration, foreign students prefer to practice in their native countries. Conclusions: Compared to their Romanian colleagues, foreign students were more engaged in educational and research activities.

The article discusses the problem of forming the linguistic identity of foreign medical students; it emphasizes the need for pedagogically sound and rational implementation of modern information and communication technologies in the process of higher education. It highlights the problem of choosing effective methods and innovative approaches that can compete with traditional methods of presenting educational information, complementing and expanding their repertoire. The authors justify the relevance of improving the effectiveness of teaching the discipline “Ukrainian as a Foreign Language” in higher education institutions by implementing the task of forming and developing the communicative competence of foreign students. The implementation of this educational goal directly affects the curriculum and the choice of teaching technologies, which contributes to improving the quality of Ukrainian language learning. Particular emphasis is placed on combining traditional teaching methods with interactive technologies, which are the focus of the authors of the proposed study. They aim to use interactive technologies for learning Ukrainian as a foreign language to help students of higher medical education master the learning material through communicative practice. The practical skills and competences acquired can be valuable not only in the process of learning Ukrainian, but also in their social and professional communication. Interactive teaching technologies are based on dialogical forms of interaction between students, in the process of which they develop cooperation skills; thus, learning Ukrainian as a foreign language, which is one of the options for implementing a communicative approach in education, is based on active interaction between teachers and students, as well as between students themselves. The integration of interactive technologies into the teaching of Ukrainian as a foreign language meets the needs of modern higher education students, increases the clarity of educational information, and facilitates its perception and assimilation.

One of the key tasks of teaching Ukrainian to foreign medical students is to develop their communication skills, especially in the context of conducting dialogues. The purpose of the article is to summarise the information on the peculiarities of teaching medical students' dialogic speech in Ukrainian as a foreign language classes and to find out the importance of communicative competence in the professional training of future doctors. The methods of the study are determined by its aim and objectives. In analysing the material, the descriptive method was used, as well as the systematisation and generalisation of information. Language training of foreign students involves applying the acquired knowledge in practice. When teaching dialogic speech to foreign medical students, the main goal of the tasks is not only to develop skills and abilities in the practical use of dialogic cues, but also to improve communicative competences, which allows foreign students to express their thoughts freely in different speech situations. All language tasks and speech exercises that foreign students work on in Ukrainian language classes should be thought out and adapted to maximise the achievement of this goal. They should cover both the basics of grammar and vocabulary, as well as the peculiarities of style and culture of communication, allowing students to develop not only linguistic but also socio-cultural competences necessary for successful communication in various life and professional situations. The most effective method of developing foreign students' dialogue skills is the method of modelling communicative situations as close as possible to real communication in the future profession. This method allows students not only to practice speech constructions, but also to adapt to the specifics of professional communication, master the terminology of the medical field, and develop confidence in solving communication tasks in various professional situations.

Introduction. The research is topical due to the need to find effective methods ofteaching Ukrainian to foreign students. The development of information technologyurged the development of communicative competencies in foreign students. So, theweb quest method is becoming increasingly popular in the study of foreign languagesin higher educational institutions around the world. This method is an effective toolthat allows a full involvement of foreign students in learning Ukrainian as a foreignlanguage. Methods: testing students for the level of proficiency in Ukrainian as aforeign language, statistical and mathematical processing of results using Pearson’sformulas. Results: The results of the study showed the high efficiency of the webquest method in the experimental group in comparison with traditional teachingmethods. According to all the criteria studied, the students of the experimental groupshowed higher results than the students of the control group, which proves theeffectiveness of this method. Namely, the indicator of lexical skills of the experimentalgroup with the excellent grade exceeds the indicator of the control group by 10.2%.The indicator of grammar skills of the experimental group with the excellent gradeexceeds the indicator if the control group by 7.7%. And the indicator of phonetic skills of the experimental group with the excellent grade exceeds the indicator of thecontrol group by 8.4%. There were 55.74% of foreign students who showed a highlevel of information search and analysis skills. Conclusion: The study notes the highefficiency of using the web quest method in the development of variouscommunicative competencies in foreign students. Therefore, the expediency of usingthe web quest method in teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language to foreignstudents has been established. Prospects: further research will be aimed at studyingthe effectiveness of web quests for the development of professional communicativecompetencies for other subjects.

The article deals with the problems of teaching Russian language to foreign students in Russian medical universities. The advantages of the professionally oriented model of teaching Russian as a foreign language (RFL) using CLIL technology are considered. The article presents the results of the methodological experiment, which involved 18 foreign medical students studying in the specialty program (level B2). The aim of the experiment is to test the effectiveness of CLIL technology in teaching Russian to foreign medical students. On the basis of analyzing the results of input and final testing, the levels of professional competence formation in students of the experimental and control groups are compared. It is proved that the introduction of CLIL technology helps to improve the level of proficiency in Russian for special purposes and lays a solid foundation for further professional training.

To the Editor: International students in U.S. medical schools face unique challenges. After enrolling in medical school, international students must strategically prepare for matching into residency programs that sponsor visas while engaging with meaningful extracurricular opportunities within the restrictions set forth by their student visas. As citizens of Nicaragua and Canada, respectively, who have encountered difficulties when finding answers to questions specific to our international status in undergraduate and postgraduate medical training, we suggest medical schools facilitate peer mentorship initiatives intended for international medical students. An important reason for this difficulty is the low number of enrolled international medical students in the United States. For example, of the 2020–2021 matriculating students to allopathic medical schools in the United States, only 131 out of 22,329 matriculants had a legal residence abroad. 1 In turn, medical schools may be relatively limited in providing nuanced, experience-based career guidance and support to their international students. Navigating the limited and different visa options for postgraduate training—in addition to identifying residency programs that even consider international applicants—can be challenging. This compounds the many challenges medical students face in general, including the uncertainty of matching to a residency program and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on each application cycle, setting up international medical students for a more complex journey in medical education than their U.S. peers. Given the few international U.S. medical graduates, and the limitations in career counseling for this population, there is a need for well-informed mentorship and guidance. Peer mentorship initiatives that connect international medical students with each other remain largely underused by medical schools. Although medical schools often offer peer mentorship programs in which more senior students provide academic advice and support to newer students, this approach is insufficient for international students who require guidance in the context of their specific situation. Instead, medical schools should proactively connect international medical students to each other across class years and, just as importantly, to their international alumni. Individuals who have navigated the many barriers present for international medical students in the United States are more likely to provide focused, experience-based support. Facilitating these relationships early in medical school may result in other benefits, including involvement with scholarship and research activities. Ultimately, international medical students in the United States have left their home countries and families to serve the U.S. people. Medical schools that admit international students should place value in using every possible tool to propel them to a successful career in medicine. Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the deans of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for supporting their medical training in the United States.

Commentary: COVID‐19 Pandemic and Higher Education: International Mobility and Students’ Social Protection

Digitalization of Higher Education (Digital Learning), updating traditional educational programs and curricula through digital platforms, educational mobile applications and Web 2.0 services have made their own adjustments to the process of teaching foreign languages in the teacher-student format. The actualization of these innovations contributes to the creation of a digital educational environment and a change in educational strategies and concepts of learning in foreign languages. This article summarizes the “digital” experience of using new technologies in teaching foreign students about the types of speech and writing activities at the initial stage of education. The authors presented innovative ways of teaching phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar of the German language to foreign students in the format of interactive educational platforms. The study of a second foreign (German) language by Turkmen-speaking students is very difficult for a number of reasons: the complexity of the perception and (imitation) of reproduction of the phonetics of the German (multi-structural) language; features of the grammatical structure of the German language; learning a foreign language according to the formula ‘Turkmen-Russian-German’. To implement a differentiated teaching approach, a comparative analysis of the systemic differences in the grammatical structure of the German and Russian languages was carried out and an interactive lesson was developed using digital educational technologies for foreign language students. The study is aimed at increasing the motivation for learning German as a second foreign language by non-Russian-speaking students in order to form adequate communicative behavior.

Objective The exam quality of ' Probability' course for foreign medical undergraduates was analyzed, aiming at providing some reference for the improvement of the student evaluation system and course quality. Methods The ' Probability' course exam scores of 167 foreign un-dergraduates of 2014 batch were collected, the students were divided into two classes according to their entrance date, the former part class A consisted of 90 students, the latter part class B consisted of 77 students. The reliability of the test paper was judged according to Cronbach's α, Hotelling's T2 and Pearson correlation coefficient. The Spearman correlation analysis was adopted to evaluate the cor-relation between the question items. For the two classes, the impact of the entrance time on the test scores was explored on the basis of Student's t- test of question item scores and the total scores. Results The average score of the course exam was 82.587 points with the standard deviation of 13.520, Kol-mogorov-Smirnov statistic was 1.627 (P=0.010), the exam scores could not follow normal distribution. The Cronbach's α for the exam paper was 0.808, the standard-ized Cronbach's α was 0.815. The Spearman correlation coefficients between the five question items were all with statistical significance and varied from 0.315 to 0.657. As the students were divided into two classes according to their entrance date, for the ' Probability' section scores of the latter batch students were less than the scores of the former batch, with the difference 4.017 points, the same situation was also found that all the five items in the ' Probability' section. Conclusions The entrance time for the foreign medical freshman has an impact on their exam scores, suggesting that more attention should be paid to those students. Key words: Foreign students; Probability; Score analysis; Clinical medicine

The article is devoted to the problem of studying the Ukrainian language by foreigners. The authors, first of all, focus attention on the methods and approaches to the process of teaching the Ukrainian language to foreign students, as well as on the need for them to master grammar at a high level, that is, a system of norms and rules that are significantly different from the grammatical system of their native language, for example, French or spanish. Attention is also focused on the development of a modern strategy for learning Ukrainian as a foreign language, especially by French-speaking and Spanish-speaking students, and on the need to improve methods of accessible presentation of language material in general. The study raises questions related to the problem of language adaptation of foreign citizens, therefore, in the process of learning the Ukrainian language, its use is taken as a basis not only at the everyday level, but also in professional activities, which may give them, in the future, the opportunity to communicate not only as tourists , but also at the professional level, that is, it will open the way to entrepreneurship, to creating a business on the territory of our state. The proposed work examines and analyzes the most common problems that foreign students face when learning the Ukrainian language, such as, for example, correct pronunciation of sounds, correct accentuation of words, etc. The authors make observations about the typical mistakes that most often occur when studying the grammar of the Ukrainian language, and note that the most difficulties arise in the system of declension of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals. It is not easy to understand the state verbs, as well as the use of prepositions. The article analyzes the effectiveness and expediency of using innovative technologies to increase the level of communicative competence of foreign students and substantiates the urgent need to transition to qualitatively new forms of teaching the material. A mutual dependence was also established between the presence of a student's motivational component in learning and the result of mastering a foreign language and it also shows how to motivate a student to learn the Ukrainian language, how to be able to apply the learned material in practice, how to overcome the language barrier, etc.

The paper deals with the role of the discipline Professiogram of a teacher of Russian as a foreign language (variable part of Curriculum 45.03.01 Philology, major Teaching Russian as a foreign language) for the development of foreign philological students pedagogical competences. The demand for Russian philological education among foreign students is largely due to the desire to continue teaching. Federal state educational standard of higher education for Curriculum 45.03.01 Philology involves the development of a number of pedagogical competencies that are important for prospective teachers of Russian. To develop necessary competencies and to become a successful specialist it is necessary to get a set of knowledge and skills, culture and experience, which is the professiogram of the teacher of Russian as a foreign language. The paper also deals with the specifics of the academic discipline Professiogram of a Teacher of Russian as a Foreign Language and defines the conceptual content, principles and form of practical work. The basis of pedagogical competencies development is a complex of knowledge about requirements for professional activity and personality of the teacher, pedagogical abilities as well as components of pedagogical skills. The specificity of the discipline Professiogram of a Teacher of Russian as a Foreign Language is that it develops communicative personality of a prospective teacher. The paper contains examples of practice-oriented tasks.

The article discusses the main methodological approaches to the preparation of a lecture course on medical microbiology for foreign students at the National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnytsya. The purpose of the work is to discuss methodological approaches to the preparation of a lecture course on microbiology, virology and immunology for foreign students to form their cognitive activity, the development of clinical thinking and qualitative mastery of discipline. In this work the main methodological bases of preparation of lecture material, its design, importance for mastering the theoretical, practical bases of basic training of foreign medical students are revealed. The main functions of the lecture, as the main form of preparation for practical classes, independent work of students and the preparation of the exam on discipline are highlighted. The role of the teacher's professional skill in mastering the subject "Medical Microbiology, Virology and Immunology" is shown. The present demands from a teacher who lectures to foreign students, the use of new methods and techniques and the introduction of new technologies, diverse approaches and improving the quality of teaching. The lecture is traditionally the leading form of study at a higher educational institution. It performs scientific, cognitive, educational functions. The lecturer must have high professional training, pedagogical skills, communicative skills and fluency in the English language. Lecture material should be presented to foreign students at an adequate scientific level, using modern teaching aids, to contain the basic provisions that are necessary for preparation for practical classes, organization of independent work of students, examination of the subject. The prospect of further improving the teaching of the lecture course is the creation of a multimedia lecture summary for Ukrainian-speaking foreign students.

Introduction. This research aims to determine the prevalence of mental symptoms (depressive symptoms, anxiety and adjustment disorders) and somatic symptoms among medical students at Riga Stradins University in Latvia, as well as to display the differences between local and international medical students.&#x0D; Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted by means of onlinebased questionnaires among medical students in their 1st, 4th and 6th years studying in Riga, Latvia, during March 2017. The mental and somatic symptoms were screened with the PHQ-D Option C (PHQ-15, PHQ-9, GAD-7). Symptoms of adjustment disorder were obtained by the ADNM-6. Medical students were divided into three groups according to their answers of the PHQ-D: Group A: no symptom, group B: a single symptom, group C: multiple symptoms. A general questionnaire and a questionnaire regarding stressful life events over the past half-year were distributed additionally.&#x0D; Results. 67 (40.1%) participants were Latvian students; 100 (59.9%) were international students. 23 (34.3%) Latvian students were in group A, 20 (29.9%) in group B, 24 (35.8%) in group C. 51 (51%) international students were in group A, 34 (34%) in group B, 14 (14%) in group C. Latvians displayed statisti cally significantly more health-related symptoms (0.003). 11 (11%) international students who reported a stressful life event over the last half-year were in group C. 21 (31.3%) of Latvian students who reported a stressful life event over the last half-year were in group C. 73 (43.7%) of all students had experienced stressful life events and displayed troubles adjusting to them. 65 (63.1%) students of the two groups with a stressful life found the event to have a great burden on them, 63 (61.2%) were wondering whether it could happen again, and 73 (70.9%) tried to suppress their feelings.&#x0D; Conclusion. Medical students in Latvia have a high prevalence of healthrelated symptoms. Latvian medical students display more health-related symptoms and symptoms of adjustment disorder. Further research needs to be performed to investigate whether Latvians have a lower threshold for stressors or whether they are exposed to more stressors than international students. The high prevalence of symptoms of adjustment disorder may impact the prospective patient-doctor relationship and the treatment outcome.