BASIC ENGLISH TRAINING FOR MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS WITH DIGITAL APPLICATION SUPPORT
We are excited to share the details of our upcoming Basic English Training for Mental Health Professionals, organized by AIFED and taking place in Granada from September 1–5, 2025, under the Erasmus+ projects “Centre Psychiatrique Saint Bernard” and “Centre Neuro Psychiatrique Saint-Martin.”
Description
This training is designed to strengthen participants’ foundational English skills for professional practice in linguistically diverse healthcare settings, while introducing digital tools and applications that support communication, translation, and ongoing learning. Aimed at beginner-level English speakers working in mental health, the course combines medical English fundamentals with hands-on practice using AI and language-support technologies.
Objectives
- Understand the challenges of communication in multilingual healthcare environments and explore strategies to overcome them
- Use simple medical English for patient communication (greetings, introductions, identity verification, common vocabulary)
- Apply basic grammatical tenses for professional use (simple present, past, and future; common sentence structures)
- Use digital tools to support translation, correction, and simplification of English communication (DeepL, Google Translate, ChatGPT, Grammarly, Quillbot, etc.)
- Apply key confidentiality and ethical principles, including GDPR
- Discover resources for lifelong English learning
Prerequisites
Beginner-level English. Participants must bring a personal laptop (minimum 4GB RAM), an updated operating system, a modern browser, a functioning camera/microphone, and headset, plus an active email address.
Course Highlights
Over five days, participants will progress through multilingual communication challenges, intercultural and non-verbal communication, “golden rules” of simplified English, essential medical English (greetings, introductions, identity checks), thematic medical vocabulary (pathologies, symptoms, organs, healthcare staff), and functional grammar (verbs “to be/have/do,” present/past/future tenses). Digital tool sessions cover automatic translators (DeepL, Google Translate), introductory ChatGPT use and prompting, and intelligent text correctors (Grammarly, Quillbot). Additional topics include drafting professional documents (clinical notes, letters, bilingual patient forms), CAT (computer-assisted translation) methodology, mental health pictograms, and GDPR/data protection best practices. The program is enriched with cultural visits (Granada city center, the Albayzín quarter, the Alhambra, the historic Maristán psychiatric hospital) and a conference on Generative AI by researcher Sara Amaro at Fundación IA Granada.
Pedagogical Approach
The course follows a communicative, task-based methodology (English for Specific Purposes) centered on authentic healthcare scenarios, combining Communicative Language Teaching, Task-Based Learning, the Lexical Approach, ESP, and Total Physical Response. Interactive digital tools such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, LanguageTool, and QuillBot are used throughout to reinforce real-world communication skills.
Expected Outcomes
By the end of the course, participants will be able to understand and use simple English expressions related to mental health care, introduce themselves, ask basic questions about symptoms and history, give simple instructions to patients, and respond to common clinical prompts.
Evaluation
On the final day, participants will complete a Kirkpatrick-model questionnaire assessing satisfaction, knowledge gained, applicability to their professional practice, and expected impact, combining quantitative and qualitative feedback to improve future editions.
Acknowledgments
We extend our thanks to AIFED for organizing this training and to all facilitators, including guest speaker Sara Amaro, for their contributions. We look forward to welcoming participants to Granada for this enriching professional and cultural experience.
