Abstract:

The University of Cape Town (UCT) is situated in the trilingual Western Cape, a province where Afrikaans is the most widely spoken home language, followed by isiXhosa and English. At this institution, English is the predominant medium of instruction and examination. In recognition of its own cosmopolitan community and the multilingual communities its graduates are expected to serve, it employs a multilingualism strategy, which provides opportunities to learn Afrikaans and isiXhosa.

The nature of the MBChB curriculum within the Faculty of Health Sciences is an instance of how this multilingualism strategy is applied. The curriculum requires medical students to register for Languages (both Afrikaans and isiXhosa). It is a compulsory component, which is currently staggered from year one to year four of a six year curriculum. The aim of this initiative is to ensure that medical graduates are capable of providing health care in the language of the patient.

Upon graduation it is expected that students are competent communicators in the three languages of the Western Cape. In order to be found competent, a suitable language competency assessment tool is required to establish whether pre-determined benchmarks have been reached.

This paper discusses the nature and architecture of the language assessment tool, which has evolved over several years of language teaching and assessment within a clinical context at UCT. The scope of its application relating to language learning activities in the MBChB curriculum will be presented. By applying the principles, which underpin the design of the assessment tool, it may be adapted and used in wide range of contexts where languages are learned and assessed for vocational purposes.

Keywords:

Assessment tool for language competency, language proficiency testing, language competency in Health Sciences, Assessment of vocational language competence.