Pharmablog – Departement Pharmazeutische Wissenschaften

Understanding scientific jargon in a paper, professionally communicating with patients and colleagues, or writing a lab report – i.e. using English in a pharmaceutical context – demands special skills beyond everyday language use. To prepare you for these challenges, the Language Center offers a course developed in close collaboration with the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences to meet your specific language needs in the pharmaceutical and health-related fields.

As a precursor to the “Scientific Writing” course offered in the spring semester by the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, this course prepares students to effectively and accurately communicate their professional knowledge in English. By covering all four language competences – speaking, writing, listening and reading – it acquaints students with a variety of English-language situations they will have to maneuver. Materials are drawn from authentic academic, research and professional contexts.

The course aims to:

expand your pharmaceutical and medical vocabulary (e.g. drug formulations, diseases), enhance your reading comprehension skills (e.g. by analyzing current articles from the media and professional journals), hone your listening comprehension skills (e.g. by examining authentic pharmacy and health-related talks and presentations), increase your accuracy in speaking and writing in the laboratory (e.g. explaining procedures and composing lab reports), develop your ability to deliver presentations on topics related to your professional knowledge (e.g. communicating research), help you navigate the pharmaceutical job market (e.g. applying for internships), strengthen your workplace communication skills as needed in pharmacist–patient dialogues (e.g. communicating scientific information to lay people).

LECTURER
This course is taught by Kumiko Masai, PhD. After studying in North America and Japan, she worked as a postdoc at the Biozentrum and then later in the pharmaceutical industry for several years. She has been teaching with the Language Center of the University of Basel for approximately three years.

ENTRY REQUIREMENT
Min. 2 semesters of pharmaceutical studies.

You can earn a total of 3 CREDIT POINTS for this course.

For further information and registration, please go to the Language Center website.