推行醫用台語教學：醫療專業素養與母語維護

Teaching Taiwanese for Medical Purpose: A Pragmatic Approach to the Professionalism of Patient-centeredness and Taiwanese Vitality

臺灣早已邁入高齡化社會，然而年輕輩台語人口的嚴重流失形成醫師與老年病人的雞同鴨講。這些語言溝通障礙不但影響病人追求健康與醫療服務的基本人權，也阻礙醫療人員展現「病人為主」的專業精神。本文以文獻回顧為基礎，從以下觀點論述推行醫用台語之重要性：醫療專業素養、母語人口斷層、多語醫療職場、專業語言能力、辭彙擴增與語言活力、語言的語用溝通功能，筆者認為，兼顧醫學相關科系學生將來職場所需之台語能力與溝通技巧所開設的醫用台語課程，不但是全球語言教學的新趨勢，於全球在地化的新思維中，更有助於從語用溝通功能，透過醫療菁英基於職場需求與專業素養展現，間接促進台語保存與專業辭彙擴增，提升台語的語言活力。

As true in most societies where the aging population is growing but the number of young speakers of the local dialects is decreasing, medical practice in Taiwan is facing a worrisome language barrier—the non-communication between the young professionals and the elderly patients. This language barrier is an impediment to patients' right to health and the professional practice of patient-centeredness. Based on literature review, this paper discusses the importance of implementing the curriculum program of medical Taiwanese from the following perspectives: the medical professionalism of patient-centeredness, language gap between the old and young generation, multi-lingual health care context, language for specific purpose, lexical elaboration and linguistic vitality, and the communication aspect of language use. This paper argues that the implementation of medical Taiwanese course which targets on the Taiwanese proficiency and communication skills will (1) match the goal of the rising approach of LSP—teaching language for specific purpose tailored to medical students' future career needs; (2) fulfill the medical professionalism of patient-centeredness; (3) promote dialect maintenance via social elites, such as doctors, by speaking in the patient's language; and (4) reinforce dialect vitality by extending the formal medical lexicon in Taiwanese.