English for Medical Communication in Allied Health Science Programmes: Students’ Perceptions of Course Effectiveness

Effective medical communication is essential for safe, patient-centred, and collaborative allied health practice, highlighting the need for English courses that address discipline-specific communication demands. This study investigates the effectiveness of an English course in meeting the medical communication needs of allied health students, focusing on course content relevance, speaking skills, medical vocabulary, classroom practices, and communication confidence. Adopting a quantitative descriptive research design, data were collected from 56 first-year allied health students using a structured, self-developed questionnaire measured on a five-point Likert scale. The questionnaire demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability and the data were analysed using SPSS. Findings reveal that while students perceived moderate relevance of course content to real-world allied health communication, the course had a notably positive impact on speaking skills, medical vocabulary development, and oral communication confidence. Classroom activities, particularly role-plays, discussions, and simulations, were identified as the most effective components in preparing students for real-life healthcare communication. However, some students reported uncertainty regarding the alignment of learning materials with authentic clinical contexts. The study concludes that although the English course contributes meaningfully to medical communication competence, greater contextualization through profession-specific content and authentic clinical scenarios is necessary. The findings underscore the importance of needs-driven, ESP-oriented course design combined with interactive pedagogy to enhance medical communication training for allied health students.