Identifying english for the job: Examples from health care occupations

Designers and teachers of courses in VESL often find it necessary to identify the language required for specific jobs. This paper describes one approach to discovering the necessary language forms and the contexts in which they are used. The approach is illustrated by means of observations of language use in two health care occupations: Central Supply technician and hospital transporter. While certain uses of language are specific to particular jobs, other language functions (e.g., seeking clarification, reporting problems, understanding imperatives and numbers, socializing) seem to have wider applicability. Assumptions one may make about the language a worker needs on the job do not always hold up under a thorough on-site analysis. Thus, on-site observation of language use is important in the identification and interpretation of the language appropriate to the job.