Bridging undergraduate ESL medical students to research skills and academic discourses

Orienting international English as a Second Language (ESL) students to research skills and discourses through bridging programs at the postgraduate level has been described in literature and is also explored in a range of text-books. The discussion regarding undergraduate research support is substantially less well developed, although research training at the undergraduate level is not uncommon in some disciplines. Content-based, team-taught bridging programs offer distinct advantages to students although they also require careful planning and consideration of integrated teaching and assessment. This paper presents a case study of the context and curriculum outline of an innovative three-week bridging program for international second-language medical research students undertaking a two-semester, third-year intercalated Bachelor of Medical Science (BMedSci) degree within the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program at the University of Melbourne. Independent qualitative and quantitative student evaluations of the overall concurrent English for Academic Purposes (EAP) support, and specifically the bridging program, are also provided. The paper highlights the potential for concurrent discipline-specific support for research students under a faculty-based student support program (Hawthorne, Minas and Singh 2004).