Educational improvement in Medical English Practice: Questionnaire survey to sophomore medical students of Hokkaido University.

In the past, we made several efforts making curriculum changes to Medical English Practice, however, these changes did not improve motivation effectively. We have completely modified the curriculum in 2012, and performed a questionnaire survey to 112 sophomore medical students. In the final exam, students answered a questionnaire assessing all classes of the course by scoring 3 points (no change required), 2 points (minor change required), and 1 point (major change required or discontinue). In addition, students could write free comments about potential contents they would like to add to the curriculum. Each class was assessed as more than or equal to 2.5 points on average (range: 2.50-2.96). Potential contents students want to add are: 1. Speaking (45 students [55%]), 2. Listening (30 students [37%]), 3. Reading (6 students [7%]), 4. Writing (1 student [1%]). The most frequent suggestion was to include group discussions in speaking (27 students [33%]), followed by listening on topics of healthcare systems (11 students [13%]). Many students suggested to include conversation classes in small groups, or classes in which international students introduce the structure of healthcare systems of their home countries to the curriculum. Increasing the participation of international faculty, staff and students in the Medical English Practice might contribute to the improvement of medical students' motivation.