Jessica Mariela Rodríguez Hernández¹*, Diana Paola Amaro de la Paz² and Andrea Verónica Pérez Vázquez³

¹1Degree in Applied Linguistics with an Emphasis in Didactics, Doctorate in Philosophy with an Orientation in Educational Studies, Full-Time Professor at the Faculty of Public Health and Nutrition, Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Monterrey, Mexico
²Student of the Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition at the Faculty of Public Health and Nutrition Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Mexico

*Corresponding Author: Jessica Mariela Rodríguez Hernández, Degree in Applied Linguistics with an Emphasis in Didactics, Doctorate in Philosophy with an Orientation in Educational Studies, Full-Time Professor at the Faculty of Public Health and Nutrition, Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Monterrey, Mexico.

Received: October 07, 2021; Published: November 12, 2021

Abstract

English Communicative Competence is a course at UANL aimed to develop English linguistic skills to express ideas about different topics at a lower intermediate level. Particularly, teachers from the School of Public Health and Nutrition have adopted several learning activities that will be helpful in the development of English proficiency of future health professionals since these tasks have been designed to practice the target language in a nutrition context. The purpose of this research is to describe the experience that nutrition college students had in the English Communicative Competence class, in which activities to acquire a foreign language were developed taking into account their professional field. The results showed that students were satisfied with the use of grammatical structures within contextualized situations that nutritionists usually face. They pointed out that they had acquired vocabulary and concepts related to their field of study. In conclusion, motivation and learning were present by providing students with activities that fulfilled their needs. When students practice the target language in situations close to their interests, learning a foreign language has a great possibility to become a natural process.

Keywords: English in a Nutrition Context; English for Specific Purposes; Communicative Competence; English for Future Health Professionals; Students’ Perceptions

References

1. What are English for Specific Purposes courses?. Wits Language School. Johannesburg: South Africa (2018).
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3. Xhaferi B. “Teaching and Learning ESP Vocabulary”. Biblid (2010): 229-255.
4. Pham L. “Differentiated instruction and the need to integrate teaching and practice”. Journal of College Teaching and Learning 1 (2012): 13-20.

Citation

Citation: Jessica Mariela Rodríguez Hernández., et al. “Students’ Perceptions About Using Nutrition-themed Activities in an English Communicative Competence Course at UANL". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 5.12 (2021): 03-19.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Jessica Mariela Rodríguez Hernández., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.