Linguistic Hegemony

Hanan Al-Subaiai, an MA student, delivered a presentation titled Linguistic Hegemony of the English Language in the Medical Context of Bisha King Abdullah Hospital at a seminar organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University held on September 12, 2018. The seminar was held at the King Abdullah Road Campus. In her presentation, she focused on the impact of English on patients and staff members working at King Abdullah Hospital in Bisha. Hanan began her speech with the factors that motivated her to conduct the research. She stated that even though English had become a common language in the Kindom's hospitals, Saudis are more comfortable with Arabic. Her research questions centered on the impact of English on service delivery to patients, challenges medical practitioners encounter, the attitude of patients towards English, whether English should be abolished in hospitals, how patients’ education level affects their attitude towards English and so on. While talking about her research, Hanan mentioned four variables she used – understanding, satisfaction level, policy and rights, and language and communication. According to her data analysis, a high percentage of the medical staff believed that the use of English in the medical context is not effective in service delivery. Hanan concluded, “Policymakers and the management of King Abdullah Hospital in Bisha can use the empirical evidence in this study to make informed decisions.” She emphasized further research in this field so that the major problem associated with the use of English can be successfully identified. The seminar was very interactive, engaging and overall successful. It is worth noting that Graiger Campus also participated in the seminar through video conferencing. Date: 9/12/2018 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique