Exploring Clinical Communication in Asia - (Bloomsbury Studies in Language and Healthcare) by Jack Pun & Audrey Chan (Hardcover)

About the Book

Drawing on socially-oriented functional linguistics, this book provides a fresh and well-documented look at language use in clinical communication in the Asian context.

Book Synopsis

Drawing on socially-oriented functional linguistics, this book offers a detailed and systematic overview of the role that language plays in clinician-patient communication in Asian contexts. Putting forward a communication model specific to this particular sociocultural and medical setting, it provides clear and research-driven recommendations for healthcare professionals. Building on cutting-edge empirical research on the health communication landscape in Asia, this book addresses topics of interest to researchers in health communication and applied linguistics more broadly. It also provides healthcare professionals with the resources necessary for a critical reflection of their professional practice. The book makes use of data gathered through a variety of methods, including audio and video recordings of clinician-patient communication, semi-structured interviews, and ethnographic observations. It also uses a cross-disciplinary approach, combining the expertise of linguists, clinicians and health communication researchers, to identify communication features of effective and ineffective interactions, focusing on the communication breakdowns and vulnerable points which jeopardize the quality and safety of the patient experience.

Review Quotes

"The volume by Jack Pun and Audrey Chan leads readers to a new frontier of health communication research. Through voices of doctors working in the multilingual/cultural city, Hong Kong, clinical practices in Chinese contexts and the cultural values of traditional Chinese medicine are elaborated, in contrast to Western medicine." --Keiko Tsuchiya, Professor of English Language and Linguistics in Liberal Arts and International Studies, Yokohama City University, Japan

About the Author

Jack Pun is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Audrey Chan is a PhD researcher in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge, UK.