Article published In:
Australian Review of Applied LinguisticsVol. 22:2 (1999) ► pp.35–50
Medical discourse in a hispanic environment
Power and simpatia under examination
This paper gives a preliminary insight into Hispanic medical discourse. It explores how a physician exercises power and simpatía in conversations with patients and it includes patients’ perception about good medical practice.
The focus is on the analysis of a conversation tape-recorded between the most popular and likeable doctor in the clinic and a female patient. This interaction is compared with the results obtained from a semi-structured interview aiming to discover if this medical exchange represents what patients have identified as positive medical behaviour.
The Hispanic data demonstrate that the doctor uses a variety of strategies in the exchange in order to show both his medical knowledge and his linguistic competence in expressing simpatía in discourse. The latter helps to create a pleasant atmosphere in an interaction in which the doctor’s use of the language is paramount.
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Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Cordella, Marisa
2011. Chapter Nine Overcoming Language and Cultural Differences in Medical Encounters: The Use of a Language and Culture Training Course (LACT) in Educating IMGs in Australia. In English Language and the Medical Profession: Instructing and Assessing the Communication Skills of International Physicians [Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching, 5], ► pp. 175 ff. 
Wilce, James M.
2009. Medical Discourse. Annual Review of Anthropology 38:1 ► pp. 199 ff.
Cordelia, Marisa
2004. You know doctor, i need to tell you something. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 27:2 ► pp. 92 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. References. In English Language and the Medical Profession: Instructing and Assessing the Communication Skills of International Physicians [Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching, 5], ► pp. 291 ff.
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