The Jagiellonian University Medical College Language Centre is an interdepartmental unit of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. Our offer is addressed to students and academic staff of the three faculties concentrated in the Jagiellonian University Medical College: Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy and Faculty of Health Sciences.

We offer English language courses designed for future health care professionals, and we place particular emphasis on learning a specialised language with respect to the profile and field of study. Our courses also include general and academic components. We create original materials and programmes to meet the needs of our students.

The Language Centre runs classes for students in four modern languages English, German, French and Spanish. Our classes are attended by approximately 2,000 students per year in first and second degree programmes.

The didactic approach of the Jagiellonian University Medical College Language Centre is based on the conviction that people learn languages in different ways and for different reasons. Therefore, when planning the didactic process:

• the content of the courses should correspond to the needs and interests of the learners,
• the methods and techniques used in the courses should correspond to the learners’ level of language competence,
• the courses should develop communication skills in the broadest sense; we want to facilitate learners’ development not only of linguistic competence (grammar, semantics or pronunciation), but also of pragmatic and intercultural competence (producing and understanding oral and written texts) and of strategies that can be applied in professional, academic and private contexts regardless of language (e.g. learning strategies or techniques for working with source texts),
• the courses should allow contact with authentic and original written and spoken materials to a degree that depends on the learners’ competence and expertise,
• the courses should offer specialised language learning, but also a general as well as an academic component.

 We also believe that learning a foreign language can and should be a rewarding challenge. We offer students a variety of materials, often authentic, and engage them in stimulating tasks.

Teaching staff

There are more than 30 people working at the Jagiellonian University Medical College Language Centre. They form a competent and qualified team, specialising in teaching medical language. They are constantly developing their professional skills through self-education, obtaining degrees and participating in conferences and trainings.

The teaching team of the Jagiellonian University Medical College Language Centre is guided by the principle that, in order to achieve the stated aims of education, it is necessary, in particular, to:

• promote an approach that places the learner at the centre of the teaching process,
• inform learners about the objectives of courses and classes and the expected learning outcomes,
• adapt, as far as possible, teaching techniques to the needs of individual students and the group,
• provide a variety of activities in the classroom and ensure the appropriate dynamic of the classes,
• create a good and supportive learning atmosphere,
• ensure that learners are actively involved in the learning process through communicative tasks,
• provide feedback to learners during class and on homework, including correcting errors as appropriate,
• provide time in class to reflect on what has been done in class (e.g. in relation to the lesson objectives),
• present, practise and evaluate the use of language in context,
• give clear instructions.