All aspects of illness and healthcare are mediated by language: experiences of illness, death and healthcare provision are talked and written about (face-to-face or online), while medical consultations, research interviews, public health communications and even some diagnostic instruments are all inherently linguistic in nature. How we talk to, about and for each other in such a sensitive context has consequences for our relationships, our sense of self, how we understand and reason about our health, as well as for the quality care we receive. Yet, linguistic analysis has been conspicuously absent from the mainstream of medical education, health communication training and even the medical or health humanities. The chapters in this volume bring together applied linguistic work using discourse analysis, corpus methods, conversation analysis, metaphor analysis, cognitive linguistics, multiculturalism research, interactional sociolinguistics, narrative analysis, and (im)politeness to make sense of a variety of international healthcare contexts and situations. These include: -clinician-patient interactions -receptionist-patient interactions -online support forums -online counselling -public health communication -media representations -medical accounts -diagnostic tools and definitions -research interviews with doctors and patients The volume demonstrates how linguistic analysis can not only improve understandings of the lived-experience of different illnesses, but also has implications for communications training, disease prevention, treatment and self-management, the effectiveness of public health messaging, access to appropriate care, professional mobility and professional terminology, among others.

The Routledge Handbook of Language and Health Communication consists of forty chapters that provide a broad, comprehensive, and systematic overview of the role that linguistics plays within health communication research and its applications. The Handbook is divided into three sections: Individuals’ everyday health communication Health professionals’ communicative practices Patient-provider communication in interaction Special attention is given to cross-cutting themes, including the role of technology in health communication, narrative, and observations of authentic, naturally-occurring contexts. The chapters are written by international authorities representing a wide range of perspectives and approaches. Building on established work with cutting-edge studies on the changing health communication landscape, this volume will be an essential reference for all those involved in health communication and applied linguistics research and practice.

Featuring internationally renowned academics, this volume provides a snapshot of the field of applied linguistics, and illustrates how linguistics is engaging with the idea of 'context'. The book treats discourse as language in the contexts of its use in and above the level of the sentence and as systems of knowledge and beliefs. In using the term context(s), the book understands this as different situations in which discourse is produced and, on the other, how analysts construe context in their work. The volume is thus concerned with language in its context of use (little d discourse), but at the same time, more specifically, in individual chapters, with particular discourses as they are manifested in particular contexts (big D discourses). Well known discourse analysts contribute chapters focussing on different contexts with which they are familiar, viz. business, education, ethnicity and race, gender and sexuality, history, intercultural contexts, lingua franca contexts, media, place, politics, race, and the virtual world. It brings together researchers from different approaches, but all with a commitment to the study of language in context. The contributors themselves represent different approaches to discourse analysis: conversation analysis, corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, ethnographic discourse analysis, mediated discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, systemic functional linguistics. Readers are invited to compare and contrast these different contexts and approaches.

Researchers in applied linguistics have found medical and health contexts to be fertile grounds for study, from macro-levels of conceptual analyses to micro-levels of the "turn-by-turn." The rich array of health contexts include medical research itself, clinical encounters, medical education and training, caregivers and patients in everyday life – from the formal and ritualized to the ad hoc and ephemeral. This volume foregrounds the crucial role of applied linguists addressing real world problems, while simultaneously highlighting the varied ways that health can be understood as a rich site of language inquiry in its own right. Chapters cover a range of health topics including medical training, medical interaction, disability in education, health policy analysis and recommendations, multidisciplinary research teams, and medical ethics. While reporting and reflecting on their specific topics in clinical and health contexts, contributors also articulate their own hybrid identities as professional collaborators in health research, education, and policy.

Demonstrates the importance of corpus research to applied linguistics, covering a range of areas.

An interdisciplinary overview of theory, history, and leading research in the field With a joint linguistic and medical perspective, The Handbook of Language in Public Health and Healthcare explores innovative approaches for improving clinical education, clinician-patient communication, assessment, and mass communication. Contributions by a diverse panel of experts address a wide range of key topics, including language concordance in clinical care, medical interpreting, the role of language as a social determinant of health, reaching linguistically diverse audiences during public health crises, assessing clinician language skills, and more. Organized into five parts, the Handbook covers the theory, history, and context of linguistics, language interpretation and translation, language concordance, medical language education pedagogy, and mass communication of health information with linguistically diverse populations. Throughout the text, detailed chapters present solutions and strategies with the potential to improve the health and healthcare of linguistically diverse populations worldwide. In an increasingly multilingual, global society, language has become a critical area of interest for advancing public health and healthcare. The Handbook of Language in Public Health and Healthcare: Helps professionals integrate language-appropriate communication in healthcare settings Addresses clinician-patient communication, assessment, research, and mass public health communication Offers key theoretical insights that inform the intersection of language, public health, and healthcare Highlights how various approaches in the field of linguistics have enriched public health and healthcare practices The Handbook of Language in Public Health and Healthcare is essential reading for undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional students of applied linguistics, health communication, and medicine. It is also an invaluable reference for language educators, clinicians, medical educators, linguists, health policy experts, and researchers.

This edited volume demonstrates the fundamental role translation and interpreting play in multilingual crises. During the COVID-19 pandemic, limited language proficiency of the main language(s) in which information is disseminated exposed people to additional risks, and the contributors analyse risk communication plans and strategies used throughout the world to communicate measures through translation and interpreting. They show that a political willingness to understand the role of language in public health could lead local and national measures to success, sampling approaches from across four continents. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of healthcare translation and interpreting, sociolinguistics and crisis communication, as well as practitioners of risk and crisis communication and professional translators and interpreters.

Appliable Linguistics tackles everyday real-life language-related problems in diverse social, professional and academic contexts

The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics, published in 2011, has long been a standard introduction and essential reference point to the broad interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics. Reflecting the growth and widening scope of applied linguistics, this new edition thoroughly updates and expands coverage. It includes 27 new chapters, now consists of two complementary volumes, and covers a wide range of topics from a variety of perspectives. Volume One is organized into two sections – ‘Language learning and language education’ and ‘Key areas and approaches in applied linguistics’ – and Volume Two also has two sections – ‘Applied linguistics in society’ and ‘Broadening horizons’. Each volume includes 30 chapters written by specialists from around the world. Each chapter provides an overview of the history of the topic, the main current issues, recommendations for practice, and possible future trajectories. Where appropriate, authors discuss the impact and use of new research methods in the area. Suggestions for further reading and cross-references are provided with every chapter. The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics remains the authoritative overview to this dynamic field and essential reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, scholars, and researchers of applied linguistics.

Corpus Linguistics for Health Communication provides an accessible and practical introduction to the use of corpus linguistics methods to analyse health-related language use across various contexts and genres. Offering a critical review of the field, discussion of extended case studies, and practical exercises based on spoken, written, and digital language data, this book: introduces the fields of health communication and corpus linguistics and critically reviews cutting-edge studies in the burgeoning area of corpus-based health communication; describes the processes involved in planning a corpus linguistics study of health communication, including designing and building a corpus, selecting tools, and implementing techniques of analysis; demonstrates how corpus linguistics methods can – and have – been applied to the study of spoken, written, and digital health communication, offering critical reflections and suggesting areas for future development. Corpus Linguistics for Health Communication is essential reading for those working at the interface of corpus linguistics and health communication. Both those with a little or a lot of experience in either field will find value in its pages.