Effectiveness of an Online Medical Spanish Course in Improving Medical Students' Spanish Proficiency

A growing need exists for language-concordant healthcare for Spanish speakers in the United States. More than three-quarters of American medical schools provide Spanish language instruction, but little data exists on best practices. The purpose of this retrospective study was to examine whether an online medical Spanish course is effective at improving medical students' Spanish proficiency.

The course involved one-on-one instruction and group mini-conferences conducted by teachers based in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Teachers evaluated students before and after the course using a 21-point scale adapted from the Cervantes Institute's Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language (DELE) scale. We used descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon's signed rank test and conducted a thematic analysis.

Eighty students participated. The mean (range) and median levels on the pre-course assessment were 3.8 (1-13) and 3, respectively; the post-course levels were 8.0 (3-16) and 7 (p < 0.001). Thirty-five students (43.8%) completed course evaluations. Twenty-five (71.4%) rated the course as excellent, eight (22.9%) as very good, and two (5.7%) as good.

Language instruction in medical Spanish conducted online by native speakers abroad is effective and well-received by medical students. Future studies should examine whether students maintain their gains in proficiency over the long term.