ESL Health Unit Two:
The Hospital

Content Overview
Intermediate Level

Health Focus

• Dealing with emergencies: emergency surgery and calling 911

• Understanding pre and post-op instructions

• Taking charge of your hospital experience

• Patient’s rights and responsibilities

Language Focus

• Vocabulary for describing emergencies, talking about surgery and surgical instructions, saying numbers
• Use the simple past and past progressive tense when telling stories

• Pronouncing numbers and street addresses

• Use the present perfect tense
• The difference between “say” and “tell”
• The present unreal conditional (“If I were…I would…”)
• Words and structures for speaking assertively but politely

Cultural Focus

• Importance of taking charge of own healthcare and what this means in the context of the US hospital
• Patient’s rights and responsibilities and how these norms may be different from country to country
• Speaking assertively but politely with doctors and other healthcare professionals