Research Program larger image [.pdf]
The McGill Training and Human Resources Development Project includes a research component to help it achieve its overall mission of rendering health care services more accessible to those Québécois Anglophones for whom potential language barriers exist. To this end, an interdisciplinary, inter-institutional research team has been formed to address issues concerned with the delivery of health care services to minority language populations. The goals of the McGill Language Training Program of primary relevance to the work of the research team are:
- To define criteria for evaluating the quality of the proposed second language training, in collaboration with appropriate representatives of the health, social services, and training sectors;
- To design, in collaboration with training organizations, tools to evaluate the appropriate second language skills of health care deliverers;
- To develop methods and instructional materials for maintaining and enhancing acquired second language skills via distance communication;
- To support and assist the language trainers;
- To evaluate the language training program;
- To organize supporting seminars and conferences.
The Research Team serves as a resource for the Project Steering Committee and Advisory Board, to be called upon for its expertise in areas related to the Project's mission. It helps the Project by providing evidence-based information relevant to its goals and by conducting studies to obtain new evidence on questions relevant to the Project's mission.
The Research Team also works to establish visibility for its research through publications, conference presentations, and links to regional, national and international research groups also working on similar issues. The Research Team undertakes studies in response to questions from Project organizers and in response to appropriate questions identified by members of the research team itself. The research methods used include field-based studies, laboratory-based experimental studies, questionnaire-based surveys and literature reviews, among others.
