Dr. Michelina P. Bonanno

My formal education is in the subfield of Linguistics known as Sociolinguistics, and more specifically discourse analysis and male/female language differences in the medical setting. In addition, I have more than 30 years of professional experience teaching. I have taught university level international students from all parts of the world, American graduate and undergraduate students, Medical Students and Medical Educators, Foreign Language Instructors,and Secondary Students. Multicultural classrooms, cross cultural communication and diversity are not new to me, nor is pedagogy.

I have been and still am participating in action research projects concerning the role of mentoring adult language learners at my current position at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center. I have also participated in active research concerning the use of simulated patients in medical education to improve the efficacy of the medical curriculum. Most recently in this area my work involved teaching medical interns 'how to tell bad news'.

Aside from this, my research interests lie in three main areas: language and cross cultural communication, doctor-patient communication in the medical setting/medical education, and developing individual learning strategies in life long learners.

East Carolina University 'The Bad News Project' 1998 - 2005
School of Medicine

This project involves teaching medical residents how to tell 'bad, sad and unpleasant news' to patients. I am the linguistic/anthropologist expert on this project, and my co-investigators include a Family Doctor and an Oncologist. My role consists of experimental design for the project, teaching the residents communication skills based on my knowledge of discourse analysis and cross-cultural communication, writing course materials, analyzing videotaped sessions and statistical analysis of the data, as well as giving feedback to the medical residents involved in the course.


East Carolina University - Med-PAC Research Project 1997 - 1998
School of Medicine

As an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Office of Faculty Development, I co-developed a course called 'Medicine: Preventive Ambulatory Care' (Med-PAC) which was offered to the second year medical students. I co-authored the course materials, taught the course, and transcribed and analyzed audiotaped reflection group sessions. I also co-authored numerous grant proposals associated with this project.


Georgetown University - The Georgetown Hospital Project - 'Hospitalk'
Department of Linguistics 1996 - 1997

In conjunction with the University Medical School and the School of Nursing, I was a member of a team of sociolinguists who are involved in an ongoing study to identify and evaluate communication strategies used by members of physician and nursing teams as the hospital reorganizes its general medical services.


Georgetown University - Ph.D. Research 1995
Department of Linguistics

As a requirement for my Ph.D. in Linguistics, I transcribed 31 videotapes of medical intake interviews between 4 simulated patients and 8 physicians. Through the use of qualitative as well as quantitative research methods, I was able to make several generalizations about the discourse and the structure of the medical intake interview.


Walter Reed Army - Protocol Unit #1016 - 1986
Medical Center
'A Linguistic Analysis of Resident-Patient Interaction.'

Principal Investigator, Joan Harvey, M.D. LCDR, MC, USN. I reviewed the content of videotaped medical interviews, transcribed them and investigated how the use of linguistic forms that are associated with male/female language differences affect doctor/patient communication.

I am interested in the transition from student to physician that medical students undergo as they progress through the stages of their education; the significant role that language plays in the accurate diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care of patients;and spirituality and medicine.

I am interested in developing educational health care literature and simplified related materials for nonnative speakers of English in the United States. I am also interested in developing materials for patients and medical doctors to help them to better communicate with each other thus raising the level of health care in the country.