摘要：AbstractIn clinical consultations, doctors and patients try to align their efforts to meet the goal of consultation which is diagnosis and treatment. The general pattern of a clinical consultation, as an activity type, normally includes: opening, history taking, examining, diagnosis, offering treatment, and terminating [1,2]. This study analyses the structure of clinical consultation in a multilingual multicultural setting (MMS) in which the participants are non-native speakers of English. This paper will discuss, in particular, the opening of 15 consultations which reveal a unique feature of the MMS consultations.
关键词：Consultation pattern;Doctor-patient communication;Multilingualism;Multiculturalism;Primary care consultation;English for professional purposes
