Date and Time: Friday 23 October 2026, 12.00-1.30pm (BST/UK time)
Online via Zoom
Registration: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/nJYV34j3h0
Abstract
This talk examines how multimodal and affective resources shape health communication in medical education in Brazil, focusing on what happens when communication outpaces patients’ health literacy. Data from the first multicenter, population-based survey of functional health literacy in Brazil (Dal Pizzol et al., 2025), based on 1,181 adults interviewed face to face across five municipalities in Mato Grosso do Sul and Rio Grande do Sul, show that 19 percent, roughly one in five, present inadequate health literacy, unable to understand basic health instructions. Among those with fewer than eight years of schooling, this rises to seven in ten; multivariate analysis identifies low schooling, not age or income, as the dominant risk factor, a gap not confined to extreme vulnerability alone, since inadequate literacy also affected privileged respondents. Yet few studies address the barriers this population faces, or the difficulties professionals encounter understanding and being understood across difference. Foundational multimodal research, such as Bezemer (2011) study of meaning-making negotiation in the surgery room, exemplified in “scissors, please,” as well as Bezemer et al (2012), show how meaning is multimodally co-constructed in clinical settings, yet remains inattentive to the complexity of real doctor-patient communication, difference, and vulnerable populations. This presentation contributes by examining initial medical education (Maciel & Barbosa, 2019, Maciel, 2026), a compulsory health communication module co-taught by an applied linguist and health professionals in a Brazilian medical school. Findings suggest that medical education must be reconceived to both deconstruct and expand students’ communicative repertoires, incorporating affective semiotic assemblages and difference as constitutive dimensions of meaning-making, thereby advancing a political and affective turn in multimodality that expands repertoires and empowers lives.
Bio
Ruberval Franco Maciel is a distinguished Full Professor at the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UEMS), where he holds a multifaceted academic role bridging Applied Linguistics and medical education. Within the Department of Applied Linguistics, he is actively engaged in both teaching and supervision. At the UEMS School of Medicine, Professor Maciel serves as the coordinator and instructor for the module on Health Communication, specializing in health multiliteracies, affective health communication, and the critical integration of soft skills in healthcare practices. He has an extensive track record in academic mentorship, having supervised 60 medical students in their initial research stages. Furthermore, he spearheads innovative outreach projects focused on developing humanized, communicative approaches to the doctor-patient relationship.
Professor Maciel’s academic foundation is deeply international. He holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading (UK). He earned his PhD in Linguistics and Literary Studies of English from the University of São Paulo (USP), which included a doctoral internship at the University of Manitoba (Canada). He later conducted advanced postdoctoral research at the City University of New York (CUNY), USA. He is a recognized leader in his field, having served as a former President of the Brazilian Association of Applied Linguistics (ALAB). Currently, Professor Maciel is actively developing robust international research collaborations with partners in Switzerland, the UK, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Canada, currently. He is currently recognized as a CNPq Pesquisador Produtividade, receiving a prestigious research grant from the Brazilian National Council.
