Language competency in healthcare and social work

Background: Linguistic variety and diversity, in which we interact daily, the need for communication and removing the linguistic barriers, almost naturally strengthen the human desire to learn the language of the neighboring countries. With international migration, urbanization and globalization this process is becoming even more important. This also strengthens the need to develop a n d s u s t a i n t h e l a n g u a g e c o m p e t e n c e o f professionals working in social and health sector. Set and Methods: Students of undergraduate degree programs and professionals in the field of social work and health care have participated in the survey. The sample consisted of 100 respondents from the social work undergraduate study, 100 respondents from health in undergraduate study, 100 professionals in the field of social work and 100 professionals from the health care sector, making total number of respondents four hundred. Survey was conducted in September to October 2014 by anonymous questionnaires. Students and professionals in the field of social work and health care have been specifically chosen for the study. Results: It is very important to increase the linguistic competence, since ignorance of foreign languages results in fact, that social and health care workers cannot extend their theoretical knowledge and follow current research taking place in the world, neither cannot work with patients who are not able to speak Slovak. The language incompetence causes that they are not able to present their research at the EU ground, and therefore there is lack of mutual interaction and exchange of knowledge within these sectors.