Ariel Mercado, PhD

A specialist in professional language training, more specifically in health sciences, Ariel Mercado has been the coordinator and professor of the French for health sciences and social work courses at the French Language Centre of McGill University since January 2020. He completed his undergraduate studies in French as a second language at Université Laval in Quebec City, his Master’s in teaching Spanish at a foreign language at Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, his Diploma of Advanced Studies at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and his Doctorate in Linguistics at Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio (UAX) in Madrid, Spain. He has almost 20 years of experience in teaching languages for specific purposes, especially French, English and Spanish for health sciences.

Between 2005 and 2009 he actively collaborated in the implementation of different courses, such as English for Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry and Physiotherapy at UAX. In Spain, he also taught translation courses in French, English and Spanish, and French-Canadian history at university level, and he currently collaborates in the Master of Teaching Spanish as a second language at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia, where he is responsible for the module on medical Spanish. His research interests include teaching languages for specific purposes, discourse analysis, and genre analysis.