Editor-The editorial by Gallen and Peile signals anything but a firm foundation for training junior doctors. 1 The first foundation year will essentially be an extension of undergraduate training, its doctors allowed only to observe medical practice. And doctors in foundation year 2 will be "career tourists," spending too little time in each specialty to be able to offer much service in return. Medical educationalists should realise that nurses and other paramedical groups are encroaching on traditional medical practice and do not seem to need the sort of extended training we demand of medical students. For example, a six week course apparently enables paramedics to administer safely almost all drugs used in emergency practice. By contrast we seem intent on postponing the time at which our bright and enthusiastic young doctors can start treating patients. Five years is quite long enough to learn the theory of medicine. After that, the sooner young doctors are allowed to start treating patients, in a supervised setting, the better.

The study focused on tracing the language development of students in a functional English course through the initiation of a diagnostic test. The diagnostic test aided the designing of classroom instruction together with the development of online language tasks as support activities. The post-test taken after an intervention of eight weeks revealed that the weekly online language tasks helped improve the language skills of students and made them autonomous learners. A mixed method approach was used where the scores of students were analysed quantitatively, while semi-structured interviews were taken to mark the satisfaction level with online language activities. The study highlighted the significance of a blended learning approach towards language development.

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