ECPS Journal – 16/2017 http://www.ledonline.it/ECPS-Journal/ 237 Empathy Development through ESP: A Pilot Study Anna O. Stebletsova - Irina I. Torubarova Voronezh N.N. Burdenko State Medical University - Department of Foreign Languages (Russian Federation) doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7358/ecps-2017-016-steb annastebl@mail.ru torubarova69@mail.ru SVILUPPO DI EMPATIA ATTRAVERSO ESP (INGLESE PER SCOPI SPECIFICI): UNO STUDIO PILOTA Abstract The paper is devoted to ethical awareness which has become one of the main concerns in medical education and healthcare nowadays. The paper discusses empathy development in medical students as a significant element of their professional training. It is reported that empathy should be implemented in the academic curriculum of medical schools and uni- versities as a part of a multidisciplinary approach. The authors argue that empathy could be developed in a foreign language classroom. They illustrate their statement by providing real class examples in which empathy-developing content is incorporated in English for spe- cific purposes (ESP) for medical students. The students’ empathy level was measured at the beginning and at the end of the course with a balanced emotional empathy scale (BEES) questionnaire. The analysis of the results of the comparative assessment indicate positive dynamics of empathy levels in the medical students tested, after the course was completed. The authors conclude that ESP can be effective in supporting and improving the required empathy levels of future healthcare workers to help them to deliver their humanitarian services successfully. Keywords: Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) Questionnaire, Empathy development, ESP (English for Specific Purposes), Medical students, Profes- sional training.