VOCABULARY ACQUISITION IN ENGLISH FOR MEDICINE - STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The acquisition of vocabulary is a rather complex and lengthy process, and as such, it has earned immense research priority in second or foreign language acquisition. An entire division of second language acquisition is dedicated to learning strategies and taxonomies in ESL/EFL to enable students to recognize and take advantage of a variety of options for vocabulary acquisition. Students are diverse, and their needs are diverse. In the field of medicine, many professionals are internationally trained, and to express ideas clearly in English, they need to be proficient in language. Thus, they need appropriate ESP jargon and vocabulary. To serve these diverse needs of students to the fullest, teachers need to be equipped with the latest methods of teaching vocabulary acquisition. The present study aims to present the already established learning strategies for vocabulary acquisition from specialized English books related to Medical English and explore what medical books offer in terms of vocabulary acquisition, and present students’ opinions regarding vocabulary acquisition and learning strategies. Finally, to propose and give some new insight and ideas to scholars for curriculum development of English for medicine. Based on data collection, i.e., students’ questionnaires, the results showed that the ESP textbooks for medicine should be interactive and precise and not overwhelm students with general notions and ideas. As a crucial tool of instruction and curriculum design, needs analysis should be performed to give instructors and administrators an exact idea of what students want and need to succeed in their future professions. Computer-assisted vocabulary acquisition is a very likeable element of ESP medical textbooks. Thus, it should be a dominant part of ESP materials for medicine and other ESP fields.