Teaching english for medical purposes

• Author: Ecaterina Pavel
• Position: Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania
• Pages: 39-46

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 7 (56) No. 2 - 2014

TEACHING ENGLISH FOR MEDICAL

PURPOSES

Ecaterina PAVEL1

Abstract: The question of teaching English for Medical Purposes has been

significantly researched over the last few years. English is today's lingua

franca of medical international communication, the same as Greek and Latin

were in the past; therefore, it is an essential prerequisite for a medical

career, all the more so as a large number of Romanian med ical professionals

intend to emigrate to English-speaking countries. Conseq uently, teaching

medical English should be adapted in order to meet the specific academic

and professional needs of the Romanian students. This paper is focused on

the key issues in course design and my intention is to bring forth the insights

gained from my professional experience developing the curriculum for

Medical English.

Key words: ESP, Medical English, medical terminology

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, Romania.

1. Introduction

There are two fields where the English

language has come into prominence:

information technology and medicine. IT is

a relatively new field and English has been

the fundamental language throughout its

entire development. In medicine, however,

English became widely us ed during the

second half of the 20th century. Nowadays,

the number of English language

publications has profusely increased and

80% of all the journals indexed in Scopus

are published in English [9]. English is

also the official language of many

international conferences and a growing

number of national journals. Moreover,

many healthcare professiona ls work

overseas in Anglophone states to extend

their practice. And if doctors are convinced

of its importance, medical students have

also begun to be aware of it.

In 2011 I started to develop a content-

based syllabus for a 28 week course of

English for Medical Purposes. The course

was held at the Faculty of Medicine of

Transilvania University of Braov.

Designing the educational program for

three different sub-specializations

(Medicine, Registered nurses and Balneo-

physio-kinetotherapy), comprising very

heterogeneous groups, was a challenge for

everything that teaching ESP (English for

Special Purposes) implies.

2. Needs

Taking as a point of departure Streven's

definition of ESP, theorists Dudley-Evans

and St John postulated a different

interpretation, offering a modified

perspective on the absolute and variable

characteristics of ESP, as follows: