DIGITAL LIBRARY
TEACHING ENGLISH FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES IN CHINA
The PLA Postgraduate Medical School (CHINA)
About this paper:
Appears in: INTED2011 Proceedings
Publication year: 2011
Pages: 2569-2572
ISBN: 978-84-614-7423-3
ISSN: 2340-1079
Conference name: 5th International Technology, Education and Development Conference
Dates: 7-9 March, 2011
Location: Valencia, Spain
Abstract:
English for Medical Purposes is so important in China where for several decades, General English has been taught to medical students, owing to the guiding effects of government policy and different public examinations. Medical students in general were not satisfactorily competent in English in the end. The students concerned are doctoral candidates majoring in over 40 medical disciplines. The author has taught large classes with over 150 students. And the learning /teaching duration is one semester (4 months). The purpose of the course is to improve students’ skills for writing biomedical research articles. The course naturally concerns two areas: writing for general purposes and writing for biomedical purposes. The intent of this paper is to establish a kind of understanding among instructors of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) about whether ESP/EMP teaching should focus on disciplinary content language acquisition or on the approach while covering some knowledge of students’ subjects. After sufficient learner analysis, a learner-centered approach has been adopted and received good results.
Keywords:
English for Medical Purposes, medical students, multidisicplinary, learner-centered approach.