Abstract:

English is nowadays the lingua franca of the global medical communication and a fundamental prerequisite for a medical profession. This has led to the emergence of a new branch of English for Specific Purposes (ESP): English for Medical Purposes (EMP). Therefore, teaching EMP has been a continuous process of adapting teaching methods and strategies so that they meet the specific challenges of the Romanian students. The present research paper was designed to investigate these precise challenges, understood as errors and mistakes. The Common European framework of reference for languages (2001) distinguishes between error, seen as ”a simplified or distorted representation of the target competence”, and mistake, which is defined as a failure to correctly use already acquired notions. So how should a teacher understand and relate to errors and mistakes? With a focus on errors, this research study tried to identify their specific cause and the means to prevent and use them to the advantage of the learning/teaching process. The present study established a qualitative framework for identifying the main types of errors made by Romanian students learning EMP and the methods to prevent them and, implicitly, improve language acquisition. The better to explore this matter, an analysis was performed on content produced by two groups of 1st year undergraduates at the Faculty of Medicine, Transilvania University of Brasov. Preliminary findings show several categories of errors made by Romanian students learning EMP and represent a first step in using them to generate positive outcomes. Moreover, these findings also constitute a basis for designing a more adapted course of EMP.

Keywords:

English for Medical Purposes, errors, mistakes, teaching strategies, teaching methods.