STRATEGIES FOR COMPREHENDING AND COMMUNICATING AUTHENTIC MEDICAL CASE REPORTS IN ENGLISH FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES
Keywords:
English for Medical Purposes, authentic medical texts, mediation strategies, reading comprehension, unfamiliar wordsAbstract
One of the key challenges in Medical English instruction is fostering students’ ability to engage with authentic materials which closely mirror the texts they will encounter in their professional careers. Our research was motivated by the goal of optimizing the teaching and learning process of English for Medical Purposes through the use of authentic materials. We employed an exploratory research design, collecting data through a researcher developed questionnaire that examined students’ perceptions of authentic materials, the strategies they use to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words, and their self-assessment of mediation abilities. The study involved 50 first-year university students enrolled in a Medical English course. Participants first relayed specific information from medical case reports, then summarized and simplified it, and finally presented their findings to the class. Authentic materials were perceived as highly beneficial, offering realistic and context-rich learning experiences. However, for most students, they were difficult to comprehend. The findings indicate that students primarily relied on contextual clues and prior knowledge to infer the meanings of unfamiliar words. Additionally, while mediation tasks enhanced students' ability to transform complex medical language into clear, professional communication, respondents assessed their mediation abilities as average, indicating a need for further development in this area. The findings of this study support the integration of authentic medical case reports into English for Medical Purposes classes. While these texts offer undeniable benefits — such as real-world relevance, vocabulary expansion, and the development of essential reading strategies—they also present challenges, particularly in terms of lexical complexity. Therefore, their implementation must be carefully structured, incorporating scaffolding techniques and targeted instructional support to maximize student learning outcomes.
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