• Gamal M. A. Abdullah

  Author

The teaching of English for specific purposes (ESP) courses is not an easy task for the teachers of English either as a second or foreign language. Further, the teaching / learning of medical terminology is an acute problem for both teachers and learners of medical discipline. The teachers cannot convey easily the ideas hidden in ambiguous lexemes which are derived from foreign languages other than English (i.e. Greek and Latin). In turn, the learners are frightened of long and complicated terms and they find it very difficult to pronounce, spell and understand unfamiliar forms. The present research paper investigates the difficulties encounter the learners of medicine in understanding medical terminology. It provides some strategies for the learners such as breaking down strategy , identifying the word – parts , removing affixation (pre-and post ) and memorisation of eponyms ( terms named after persons ). The most appropriate and efficient approaches which may help in the teaching process of medical terminology are suggested such as diagnostic approach , a generative model for acquisition of medical vocabularies , using L1 in teaching L2 and other collective methods .

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