Learning Strategies of English Medical Terminologies in
SUMMARY
LEARNING STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH MEDICAL TERMINOLOGIES IN THE
STUDENTS OF MEDICINE
Name
: Nurmeida Urwani
NIM
: 2223110395
Semester/ Class: II/ A
Subject
: English Learning Strategy
TEACHERS TRAINING AND PEDAGOGICAL FACULTY
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
SULTAN AGENG TIRTAYASA UNIVERSITY
SERANG-BANTEN
2012 Introduction
There has been a prominent shift within the field of language
learning and teaching over the last twenty years with greater
emphasis being put on learners and learning rather than on teachers
and teaching. In parallel to this new shift of interest, how
learners process new information and what kinds of strategies they
employ to understand, learn or remember the information has been
the primary concern of the researchers dealing with the area of
foreign language learning.
Medical terminology is an open set with a large number of
low-frequency words and newly created words. Since teaching and
learning all the words seem to be an impossible task teaching
learners vocabulary learning strategies for inferring the word
meanings is more efficient than teaching every vocabulary item
encountered. As Nation (1994) suggested, teaching students
strategies is especially important when it comes to dealing with
low frequency words. Indeed, following Nation, Schmitt also
suggested that high-frequency words should probably be taught,
whereas learning low-frequency words will require strategies for
determining their meaning.Definition of a Language Learning
Strategy
All language learners use language learning strategies either
consciously or unconsciously when processing new information and
performing tasks in the language classroom. Since language
classroom is like a problem-solving environment in which language
learners are likely to face new input and difficult tasks given by
their instructors, learners' attempts to find the quickest or
easiest way to do what is required, that is, using language
learning strategies is inescapable.
Study PurposeThis study attempts to clarify the strategies used
most and least frequently by the learners. A comparison is also
made between high level and low level students in the least and
most frequently used medical terminology learning
strategies.Background of Language Learning Strategies
In most of the researches on language learning strategies, the
primary concern has been on "identifying what good language
learners report they do to learn a second or foreign language, or,
in some cases, are observed doing while learning a second or
foreign language." (Rubin and Wenden 1987). The findings of Fan's
(2003) study indicated that the students used the strategies for
reviewing and consolidating their knowledge of known words and
perceived them as useful, and that they preferred dictionary
strategies. The most proficient students depended much more on
sources, guessing, dictionary, and known words strategies than the
less proficient students. Regarding the discrepancies between
frequency of use and perceived usefulness in learning L2
vocabulary, the findings revealed the complexity involved in
strategy use.
Methodology
The instrument utilized to collect data on strategy is the
medical terminology learning strategies questionnaire developed by
the researcher .The categories of medical terminology were based on
Schmitt's (1997) taxonomy for studying vocabulary strategies. The
students were required to answer questions on their strategy use on
a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("never or almost never")
to 5 ("always or almost always"). The English questionnaire was
made of two sections. Part one contained five questions, the
purpose of which was to collect such background information as
student' English proficiency and mid-term score of medical
terminology.Survey Analysis
All data were gathered after the midterm exam of the 2005 autumn
semester. Before the questionnaire was administered, a brief
explanation of the purpose of the study was provided to the
subjects. Each subject's responses to the medical terminology test
were given scores. A correct answer was assigned 2 points and
incorrect answer was given no point. The total possible points were
100. The participants were grouped into three proficiency levels
based on their test scores. The high-level group refers to those
who score higher than 80, the low-level group refers to those who
score lower than 60 and the intermediate-level group who score
between 80 and 60. Consequently, 36 subjects were defined as
high-level learners, 28 intermediate-level ones and 25 low-level
ones.DiscussionThe results indicate that there exist major
differences in patterns of learning strategy use among students of
two proficiency levels. High-level learners are better at gaining
knowledge of a new word; they remember more effectively, control,
and evaluate their own vocabulary learning better than low-level
learners do. However, both levels are poor at utilizing social
strategies to discover new meanings in terminology learning. Social
strategies involve asking for clarification or verification,
cooperating with peers, and interacting with native speakers of the
target language. Iranian teachers mainly employ a teacher centered
approach in classes so that students rarely have opportunity to
discuss and cooperate with peers and few students have courage to
ask questions in class. The lack of use of item 9 (ask teacher for
a sentence including the word) by the students has also been
influenced by the same factor i.e. educational system and cultural
background .Also many students prefer to ask after class in order
to minimize the loss of face (Scarcella, 1990) if the question
seems foolish to others. In addition, in Iran students do not have
enough chances to communicate with English medical personnel, so
that the item 'interact with foreign medical staff or native
speakers' is relatively unemployed by both level learners.
Comparing the strategies used by high-level learners to those
used by low-level learners, we find that written verbal repetition
were the most and the second most popular strategies among both
levels. This finding is in accordance with Schmitt (1997) and Yang
(2005), which showed that repetition of a word's verbal or written
form was used frequently in Japan and in Taiwan. This can be
attributable to the learning style encouraged by the Asian school
system. Asian students are commonly required to memorize vocabulary
and grammar through repetition.ConclusionLanguage learning
strategies, being specific actions, behaviors, tactics, or
techniques, facilitate the learning of the target language by the
language learner. All language learners, needless to say, use
language-learning strategies in the learning process. The study
indicated that students of medicine in general prefer to use
written repetition, verbal repetition, and bilingual dictionary
strategies. In contrast, asking teacher for a new sentence
including the new medical word, listening to tape of word list, and
discovering new meaning from group activity are the strategies
least used by learners. In general, neither low-level nor
high-level learners utilize social strategies to find out new
meaning. The study revealed significantly greater overall use of
learning strategies among high-level learners. However, they should
raise the awareness of learners, recognize the suitable strategy
for every situation, and suggest learners a variety of strategies
and let learners decide which ones are right for them.
