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Abstract 

Introduction

This paper discusses the findings of research into the perspectives of English for Medical purposes (EMP) at the Kashan University of Medical Science.

Background

It is common knowledge that although students spend 7 years studying English as a school subject , this is not sufficient for them to achieve an intermediate level of proficiency in language . Students find it very hard to cope with learning EMP basically because of a lack of general English skills . Learners have to master terms used in medicine, to be able to understand formal professional texts and authentic recordings of lectures, and produce formal pieces in writing as well as to be able to make professional presentations and participate in discussions on contemporary medical issues.

Purpose

The aim of this research was to consider the issues of learning English at a university level, and explore ways of improving the quality of learning . Also, the natural question that occurs is why school leavers do not possess adequate language skills, and an attempt has been made to tackle this question.  

Method

The investigations were carried out over a period of three academic terms from 2002 to 2004 . The research involved gathering data on learners^' views on their learning needs and expectations, on encountered difficulties in learning at university, on the ranking of preferences for language skills, i.e. the degree of importance of proficiency in different areas of language, and collecting and analyzing learners^' self-assessment data throughout the course. The techniques of gathering data included different types of questionnaires administered to 45 learners (students of Medicine) at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of courses, and talking to students outside classroom.

Results & conclusion

The results indicate that we should encourage learner initiative, getting them to take responsibility for their own learning . Given space, time and clear directions, learners are bound to succeed.

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Introduction and Background

ESP (English for Specialized Purpose) teaching enjoys the privilege of being in an academic context that favors learning more than any other form of English language teaching (Kenning, 2001). As such, and combined with a critical view of language study and of learning, ESP can become an empowering educational device . To be so, an integral approach of both subject matter and learners’ needs has to be adopted by creative instructors (Lomperis, 1998). The students' interests, aspirations and background should be perceived by the teacher or the profession (Reid, 1998, Rivers, 1992).  How can we know what these are?  One straightforward approach is to ask the students themselves ( Rivers, 1992).  After finding out who our students are, what they studied at school, and how they feel about language learning, we are in a much better position to decide appropriate objectives in a particular teaching situation, select a methodology, and design courses in ESP which provide what our students are seeking (Kavaliauskiene, 2003).  Kenning (2001) and Kavaliauskiene (2003) conducted surveys at the University of Anglia and Poland respectively . According to Kavaliauskiene, English education in Poland has been persistently inefficient - producing students equipped with a minimal command of English.  A major reason for this seems to be examination-oriented teaching.  In English classes, learners carry out various tasks that are included in the exam, e.g. multiple choice or gap-filling exercises for checking reading comprehension skills; learning to conduct dialogues on certain topics or performing role-plays - all of which are quite often irrelevant to real life communication tasks.  The reality of exam-oriented education places an emphasis on learners’ preparation for tests and examinations instead of highlighting long-term English learning for further life-long needs, i.e. for studies, a future job, international communication, etc. (Barkhuizen, 1998).

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Materials and Method

The survey was conducted over three university semesters, from 2002-2004.  The techniques of gathering data included different types of questionnaires administered to 45 students of medicine at Kashan University of Medical Sciences, and talking to students outside the classroom.  The questionnaires were administered to the learners at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the EMP Courses. The questionnaires, designed by Kenning (2001) and Medgyes (1994), were modified to suit our setting.  The investigation involved gathering data on learners’ view on their encountered difficulties in learning English at university, on their learning needs and expectations, on the ranking of preferences for language skills, i.e. the degree of importance of proficiency in different areas of language, and collecting and analyzing learners’ self-assessment data throughout the course (Medgyes, 1994).

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Discussion

a) Learners’ Experience at school

Students’ experience of learning English at school was investigated formally through administering a 13-question questionnaire which referred to learners’ perceptions about studying English as a school subject, as well as to their attitudes towards learning it, and the experience they had before entering university . The findings are presented in Table 1:

TABLE 1 

Learners’ experience of learning English at school 

 

 

Examining the students’ answers in Table 1, some interesting conclusions can be drawn . More than two thirds of the students enjoyed learning English, and 84% liked their teacher.  Although 72% of students learned phrases and communicative language skills, 90% of them had never had a chance to use English outside the classroom. A vast majority of students liked English and wanted to learn it (81%), but 59% were too shy to practice it with their peers.  A staggering 79% were not motivated by their classes. This is particularly disturbing, since a language class is a particularly suitable environment for meeting affective needs. including self-realization (Rivers, 1992, Shumin, 1997), and any genuine communication requires that one feel at ease and stimulated in the situation (Nunan, 1992, Rivers, 1992).  Although schoolchildren not only learned vocabulary and grammar rules, their classes did not focus on oral skills (69%).  In some schools there were about 35 students (75%) in the language class. .A simple calculation shows that in large classes the student talking time (to ask and answer question or communicate) would be limited to about 2 minutes provided there was no teacher talking time, which is unrealistic.  In reality, there is a substantial gap between the teacher’s and the students’ talking time in secondary schools - a few teachers sometimes use up about one-third of the classroom time for instruction in a foreign language class (Shumin, 1997).  Even given an opportunity to use a target language in pair or small group work, a vast majority of school children are shy to talk to their friends ( 59%) and have almost no chance to speak out of class (90%) .The lack of speaking practice deprives learners of developing adequate oral skills.

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b) Learners' priorities in studying English

To obtain a clear idea of learners’ priorities in different aspects of language learning, the respondents were requested to indicate how important it was for them to become proficient in the various areas of language use.  The questionnaire administered at the University of Anglia (Kenning, 2001) was adapted for this purpose.  The students were asked to prioritize the importance of different skills in certain areas.  The data is presented in Table 2.  For comparison, the first and second year students’ ratings (unimportant , important and essential ) are given in the same column.  All the figures in the columns show the number of students who ticked the appropriate answer. The questionnaire was administered to the second term students after the first term of doing EMP at university, and to the second year students after two terms of EMP and one term of General English, i.e. before the final exam.  It is of interest to compare how learners’ attitudes changed in the course of their studies. The table is divided into six sections ( numbered 2.1 to 2.6 for convenience of analysis) which cover different language skills and applications. 

TABLE  2 

Language skills and areas of their application 

2.1 

2.2 

2.3

 

2.4

2.5

 2.6 

 

Professional reading (ESP texts) is a priority for both the first and second year students, while presentations are out of favor with first year students. he second year students, who have already had some experience in making presentations in the classroom during the first EMP course, are well aware of the importance of being able to speak in front of their peers, and in public in the future.  This is in accordance with the survey, indicating that students welcome presenting medical articles orally in ESP courses (Askari Arani, 2004).  The majority of the first year students are also unaware of the significance of abstract, summary and article writing. and they place more emphasis on formal letters, which is a consequence of English training at school - writing a formal letter is one of the exam tasks.  The issue of translation both from and into English is appreciated by all learners.  For them, translation remains the main tool of comprehension.  It implies that students are unable to grasp the meaning without translating from their mother tongue.  Only proficient users of a foreign language stop translating when using either productive or receptive skills.  Grammar also remains important or even essential to the majority of learners.  This indicates some trace of the Grammar-Translation Method of teaching in pre-university stages.  Examination-oriented learning remains a preference to nearly all students: only two people out of 45 – and the best students, as a matter of fact, too – marked that exams were unimportant.          

Listening to native speakers, the TV/radio and lectures remain important or essential to most students. Half of the second year students ranked telephoning skills as important to essential.

Finally, an important aspect in ESP learning remains an ability to understand lectures in the subject matter.  For obvious reasons, the second year learners – they have had a two-term experience of giving and listening to lectures on medical matters – ticked this item as their priority, while about half of the first year students considered this item as unimportant.

So the top ratings are given to reading ESP texts, speaking informally, and listening to native speakers . Using English for traveling is the learners’ second priority.  However the very important skills of making presentations, abstract and article writing are at the less important levels.  

It should be emphasized that this interpretation is presented by a rather small sample of respondents and statistically can be considered reliable within the probability of the 0.95 and 3 error range.  However, the significance of the findings lies in raising learner awareness to the life-long learning process and formulating English learning priorities for their future career.

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c)  Learners’ Difficulties in learning English  

Reliable information about learners' difficulties in learning can be obtained from students’ self-evaluation and self-assessment (Brindly, 1984, Hutchinson & Waters, 1987).  In our setting, various self-analysis techniques were applied.  The findings from the surveys will be discussed later on in this article.  The first survey involves documented questionnaires aimed at investigating how students rank learning problems that they encounter in different EMP areas.  The second technique involves self-assessment, and this will be discussed in the following section. 

The survey of the students' major difficulties in EMP was similar to the one designed by Medgyes (1994), but was modified to suit our settings.  45 respondents participated in the survey, and were requested to identify their EMP problem areas . The results are shown in Table 3. 

TABLE 3

Difficulties in using EMP  

 

There are two figures in the columns of this table.  The first one gives the number of students and the second gives the percentage of respondents who ticked the appropriate answers.  The frequency of occurring difficulties is ranked on the triple scale – the most difficult, average and the least difficult.  It is worth ranking the responses in order of significance . The ranking is presented in Table 4. 

TABLE 4

Ranking the significance of common problematic areas 

 

Language area/skill	The most difficult
Oral fluency	64.5%
Grammar	42.4%
Writing	40.1%
Prepositions	37.8%
Word order	35.5%
Language/area/skill	The average
EMP vocabulary	82.2%
Reading	69%
Tenses	64.5%
Language area/skill	The least difficult
Reading	26.6%
Listening	20%

 

Oral fluency remains the most difficult area for a vast majority of learners.  Grammar in general and writing in particular are also important areas of language learning that cause difficulty for our students . Prepositions is the section that no one puts as the least important.

The average of the language areas are ranked as follows: EMP vocabulary, reading and tenses . Speaking is a priority to over half of the learners.  EMP reading is considered average by most students (69%).  However students do not seem to have been taught the reading sub-skills like skimming and scanning. and prefer to translate EMP passages word for word.

The psychological aspect of language learning  - the fear of mistakes, which hinders learners from learning – was also incorporated into the survey . It received as many as 60% of responses.  This implies that about two thirds of learners are intimidated by having to perform in front of their peers.  This stems from previous unsuccessful experiences of language learning.  Psychologically, the fear of mistakes is a fear of losing face, and this is a typical feature of mature adult learners (Brindly, 1984, Rivers, 1992).  Such learners are concerned with how they are judged by others (Rivers, 1992).  They are very cautious about making errors in what they say, since making errors would be a public display of ignorance (Shumin, 1997).

The least difficult areas of language learning for a third of respondents are reading and listening - 26.6% and 20% respectively.  Learners typically complain that native speakers speak too fast.  The explanation lies in learners’ perception of non-stop authentic speech.  They are unable to process information as fast as they do it in their native language.  The learners believe that listening to EMP speakers is much easier than listening to general native speakers.

The interpretation of the presented data is clear: learners are aware of what skills are the most important in EMP and their rating of difficulties is quite realistic.

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d) Learners’ self–assessment and self–grading

There were two parts to this part of the investigation.  In the first part, the findings were obtained in a non-documented form through tutoring, which allows the learner to speak to the teacher individually, face-to-face, and this creates a relaxed atmosphere .

During the first part of the self-assessment, some revealing data on learners’ attitudes to studies at university were obtained. A third of students admitted to being lazy, failing to do any homework - basically because they considered it non-compulsory. About half of the students gave an excuse for not carrying out their assignments.  However a failure to get credits in the first semester seemed to be an effective factor in making students change their attitudes to studies at a university level .

In the second part of the investigation, learners graded their anticipated performance in all language areas in the final exam. The data was then compared with their actual performance . The findings are presented in Table 5. 

TABLE 5

Student^’s self–grading data

(Ms stands for marks given by the students themselves, and Mt stands for marks given by the teacher.)

The general overview of the data shows that learners tend to overestimate their performance in speaking, EMP vocabulary and grammar by one or two points.  However , in listening, speaking, EMP vocabulary and grammar, 23%, 21%, 60 % and 50% respectively gave themselves the same mark as the teacher.  It is important to highlight that one or two points difference is not really significant.  Thus, the interpretation of the data in Table 6 is very straightforward - learners are realistic about their future performance.

Students’ self-estimation is based on how confident they are before taking a test or exam (Reid, 1998).  This sense of self-esteem is a very viable factor in the process of learning and should be encouraged (Reid, 1998).  It was noted that unconfident learners do themselves injustice - they usually perform worse than their more self-confident peers.

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Conclusions

It is tempting to use these specific concrete results to make recommendations for changes in how teaching and learning should be carried out.  Unfortunately there is no right way that suits everybody (Lomperis, 1998),.Reid, 1998).  Many experienced teachers are eclectic in their teaching.  They like to retain what they know from experience to be effective, while experimenting with novel techniques and activities which hold promise for even more successful teaching (Brindly, 1984, Medgyes, 1994,  Shumin, 1997).

Small amounts of data, carefully analyzed, can be beneficial in terms of interpretation.  The data presented here is from a dynamic study of learners over two academic years - three semesters.  Although statistically it was a small sample for reliable statistic correlations, nevertheless, some reliable conclusions can be drawn.  First, the responses of individual learners are related to attitudes and aptitudes.  Second, an essential part of the learning process is monitoring or, to be exact, monitoring the progress of each learner individually throughout the academic year.  Examining each learners’ attitudes, difficulties and production in different language areas allows one to cater for their needs and foster proficiency in the ESP.  Thirdly, consciousness-raising in students to ways of mastering language skills is a valid part of pedagogic strategy.  It encourages learner initiative and taking responsibility for their own learning.  Given space, time and clear directions, learners are bound to succeed.

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REFERENCES

1-      Askari Arani J. (2004) The effect of ICT-based teaching method on medical students . EMP Learning .Journal of Medical Education Vol.4, No.2, 2004.

2-      Barkhuizen, G.P.(1998) Discovering Learners’ perceptions of ESL classroom teaching / learning activities in south African context. TESOL Quarterly , 32.

3-     Brindly, G. (1984) Needs Analysis and objective setting in the adult Migrant Education program . Sydney: NSW Adult Migrant Education Service .

4-     Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A . (1987) English for specific purposes : A learning-centered approach . Cambridge : Cambridge university press .

5-     Kavaliauskiene, M. (2003) , Aspects of learning ESP At University , http://www.tesol.org/pubs/95html

6-     Kenning, M.M.(2001). Language learning Interests at university.’ Language Learning Journal ,23,

7-     Lomperis, A,(1998) . Best practices in EOP/EMP: Steps in providing a program . http://my. Voyager . net/a zure/ program.html .2001.

8-     Medgyes, P.(1994). The Non-Native Teacher . Macmillan publishers Ltd. Hong Kong .

9-     Nunan, D.(1992).Collaborative language learning and teaching . New York: Cambridge university press. 

Reid, J(1998) Understanding Learning styles in Second Language Classroom , Prentice Hall.

Rivers.W.M.(1992) . Communicating Naturally in a second Language , Theory and Practice in Language Teaching . Cambridge University Press.

 

Shumin, K .(1997) ‘Factors to consider : Developing Adult EFL students’ speaking abilities’ . English Teaching Forum, 25(3) .  

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