医学英语词汇特点及学习策略研究_刘冰.docx

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1、 A STUDY OF MEDICAL ENGLISH VOCABULARY FEATURES AND ITS LEARNING STRATEGIES B y Liu Bing Under the Supervision O f Prof. Chen Liping In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for MA Degree Presented to School of Foreign Language & Cultures Nanjing Normal University April 2011 学位论文独创性声明 本人郑重声明：所提交的学

2、位是本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作 和取得的研究成果。本论文中除引文外，所有实验、数据和有关材料均 是真实的。本论文中除引文和致谢的内容外，不包含其他人或其它机构 已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。其他同志对本研究所做的贡献均已在论 文屮作了声明并表示了谢意。 学 位 论 文 作 者 签 名 ： + 日 期： 0 学位论文使用授权声明 研究生在校攻读学位期间论文工作的知识产权单位属南京师范大 学。学校有权保存本学位论文的电子和纸质文档，可以借阅或上网公布 本学位论文的部分或全部内容，可以采用影印、复印等手段保存、汇编 本学位论文。学校可以向国家有关机关或机构送交论文的 电子和纸质文 档，允许论文被查

3、阅和借阅。（保密论文在解密后遵守此规定 ） 保密论文注释：本学位论文属于保密论文，保密期限为年。 学 位 论 文 作 者 签 名 ： 4 指导教师签名： 日 期：日 期： 摘要 在第二语言的学习中，词汇学习一向被看作基础，在此基础之上才能将读、写、 听、说、译的水平不断的提高。对于医学英语这种专业性英语而言，词汇一直是教学 的重点也是学生学习的难点。随着国内外二语教学研究的发展，学习策略已经被认为 是影响外语学习的重要因素之一。釆取适当的学习策略可以使学生提高学习的效率和 效果，减轻学习负担。而教师通过了解学生所使用的学习策略可以调整自己的教学方 法，从而提高教学的效果。 对二语词汇学习策略的

4、研究建立在对学习策略研究的成果之上，受到国内外许多 专家学者们的关注。西方学者主要是对以英语为母语或第二语言的学习者的词汇学习 策略进行研究，并已经建构起语言学习策略的理论框架及各种分类。自二十世纪八十 年代以来，国内学者开始进行二语词汇的学习策略研究。有的比较善学者与不善学者 的词汇学习策略，有的比较研究生的基 础英语与专业英语的词汇学习策略，有的调查 英语专业学生的词汇学习策略，还有的研究非英语专业学生的英语词汇学习策略等 等。其结果也不尽相同。 以医学英语学习为切入点，本研究是以徐州医学院 82 名大三学生为研究对象， 对其专业医学英语的词汇学习策略所进行的实证研究。研究表明，医学生在学

5、习专业 英语词汇时所使用的学习策略中，最常用的是认知策略，其次是元认知策略，最后是 社会情感策略。好的学习者同差的学习者之间存有很大差异。此外，除了机械性记忆 和母语策略同医学英语词汇考试的成绩存在负相关外，其他所调查的词汇学习策略同 词汇考试成绩呈正相关关系。 最后本文讨论了本研究对专业英语教学的启示以及局限性。 关键词：医学英语词汇，英语学习策略，教学启示 Abstract Abstract In the learning of the second language, vocabulary is always considered as the foundation for other

6、skills and only under this groundwork can we further our levels of reading, writing, listening, speaking and translating. For the medical English, professional English of medicine, vocabulary has been considered as the important part of teaching and difficult part of learning. With the development o

7、f research on second language teaching and learning, researchers have realized that language learning strategy is one of the crucial factors to foreign language learning. Employing suitable learning strategies, students can improve their foreign language learning efficiency and effectiveness. Knowin

8、g what learning strategies students are using, teachers can make relevant adjustment in the teaching methods to promote the teaching effect. Based on the researches of language learning strategies, the study of vocabulary learning strategies of foreign languages has attracted much attention of many

9、scholars. Foreign scholars have built the theoretical framework and the different classifications, which were mainly directed at the learners of English native speakers or at learners, for which English as second language. Since the 1980s, learners in China have carried out their studies on the voca

10、bulary learning strategies of English: some compare the vocabulary learning strategies of good learners to poor learners; some compare the vocabulary learning strategies of the basic English to special English of graduate students; some investigate the vocabulary learning strategies of English major

11、s; and some study the vocabulary learning strategies of non-English majors. The results are also different. Focusing on medical English vocabulary learning strategies, the research has 82 third-year students as the subject. The results of the questionnaire and vocabulary test are analyzed by SPSS an

12、d the findings are as follows： the descending order of frequency of the three major English learning strategy categories used by the third-year medical students during their learning of medical English vocabulary is cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and social-affective strategies; the

13、re exist significant differences between the good learners and poor learners in using strategies during their learning medical English vocabulary; except strategies of mechanical memoty and using mother tongue that are negatively correlated with the test performance, other vocabulary learning strate

14、gies investigated are positively correlated to the medical vocabulary test scores. In the last section, pedagogical enlightenments and limitation of the study are discussed. Keywords: medical English vocabulary, English learning strategies, pedagogical enlightenment ii Contents Contents . i Abstract

15、 . II List of Tables . V Chapter 1 Introduction . 1 1.1 Background of the study. 1 .1.2 Significance of the study . ； . 2 1.3 Layout of the thesis . 3 Chapter 2 Literature Review . 4 2.1 Features of medical English lexicon . 4 2.1.1 Inflections . 5 2.1.2 Word formations . . . 5 2.1.3 Eponyms . 7 2.2

16、 Related studies on academic vocabulary abroad . 8 2.3 Domestic studies on English medical words . 9 2.4 A survey of language learning strategy study . 10 2.5 Definitions of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) . 13 2.6 Classifications of language learning strategies . 14 2.6.1 Classifications of la

17、nguage learning strategies . 14 2.6.2 Classifications of vocabulary learning strategies . 16 2.7 Related studies on vocabulary learning strategiesof English . 19 2.8 Summary . 22 Chapter 3 Methodology . . 23 3.1 Research questions . 23 3.2 Subjects . 23 3.3 Instruments . 24 3.3.1 Questionnaire . 24

18、3.3.2 Medical English vocabulary test . 26 3.4 Data collection . 27 Chapter 4 Results and Discussion . 28 4.1 Data analysis of medical English vocabulary test . 28 4.2 Data analysis of general situation about English learning . 28 4.3 Data analysis of questionnaire . 31 4.3.1 Rank order of the three

19、 major categories . 31 III Contents 4.3.2 The most and least frequently used learning strategies . 32 4.4 Differences between good learners and poor learnersin strategy use . 34 4.5 Correlation analysis between test performance andEnglishlearning strategies use . 37 4.6 Summary . 40 Chapter 5 Conclu

20、sion . 42 5.1 Major findings . 42 5.2 Pedagogical implications . 43 5.2.1 Implications for learners . 43 5.2.2 Implications for teachers . 44 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research . 45 Bibliography . 47 Appendix I Questionnaire . 52 Appendix II Vocabulary Test . 56 Acknowledgements .

21、57 IV List of Tables List of Tables Table2.1 Some special plural fonns of medical English words . 5 Table2.2 Cohens classification of learning strategies (1998) . 16 Table2.3 Wens English learning strategies system (1996) . 16 Table2.4 Schmitfs classification of vocabularylearning strategies (1997)

22、. 18 Table 3.1 Classification of learning strategies in the research . 25 Table 4.1 Descriptions about medical English vocabulary test scores . 28 Table 4.2 Descriptions of time students spend on English learning after class . 29 Table 4.3 Descriptions of main activities students do after class conc

23、erning English learning . 29 Table 4.4 Descriptions of difficulty of learning medical English vocabulary . 30 Table 4.5 Descriptions of frequency about students using vocabulary learning strategies . 30 Table 4.6 Rank order of the three major categories . 32 Table 4.7 Descriptive statistics of every

24、 strategy use in the questionnaire . 32 Table 4.8 Descriptions about the vocabulary test scores of two groups . 34 Table 4.9 The diiSerences in strategy use between good learners and poor learners. 35 Table 4.10 Correlations between strategies and vocabulary test . 38 v Chapter 1 Introduction Chapte

25、r 1 Introduction The importance of vocabulary in language learning can never be overestimated. It is even more important in the special English learning. Medical English courses are compulsory in almost all the medical universities and colleges in our country. Because of the unique features of the m

26、edical English vocabulary, learning them should be different from vocabulary of basic general English. So how medical students use learning strategies in their vocabulary learning of medical English is the starting point of the author. As an English teacher in medical college, the author hopes to pe

27、rform the study to facilitate the future teaching and bring some enlightenment for others in the field of special English teaching and learning. 1.1 Background of the study For the students in medical universities and colleges, usually after two years of basic general English learning, their English

28、 learning would shift from the basic general English to medical English. Many of them will find that the shift is hard to adjust to. When asked about why it is difficult to learn medical English, more than half of them considered the medical English lexicon as the most difficult part to acquire. For

29、 sure, the difficulties of medical English lexicon lie in its large proportion and high frequency of Greek and Latin elements, large quantity and frequent use of abbreviations and eponyms, and abstraction and concentration of the lexicons of many fields, such as medicine, biology, chemistry, pharmac

30、eutics and so on, which makes it incomparable in the lexicons of other fields like law, electronics, and engineering, etc. Having a good grasp of medical lexicon is the key for medical students to the course of Medical English and to the future communications with other foreign practitioners. Lexis

31、is the core or heart of language but in language teaching has always been the Cinderella (Lewis, 1993). And this Cinderella attracted the attention of western learners since the late of 1970s, because the popularity of the study of language learning strategies. With the development of second languag

32、e acquisition, many researchers (Gardner Politzer & Me Groarty, Green & Oxford, Tremblay & Masgoret, and so on) have proved that the ase of foreign language learning strategies is significantly related to foreign language proficiency. Chinese researchers also carried out their studies in depth and w

33、idth: some compare the vocabulary learning strategies of good learners to poor learners; some compare the vocabulary learning strategies of the basic general English to special English Chapter 1 Introduction of graduate students; some investigate the vocabulary learning strategies of English majors;

34、 and some study the vocabulary learning strategies of non-English majors. The results are also different. Stem (1983) believes the aim of further learning research should be in different social contexts, under different language learning conditions, at different age and maturity level, and at differ

35、ent levels of proficiency. So the current study examines the strategies of college students learning Medical English in Xuzhou medical college, and the differences between successful and unsuccessful learners. 1.2 Significance of the study With the shift of teaching methods from Grammar-translation, Direct, Audio-lingual to Communicative, the focus of SLA has changed