Guessing Strategies in the Acquisition of Medical Vocabulary

Tian+Junying

【Abstract】This paper reviews vocabulary learning strategies and illustrates how guessing strategies are employed to enable medical students to acquire， understand anddevelop a high degree of proficiency in medical terminology.

【Key words】Acquisition； Vocabulary learning strategy； Guessing strategy

1. Introduction of Medical Terminology

Medical terminology is a special vocabulary used by health care professionals for effective and accurate communication. Medical terminology is characterized by large vocabulary complex structure， which often terrified medical students and they have a difficult time learning and understanding them. However， if the learners can apply some learning strategies， the acquisition of medical terminology will be much easier. Medical terminology is indispensable to the study of medicine and so it should be undertaken with both seriousness and due diligence.

2. Literature Review on Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Schmitt defines Vocabulary Learning Strategies as “any action which affects thisrather broadly-defined process”. Similarly， Cameron defines VocabularyLearning Strategies as “actions that learners take to help themselves understand and remembervocabulary”. Appropriate vocabulary learning strategies result in improved proficiency and great self-confidence. Medical English learners should be trainedto use vocabulary learning strategies so as to become successful learners. An important aspect of the acquisition of any language is increasing the repertoire ofvocabulary in the target language. Vocabulary plays an important role， as pointed out by DavidWilkins： ‘without grammar very little can be conveyed， without vocabulary nothing can beconveyed.Vocabulary is inevitably an integral part of any language system and vocabulary knowledge has a significant role inlanguage comprehension and production. It can be safely assumed that the vocabularysize， English proficiency level， and word guessing strategies have a great deal to do with readingcomprehension. Consequently， vocabulary learning strategies（VLS） are greatly important in language learning strategiesand both teachers and learners should be aware of their uses.

This paper emphasizesguessingstrategies for students tofollow to enable them to acquire， understand and develop a high degree of proficiency in medicalterminology.

3. Application of Guessing Strategies in the Acquisition of Medical terminology

The medical vocabulary is vast， and learning it may seem like learning the entire vocabulary of a foreignlanguage. However， there are methods that can aid in making informed guesses regarding the meanings of unfamiliar words. In fact， most medical terms can be divided into component parts—roots， prefixes， and suffixes—thatmaintain the same meaning whenever they appear. A word root is the fundamental part of medical term to which both the prefix and suffix can be added. A prefix is a segment added to the front of a term to modify a word root. Suffixes are segments attached to the end of a wordroot to add meaning such as condition， disease process， or procedure. If students can learn some basic roots and affixes of medical terms， then learning medical vocabulary will become a much easier job. Whencoming across new medical terms， students should apply guessingstrategiesfirstly bybreaking down the term into its component parts and attempting to formulate a meaning by assembling each smaller part. For example， the term “gastroduodenitis” can be broken down into its component parts - “gastro-duoden-itis” - and then the meaning can be determined. In this example， “gastro” means stomach， “jejuno”refers to jejunum， and “-itis” indicates inflammation. So the definition of gastroduodenitis is inflammation of stomach and duodenum.

4. Conclusion

Although the process of learning medicalterminology is challenging， however， learning medical terminology will much easier if the language teachers make the students aware of theimportance of guessing strategiesin enhancing their learning.Of course， the students should firstly learn the basic roots and affixes in medical terminology before they can effectively apply the guessing strategies in the acquisition of unfamiliar medical terminology.

References：

[1]Barbara J.Cohen，Ann DePetris.Medical Terminology：An Illustrated Guide.Lippincott Williams & Wilkins，2013.

[2]Schmitt，N.（1997）.Vocabulary learning strategies.In Norbert Schmitt & Michael McCarthy（Eds.），Vocabulary：Description，acquisition，and pedagogy，199-227.Cambridge：CambridgeUniversity Press.

[3]Cameron，L.（2001）.Teaching languages to young learners.Cambridge：Cambridge University.

[4]Wilkins，D.A.（1972）.Linguistics in language teaching.Cambridge，M.A.：MIT Press.