Medical English Course Design Based On Proportional Approach

Like English for general purpose (EGP), English for specific purpose (ESP) is influenced by many theories of disciplines such as linguistics, applied linguistics, and curriculum theories of pedagogy. From the perspective of a teacher engaging in teaching practice, with a bottom-up view of curriculum development, this thesis tries to marry the theories of such disciplines with the practical conditions of medical English teaching and learning in our college for redesigning a medical English course based on proportional approach.In curriculum development and course design, social context is a very important factor to be considered seriously. It influences the educational policies, people's attitude toward a specific language or its variant and motivation of language learning .So, in the first place, the thesis discusses the influences of social context on our college English teaching and learning and analyzes the necessity and causes of redesigning medical English course such as the current state of our college English teaching, the background of the students etc. Course design, as mentioned above, is also influenced by theories of some disciplines, so the chapter of literature review gives a look back at some models of curriculum development in pedagogy, some models of syllabus design in applied linguistics, theories of linguistics and theories of language learning and language teaching as well. At the same time, this chapter limits the meaning of concept of curriculum development, syllabus design and course design used in this thesis.In chapter four, this thesis places emphasis on introducing the proportional approach suggested by Janice Yalden. After the definition and features of the proportional approach are introduced in details, the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, together with the characteristics of medical English teaching, areanalyzed. By doing so, the combining point of proportional approach and medical English course is found. Thereby the feasibility of this medical course design based on proportional approach is justified.Although there are many commonalities between ESP and EGP, ESP has it's own special characteristics, which the course designer must take into account. In Chapter 5, while some special considerations in medical English course design are put forward, some key issues in ESP curriculum development are discussed. After fully illustrating the theoretical basis of course design and justifying the feasibility of the medical English course designed by proportional approach, the thesis transfers the focus from theory to practice in Chapter 6 by introducing the background of curriculum model in our college, exploring a model of course design and frameworks of medical English course. Finally at the end of this chapter, an operation of a teaching process, that is, a sample lesson is demonstrated and issues of evaluation are briefly discussed, the importance of self-assessment carried out by the students is also emphasized by the way.Because of the limitation of time and space, many factors that should be considered in medical English course design are not mentioned and discussed fully in this thesis. But in the last chapter of this thesis, some suggestions are given to the later course designer for further modifications of the course design.