The Study On The Medical English Teaching In The Medical Colleges Of Shanxi Province

As an important branch of ESP (English for Specific Purpose), Medical English is a kind of specialty English for those who are engaged in medical treatment and health service. With the rapid development of the medicine, the exchanges in this field between our country and the other ones get more and more extensive. The improvement of the medicine science needs to take in the advanced technologies of the developed countries. In this condition, the medical teaching needs internationalizing, and consequently the Medical English standards of the demands for the people engaged in medicine are higher and higher. Therefore, Medical English teaching is paid more attentions to by more teachers and researchers. And also they put forward the higher demands for the Medical English teaching.According to the questionnaires distributed to the teachers and students from the four medical colleges and doctors from three hospitals in Shanxi Province, the author finds out that:many medical students and doctors who graduate from internal medical schools can not read English medical books or periodicals or write any medical applied writings in English. Their communicative abilities with English are very poor. The results show that the present Medical English teaching can not meet the requirements of the society at all. There are lots of demerits in the course design, teaching mode, teaching materials and ESP teachers. The reformation in ESP teaching is imperative.In fact, since the Medical English course was opened in medical colleges in 1980s, for adapting to the college English reformation and meeting the social requirements, many colleges have carried out teaching experiments and tried to reform the teaching conditions for several times. However, because the theory system and methodology of Medical English teaching study are deficient for our country, the results of these reformations are not so satisfactory.Since Medical English teaching belongs to ESP teaching, so when people analyze and discuss the problems of the teaching process, they should not ignore the principles of ESP teaching. Needs analysis is the foundation of ESP teaching. In the course of investigation, the author investigates the students and doctors on the basis of needs analysis in order to know their needs and suggestions. The factors such as the teachers, teaching materials, and teaching methods are all involved in this investigation. After collecting the related information, by analyzing the related ESP theories such as needs analysis, learning theories and communicative approach etc. the author applies them to the teaching practice, and then promotes her points of view about Medical English teaching principles, teaching methods, teaching contents, teaching tests, ESP teachers and class time arrangement.This thesis includes five chapters:chapter one introduces the study background, study aims and study methods; chapter two is the literature review, and it relates the origin, the definitions and development of ESP theories and presents the related ESP theories; chapter three presents the medical teaching conditions of the four colleges in our province. By means of the questionnaires, the author investigates some teachers, students and doctors and knows which problems need solving; chapter four is the application of the ESP theories; chapter five is the conclusion. It includes the significance and limitations of the study.