A corpus-based list of commonly used English medical morphemes for students learning English for specific purposes. (April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nguyen Le, Chinh Ngan; Miller, Julia
• Is Part Of: English for specific purposes. Volume 58(2020)
• Page Start: 102
• Page End: 121
• Publication Date: 2020-04
• Subjects: Medical terminology -- Corpus -- Morpheme; English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers -- Periodicals; English language -- Business English -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; English language -- Technical English -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Anglais (Langue) -- Étude et enseignement -- Allophones -- Périodiques; Enseignement professionnel -- Périodiques; Anglais (Langue) -- Anglais commercial -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; Anglais (Langue) -- Anglais technique -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; English language -- Business English -- Study and teaching; English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers; English language -- Technical English -- Study and teaching; Periodicals; 428.007
• DOI: 10.1016/j.esp.2020.01.004
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0889-4906

Abstract

Abstract: Medical students with English as an additional language often face difficulties in acquiring English medical terminology derived from Greek and Latin morphemes. To address this problem, this study used a corpus-based approach to identify the most commonly occurring medical morphemes in four sources: Stedman's list of medical morphemes; the Cengage list of general English morphemes; the Center for Development in Learning list of general English morphemes; and the Medical Web Corpus—a web-based corpus of current medical texts available through Sketch Engine text analysis software. Three medical dictionaries were used to validate the findings, leading to a final list of 136 specialized medical morphemes which cover 8.5% of the lexical items in the Medical Web Corpus. The findings provide a reliable and useful resource to help medical students with English as an additional language enhance their English medical vocabulary. Highlights: The final list contains 136 frequently used medical morphemes. These 136 morphemes cover 8.5% of the Medical Web Corpus. 136 morphemes are a manageable learning target for students.