The Efficiency of the Use of Medical Bilingual Dictionary in English Language Teaching in Vocational College

Proceedings of The 4th World Conference on Social Sciences Studies

Year: 2022

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/4th.3sconf.2022.11.102

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The Efficiency of the Use of Medical Bilingual Dictionary in English Language Teaching in Vocational College

Zorana Z. Jurinjak, Christos G. Alexopoulos

ABSTRACT: 

The aim of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of using a medical bilingual dictionary in teaching English in a vocational college. More precisely, to what extent the use of bilingual medical dictionary in relation to the use of Standard English bilingual dictionaries influences the results on tests, and thus the acquisition of better competence of students mastering the subject terminology. The need to examine this thesis arose from the fact that a rather rare use of professional dictionaries was observed, mostly due to the way the teachers work and due to the fact that foreign terms are often similar in form to their equivalents in the Serbian language, and students easily deduce their meaning. Secondary interest in this paper would be to raise awareness among students and teachers about the advantages of dictionary use. The experiment was conducted at the Academy of Applied Preschool Teaching and Health Studies – Ćuprija Department on a sample of 90 students. The respondents translated three medical texts with 42 target terms from their course literature. Statistical analyzes of the data obtained show that the differences in average time and correct answers favor the students who used the medical dictionary. The obtained results indicate the need for both students and teachers to be trained in the use of professional dictionary and that they should become a mandatory teaching tool.

keywords: EOS; ESP; medical terminology; Standard English; vocabulary