ENGLISH FOR MEDICINE

(Part One)
An Intermediate ESP Course for Students of Medicine

BY

Javid, C. Z.

i
English for Medicine (part one)
Javid, C. Z.

© Taif University, 2011

First Edition: 1432 H - 2011

Taif University
Alhawea
P.O. Box: 21974
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

© Taif University, 2011

King Fahd National Library Cataloging-in-publication data

Zahid Javid, Choudhry

English for medicine. / Choudhry Zahid Javid-1.-
Taief, 2011
152p; 24cm
ISBN: 978-603-8063-30-9

1-Medicine-Language 2-Writing-Medical English

- Study and teaching l-Title
428.241 dc 1432/1740

L.D. no. 1432/1740

ISBN: 978-603-8063-30-9

ii
 Dedication

This textbook is dedicated to my parents,

my loving wife,
my sons;
Taha Zahid Choudhary & Ali Zahid Choudhary
and my daughters;
Maha Zahid Choudhary & Aiyza Zahid Choudhary

iii
iv
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - iii
table of contents - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - v
acknowledgements - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - viii
preface - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

Unit# 1: SKIN - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1
Vocabulary Preview: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 5
Pronunciation Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7
Listening Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 12
Medical Terminology: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 13
Grammar Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 15
Speaking Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 20

Unit# 2: EAR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 23
Vocabulary Preview: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 27
Pronunciation Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 30
Listening Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 35
Medical Terminology: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 37
Grammar Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 41
Speaking Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 45

Unit# 3: LUNGS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 47
Vocabulary Preview: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 51
Pronunciation Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 54
Listening Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 61
Medical Terminology: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 62
Grammar Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 64
Speaking Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 69

v
Unit# 4: LIVER - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - 71
Vocabulary Preview: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 75
Pronunciation Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 78
Listening Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 83
Medical Terminology: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 84
Grammar Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 87
Speaking Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 91

Unit# 5: KIDNEY - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 93
Vocabulary Preview: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 97
Pronunciation Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 100
Listening Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 106
Medical Terminology: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 107
Grammar Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 110
Speaking Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 117

Unit# 6: EYE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 119

Vocabulary Preview: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 123
Pronunciation Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 126
Listening Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 131
Medical Terminology: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 132
Grammar Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 135
Speaking Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 141

Unit# 7: STOMACH - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 143

Vocabulary Preview: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 147
Pronunciation Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 150
Listening Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 155
Medical Terminology: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 157
Grammar Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 160
Speaking Focus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 165

vi
Appendix 1a: Pronunciation Guide - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 167
Appendix 1b: Pronunciation Guide - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 168
Appendix 1c: Final –s and –ed endings - - - - - - - - - - - 169
Appendix 2a: Present Simple Tense - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 170
Appendix 2b: Present Simple Tense;
negative / question - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 171
Appendix 2c: Present Simple Tens: Short Questions 172
Appendix 2d: Passive Voice - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - 173
Appendix 2e: Passive Voice; Examples - - - - - - - - - - - - 174
Appendix 2f: Comparative and Superlative Adjectives 175
Appendix 2g: Adverbs of Frequency - - - - - - - - - - - - - 177
Appendix 2h: Past Indefinite Tense - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 178
Appendix 2i: Past Indefinite Tense: Short Answers 180
Appendix 2j: Used to - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 181
Appendix 2k: -s/-s Spellings + There is / There are - - - 182
Appendix 2l: Many/Much, A little/A few, Lots of/A lot of,
Any/Some - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 183
Appendix 3a: Listening Passage: Unit# 1 - - - - - - - - - - 185
Appendix 3b: Listening Passage: Unit# 2 - - - - - - - - - - 187
Appendix 3c: Listening Passage: Unit# 3 - - - - - - - - - - 189
Appendix 3d: Listening Passage: Unit# 4 - - - - - - - - - - 191
Appendix 3e: Listening Passage: Unit# 5 - - - - - - - - - - 193
Appendix 3f: Listening Passage: Unit# 6 - - - - - - - - - - 195
Appendix 3g: Listening Passage: Unit# 7 - - - - - - - - - - 197

References - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 199

vii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to acknowledge my sincere indebtedness to Dr. Farid Hashim

Falimban, Vice Chancellor, Taif University to promote a research oriented
atmosphere that facilitated and encouraged me to accomplish this academic
task. I want to express my sincerest gratitude to the Dean of CMMS for his
encouragement and allowing piloting it at the college. I gratefully
acknowledge the unstinting and unconditional support of Dr. Turkey Saleem
Al-Thubaiti, Chairman, Department of Foreign Languages, for any project
that contributes to academic excellence and professional development. I
admit that without his encouragement this would not have been possible for
me. I wish to express my great appreciation to Dr. Muhammad Al-Khairi;
Dean, College of Arts for Academic Development and Dr. Abdul Rehman
Al-Asmari; Director ELC for their constant reassurance and support.

I am highly grateful to my respectable colleague Dr. Hasan Banna

El-Gabbala, Professor of Applied and Theoretical Linguistics, and Dr.
Moyn Ali, Director Medical Education for their professional guidance that
has been extremely instrumental to complete this textbook. Special thanks
and appreciation is due to Mr. Timothy Parker, English Language
Instructor at Department of Foreign Languages, who proofread the initial
draft of this textbook. I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to Mr.
Wasim Khan, Head, Computer Section at CMMS, and Mr. Zulkarnain
Khadbai, English Language Instructor at Department of Foreign
Languages, for extending their valuable computing expertise. I am highly
indebted to Dr. Simon Combe for his professional guidance and valuable

viii
efforts in preparing the key and recording the listening passages for this
textbook.

Last but far from the least, my sincere thanks go to all my colleagues
at Department of Foreign Languages for their valuable support and
persistent encouragement.

ix
 PREFACE

This textbook is a logical outcome of a comprehensive research

project carried out at College of Medicine and Medical Sciences(CMMS) by
the author of this textbook during 2008 that determined the linguistic and
non-linguistic needs, the academic level and the preferred learning styles of
the students at CMMS. This textbook is designed to cater for their specific
needs by considering their culturally driven preferred learning styles. The
purpose of this book is not to teach medicine but its aim is to inculcate the
academic ability in the students to go to a textbook, a journal or a reference
book, to any oral presentation or a classroom lecture, to an interactive
academic session, to online resources, on a medical topic and to prepare
them to understand, extract and utilize the required information in an
effective and efficient manner.

To achieve this goal, this textbook ensures an integrated practice in

all language skills along with emphasizing the other important language
areas of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and medical terminology.
Reading passages of moderate length have been carefully selected from
Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta Premium (2006) about different human
body organs to be exploited for achieving the above-mentioned goals. This
textbook comprises of seven units. Each unit has plenty of exercises to not
only give integrated practice in all the four skills but also in grammar and
medical terminology. Each unit is designed to be taught in two weeks. It is
ascertained that all language areas should follow a logical academic
progression to achieve optimum learning. Different medical concepts,
vocabulary items, medical terms, etc. are presented repeatedly in various
contexts to strengthen students’ language command. A considerable variety

x
of exercises is employed in all the units to familiarize the students with
different learning situations and promote students’ interest and motivation.
They include: question/answer, identifying the reference, fill in the blanks,
solving crossword puzzles, word search, matching words with their
meanings, synonyms or antonyms, multiple-choice questions, extracting
specific items of information, matching ideas with paragraphs, true/false,
correcting false statements, completing diagrams, labeling pictures,
ordering sentences, joining ideas/sentences, circling correct information,
writing sentences by using clues, completing outlines, splitting medical
terms in their word parts, matching words parts, writing phonetic
transcription, definitions and examples of medical terms, using appropriate
verb forms, making questions and negatives, punctuation, error analysis,
pronunciation practice, identifying and pronouncing past and plural
endings, listening exercises, a variety of speaking exercises like dialogues,
responding to the prompts, oral presentations etc.

Every standard textbook has a main language area that acts as its
foundation and other language areas are woven around it. Reading skills
act as the backbone for this textbook considering its primary importance for
medical students in general and the students of CMMS in particular. All the
passages are meant to be read silently. The students need to scan, skim and
read intensively to solve a wide variety of exercises. They need to read the
passages individually, in pairs or in groups. Students of medicine have to go
through a lot of reading material, i.e. textbooks, reference books, articles,
journals, online resources etc. Specific reading skills are required to
effectively deal with different types of materials and this section of the
textbook prepares the students to employ appropriate reading strategies to

xi
handle various kinds of materials. This enables them to become efficient
readers that is a sine qua non to continue their medical studies successfully.
Failure to do so will adversely affect their abilities to complete their
medical studies.

The vocabulary load is fairly high in the field of medicine and the
students have to cope up with the general English vocabulary but they also
face an uphill task to effectively deal with the medical terminology. Each
unit starts with a variety of vocabulary exercises that encourages the
students to use diagrammatic and contextual clues to guess the meaning.
Important expressions and words are repeatedly used in different contexts
so that they should become part of the students’ active vocabulary which
they may use comfortably and accurately in their oral and written
communication. Medical terms pose a major challenge to the students. The
unfamiliarity and complexity of these compound words make them extremely
difficult to handle. A systematic approach is adopted to familiarize the
students with their constituent word parts; roots, suffixes and prefixes, and
their meanings. A variety of exercises require the students to separate these
terms into their constituent word parts and to assemble word parts to
formulate medical terms. Important terms are chosen to be taught in a
logical progression.

Pronunciation is yet another challenging area that needs to be

seriously addressed to. The situation rather worsens when the students come
to pronounce complex medical terms. Majority of these terms is derived
from unfamiliar Latin and Greek terminology that makes it extremely hard
to pronounce correctly. Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, an

xii
authority in the field of medicine, is selected to solve this complex problem.
The students are given ample practice in phonetic transcription as well as in
primary and secondary stress that enables the students to become self-
sufficient in pronunciation. The students are encouraged to divide these
complex terms into syllables so that they can be pronounced correctly with
ease. Repeated oral demonstrations, as required by the pronunciation
activities, by the teachers and then the students guarantees effective
pronunciation acquisition. The pronunciation key is given in the appendices
for the students to consult any time they need.

A separate section, listening focus, is dedicated to improve their

listening skills. A range of listening activities familiarize the students with
the skills of listening for specific purposes. These exercise are not only
extremely instrumental in tuning the students’ ears for understanding
moderately long listening passages but also help them deal with the target
listening passages in an appropriate manner as required by the exercises.
The same listening passage is used for different exercises in each unit and
this repeated listening of the same material will strengthen the
pronunciation even of the unfamiliar medical terms.

Writing skills is also integrated with other language skills. The

students are required to write simple sentences in the beginning and
proceed to use complex sentences. It is tried that the students should be able
to write short guided paragraphs by the end of this level.

The value of important grammatical points cannot be under

estimated to use language correctly. A vast variety of grammar exercises

xiii
provide students with plenty of practice in grammatical structures of
common use. Each unit carries an error analysis exercise that requires the
students to correct wrong sentences. Common mistakes are highlighted in
these exercises so that the students should be able to avoid those common
mistakes in their oral and written communication. Inductive way of
grammar teaching is followed to discourage the students from simply
memorizing the grammar rules. Grammar exercises are presented in such a
manner that links these structures with real life situations instead. The
purpose of grammar focus is not making the students learn the rules but
preparing them use appropriate structures effectively in various situations.

Each unit ends with specific speaking activities which are based on
the unit contents and the grammatical points covered in that unit. These
speaking exercises provide the students with ample practice to use language
in real life context. The rationale behind these exercises is to acquaint and
familiarize the students with the practical application of different
grammatical structures so that they may get prepared to effectively handle
different real life situations.

At the end of the majority of the exercises, group / pair work is

suggested which is an important pedagogical technique to improve students’
speaking time. If it is employed effectively, it not only enhances students’
oral competence but also encourages them to actively involve themselves in
all exercises because it helps them overcome their shyness and cultural
inhibitions.

xiv