An examination of "lexical inferencing" of students of medicine at Mu'tah University

Other Title(s)

تفحص عملية الاستدلال على الكلمات لطلاب الطب في جامعة مؤتة

Dissertant

Abu Awdah, Manal Husayn Ahmad

Thesis advisor

al-Jarrah, Muhammad Ali
al-Jamal, Dina Abd al-Hamid Salih

Comitee Members

al-Khawlidah, Muhammad Irshiad
al-Ghazw, Manal Muhammad Hamdan
al-Rashdan, Bashshar Shahir

University

Mutah University

Faculty

Faculty of Arts

Department

Department of English Language and Literature

University Country

Jordan

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2008

English Abstract

-The purpose of this study is to investigate knowledge sources employed by medical students at Mu'tah University in the process of lexical inferencing of unknown medical terms together with the difficulty they may face in understanding medical terms.

Quantitative (vocabulary scale and attitudinal questionnaire) methodology was adopted in order to investigate the questions: a.

What knowledge sources (linguistic and nonlinguistic) do medical students at Mu'tah University use in order to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words? b.

What effect, if any, does the mother tongue (the Arabic language) have on their lexical inferencing while reading in English? c.

Are there any statistical significance differences at the level of significance (α = 0.05) in the use of the mother tongue attributed to the year level? d.

Are there any statistical significance differences at the level of significance (α = 0.05) in the use of medical knowledge attributed to the year level? The sample of the study consisted of (345) students randomly selected from the study's population which consisted of (661).

The data analysis indicated that students at Mu'tah University tend to rely heavily on the use of the linguistic knowledge sources more than on the nonlinguistic knowledge sources.

Moreover, the study displayed that students in early stages of their study (first and second year students) rely heavily on the usage of the Arabic language (i.e.

translation).

Students in advanced, however, tend to minimize the role of Arabic language in uncovering the meaning of unknown words and exhibit central role for the use of the rest of knowledge sources in the inferencing of unknown words, including their medical knowledge.

In the light of such results, the researcher recommends considering ESP (English for specific purposes) courses for students at the Faculty of Medicine at Mu'tah University.

Main Subjects

Languages & Comparative Literature

Topics

• Education
• Higher education
• Learning
• Jordan

No. of Pages

54

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-304706