Issues in vocabulary acquisition; academic and technical vocabulary in medical English

Abstract

In some studies academic and sub-technical vocabulary was the most problematic area of academic writing in English for science research students (Shaw 1991;Santos 2002;Thurstun and Candlin, 1998). In the case of medicine as well as medical terms which are in the category of Nation (2001) as “specialized words”, students also have to deal with academic words or sub-technical words. Sub-technical vocabulary comprises a range of registers or topic areas in academic and technical language. (e.g. analyze, context, valid, react, function) (Nation, 2001). Using/learning academic vocabulary, both learners and users should pay special attention to rhetorical functions of this set of words in academic literature. In the current paper, the role of academic vocabulary in academic texts, the methods of learning and teaching vocabulary will be discussed based on the current literature on vocabulary acquisition.