Social Media as a Platform for Acquiring Medical English: Measuring Perceptions of Non-native Healthcare Providers

Amr Selim Wannas(1*), Inas Hussein Hassan(2),

(1) Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation (MYF), Aswan Heart Centre (AHC)
(2) College of Language and Communication (Alexandria), Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Egypt
(*) Corresponding Author




DOI: https://doi.org/10.26858/eltww.v10i1.45034

Abstract


The primary goal of this study is to measure the perceptions of non-native healthcare providers towards the role of social media in acquiring medical English and enhancing language learning autonomy, and the features of social media that help them acquire medical vocabulary. To this end, a questionnaire was constructed and disseminated to 350 Egyptian healthcare providers working at Magdi Yacoub Foundation (MYF), Aswan Heart Centre (AHC), Egypt. For data triangulation, interviews were conducted with a subset of the questionnaire takers. Findings of the study reveal that social media platforms tremendously assist non-native healthcare providers in acquiring medical English vocabulary and enhancing language learning autonomy. Among the features of social media that proved to be beneficial to Egyptian healthcare providers are easiness of usage, free-of-charge availability, ability to edit, copy and share, ability to store data forever, emoticons to express feelings, choice to join private conversations, and choice to join public discussions and debates.  


Keywords


social media; medical vocabulary; healthcare providers; English for medical purposes; learning from social media

Full Text:

PDF

References


Alhebshi, A. A., & Gamlo, N. (2022). The Effects of Mobile Game-Based Learning on Saudi EFL Foundation Year Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition. Arab World English Journal, 13 (1) 408-425. https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol13no1.27

Ansari, J. A. N., & Khan, N. A. (2020). Exploring the role of social media in collaborative learning the new domain of learning. Smart Learning Environments, 7(1), 1-16.

Bensalem, E. (2018). The Impact of WhatsApp on EFL students’ Vocabulary Learning.

Arab World English Journal, 9 (1). https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol9no1.2

Choi, L. J. (2021). Implementing English for Medical Purposes (EMP) in South Korea: Nursing students' ongoing needs analysis. Nurse Education Today, 104, 104989.

Chotipaktanasook, N. (2014). Enhancing learners' willingness to communicate in English with social media. Bangkok, Thailand: Dhurakij Pundit University.

Chung, T. M., & Nation, P. (2003). Technical vocabulary in specialised texts. University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/66770

Chung, T. M., & Nation, P. (2004). Identifying technical vocabulary. System, 32(2), 251-263.

Dzuganova, B. (2002). A brief outline of the development of medical English. Bratislavske lekarske listy, 103(6), 223-227.

Dzuganova, B. (2019). Teaching medical English through professional captioning videos. Journal of Language and Cultural Education, 7(2), 95-107.

Evans, C. (2014). Twitter for teaching: Can social media be used to enhance the process of learning?. british Journal of educational technology, 45(5), 902-915.

Farsi, D., Martinez-Menchaca, H. R., Ahmed, M., & Farsi, N. (2022). Social media and health care (part II): narrative review of social media use by patients. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e30379.

Flynn, L., Jalali, A., & Moreau, K. A. (2015). Learning theory and its application to the use of social media in medical education. Postgraduate medical journal, 91(1080), 556-560.

Hsu, W. (2013). Bridging the vocabulary gap for EFL medical undergraduates: The establishment of a medical word list. Language Teaching Research, 17(4), 454-484.

Kelm, O. R. (2011). Social media: It’s what students do. Business Communication Quarterly, 74(4), 505-520.

Kim, K. J. (2019). Enhancing students’ active learning and self-efficacy using mobile technology in medical English classes. Korean journal of medical education, 31(1), 51.

Matrozi-Marin, A. (2009). Medical Vocabulary and the ESP Teacher. Studii şi cercetări filologice. Seria Limbi Străine Aplicate, (8), 83-89.

Milosavljevic, N., Vuletic, A., & Jovkovic, L. (2015). Learning medical English: a prerequisite for successful academic and professional education. Srpski arhiv za celokupno lekarstvo, 143(3-4), 237-240.

Mondahl, M., & Razmerita, L. (2014). Social media, collaboration and social learning a case study of Foreign Language Learning. Electronic Journal of E-learning, 12(4), pp339-352.

Mpungose, C. B. (2020). Are Social Media Sites a Platform for Formal or Informal Learning? Students' Experiences in Institutions of Higher Education. International Journal of Higher Education, 9(5), 300-311.

Muller, A. (2011). Addressing the English language needs of international nursing students. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 5(2), A14-A22.

Oxford, R. L. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

Coxhead, A. (2017). Vocabulary and English for specific purposes research: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Routledge.

Panocova, R. (2017). The vocabulary of medical English: A corpus-based study. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Pham, A. T. V. (2022, May). An Investigation into the Use of Social Media in Teaching English. In 2022 the 4th International Conference on Modern Educational Technology (ICMET) (pp. 44-50).

Sakamoto, Y., & Sakata, N. (2018). A pilot study of medical English language learning materials using virtual reality and a communication robot. Journal of Medical English Education, 17(3), 117-120.

Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning. London: Pearson Learning Systems.

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1). Retrieved from http://www.itdl.org/

Tymoshchuk, N. (2022). The Implementation of E-Learning to Support Learning and Teaching Foreign Language: a Case Study in Ukrainian Higher Education. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) 2nd Special Issue on Covid 19 Challenges (2) 233-244. https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/covid2.15


Article Metrics

Abstract view : 318 times | PDF view : 127 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

View My Stats

Published by:

Pascasarjana, Universitas Negeri Makassar

Jalan Bonto Langkasa, Banta-Bantaeng, Rappocini, Banta-Bantaeng, Kec. Rappocini, Kota Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan 90222
elt.worldwide@unm.ac.id

E-ISSN: 2503-2291

P-ISSN: 2303-3037


ELT Worldwide: Journal of English Language Teaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- 4.0 International License.