QUICK RESOURCE SHEET #39
English for Medical Purposes
Before you close this page because you think it’s not relevant to your teaching context, think again. I decided to put this Quick Resource Sheet together based on requests from a handful of subscribers, but found the more I research I did the more interested I became in the topic.
No, not all of our students are preparing to work in hospitals, but virtually all of us have contact with the health care system at some point in our lives. Your students might well appreciate becoming more familiar with both the issues and the terminology highlighted in the websites linked below. You might even spark their curiosity about heretofore unexamined career possibilities.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/
Leave it to BBC to create an attractive website with fascinating articles, quizzes, and interactive activities covering every aspect of the human mind and body. Of course, it’s updated daily, and simple to navigate.
“The Bartleby.com edition of Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body features 1,247 vibrant engravings—many in color—from the classic 1918 publication, as well as a subject index with 13,000 entries ranging from the Antrum of Highmore to the Zonule of Zinn.”
http://www.mic.ki.se/West.html
We have the Karolinska Institutet of Stockholm to thank for this detailed timeline of the History of Western Biomedicine, dating back to Mycenaean times. Each of the hundreds of items on this timeline is linked to compelling background reading (itself with many more links). Greek medicine of the gods? It’s here. Midwives of ancient Rome? The history of ophthalmology? Descarte's theory of vision? That’s all here, too. But modern medical developments are not neglected. Want to know the ten great public health achievements of the twentieth century?
http://www.onestopenglish.com/business_esp/esp_medical.htm
This site is indeed directed to the medical student, with lesson plans for two writing exercises (case reports and medical histories). These exercises could be adapted to a variety of contexts. Detailed instructions are included, with downloadable exercises and answer keys.