Vocabulary Learning Strategies Employed by Korean Medical Students for Medical Terminology and General English Words

Abstract

This study explores how vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) adopted by medical students would differ in learning medical terminology and general English words. The participants were 109 medical students in a university located in a major city in Korea. Data were collected in the Fall 2021 semester using a survey questionnaire. The study found that there was not much difference in the most frequently used VLS for learning general English words and learning medical terminology. Only three differences existed among the top-ten most used strategies. Out of 66 strategies, about a half showed a statistically significant difference in the frequency of VLS use, and only six were used more frequently when learning medical terminology than when learning general English words. When the participants were divided into three groups by their GPA, the results showed that higher-achieving students are active learners in all circumstances, taking notes during their medical class, imagining word meaning in their cognition, and using space to draw words in meaning groups outside the classroom.