Preface

Congratulations on choosing Medical Language: Terminology in Context, a unique, progressive alternative to the teaching and learning of medical terminology. The approach that you will find in this text makes use of the latest and most authoritative information that we have regarding how adults learn and retain language skills. This is a book that promotes language acquisition. It is written from the philosophical stance that medical terminology and medical language form an advanced and career-specific subset of the English language and that the best way to actively learn this language is through experiencing it as it is found in clinical scenarios.

This book is based in the context of real-world health care. The study of medical terminology is embedded in context across a broad spectrum of careers and patient care, including the assessment of health, diagnosis, treatment, disease, illness, and injury. Learners walk hand in hand with health and allied health professionals as they care for five specific patients. Each chapter begins with and then follows the patient care of one of the five main characters: one child, two adults, and two older adults who have all been in the same motor vehicle accident. A premature baby is eventually added into the mix.

Another unique feature of this book is that medical language and medical terminology are differentiated. Medical terminology includes those technical, specific, standardized, and precise words, terms, and phrases that are used in medicine, the health sciences, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, and so on. Alternatively, medical language consists of words, phrases, jargon, acronyms, abbreviations, terms, and expressions that are used less formally to communicate about a patient's status, to confer with peers, and to be sure that meaning is understood during interactions with patients. Health and allied health professionals use a blend of these two vocabularies (lexis). The recognition and use of this career-specific body of language leads to effective and meaningful communication among care providers and their colleagues.

The single most important goal of this book is health literacy, which refers to the degree to which learners are able to obtain, process, and understand basic health information, processes, and procedures and to communicate effectively within this genre. Medical terminology provides that foundation. Terms are presented within the contexts of human anatomy, physiology, pathology, wellness, patient experiences, and so on, so that they may be fully learned rather than simply remembered. The primary learning goal is achieved when learners are able to transfer what is learned into fluent and accurate communication within the appropriate contexts and when language acquisition and competency are demonstrated through use. In this regard, language acquisition is both functional and communicative.

A second learning goal of this book is that of helping learners to develop knowledge of and insight into various health careers. The culture of the health and allied health professions is embedded in the language that is used by the members of those professions. Written and oral competencies in the necessary language provide a means of entry and a point of access for newcomers into the culture of the workplace and into the ranks of the interdisciplinary health-care team. Through contextual learning, this book provides an opportunity for learners to acculturate into the health and allied health professions and to achieve a professional identity. Competency in career-specific language signals to other members of the group that you are one of them.

This is a book for adult learners who are seeking careers that require knowledge of and skills that involve medical terminology and medical language. It is written from that pedagogical stance of adult learning theory for which there is a plethora of evidence to suggest that adult learners not only require but demand relevance in their learning materials. This approach also appreciates that adult learners are often working to support themselves and their families and that they have envisioned their learning needs and outcomes before enrolling in a course such as medical terminology. To that end, the author appreciates the need for the relevance and usefulness of time spent in a classroom or a virtual classroom or performing homework or self-study exercises; this appreciation has been incorporated into the design of the materials.

This textbook is suitable for learners who are fluent in English to at least a 10th-grade reading level.

This is a language book. The text incorporates the development of language-learning skills, which include reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It teaches word recognition, word knowledge (i.e., composition and construction), and word memory. It offers a multitude of opportunities to use new vocabulary in meaningful contexts to promote language acquisition. This is accomplished by developing the ability to communicate with the use of medical terminology in the contexts of health, health-care, and allied health careers.

Pedagogically, Medical Language: Terminology in Context takes a lexical approach to language acquisition by developing the learner's proficiency with words, word parts, and word combinations. This is enhanced through the exploration of the target vocabulary that is used in health and allied health care, and it includes the development of structural skills for word, phrase, and sentence composition as well. When new terms are presented, they are defined, described, and then used in a meaningful contextual manner. Lexically based learning activities provide opportunities that facilitate the recognition of how language is used: where, when, and in what context.

Contextual learning (corpus linguistics) supports language acquisition. Vocabulary is presented in real-world contexts through patient updates, discussions, and dialogues. Adult learners can relate to the material as it reflects on their own wealth of experience and knowledge related to both health and illness. The approach teaches through example how language and terminology in context are used across these broad concepts, as well as across the life span. In doing so, it also sheds light on grammatical features that are common in medical language. These include the career-specific use of jargon (institutionalized utterances), acronyms, and so on.

This text is based on principles of cumulative learning. Learners are exposed to increasing levels of difficulty; they are asked to critically think about what is learned; to reflect on new knowledge and skills, as well as those from previous learning; and then to apply that information in meaningful ways. In other words, the repetition and recycling of activities help to keep words, expressions, and knowledge related to core topics in health care and medicine alive for the learner as they proceed through the book. In turn, this establishes those concepts as part of the learner's developing repertoire.

Units

The book is organized into four units:

• Unit One: Introduction

• Unit Two: The Language of Assessment

• Unit Three: The Language of Treatment

• Unit Four: The Language of Reparative, Restorative, and Rehabilitative Care

Concepts

Four key concepts are used to organize the material in this text, and they are threaded into each chapter:

1. The knowledge of terminology and career-specific language;

2. The knowledge of health, illness, anatomy, physiology, assessment, treatment, and care to develop professional knowledge for the field of work (i.e., health care);

3. The integration of new knowledge into professional communication; and

4. An understanding of patient-centered care.

Chapter format

Each chapter progresses from simple to complex and follows a series of repetitive stages or cycles that reinforce learning. To promote successful language acquisition, each time that new terminology is presented, a series of exercises follow that allow the learner to explore that terminology. These exercises are used to discover how the terms are formed (i.e., their word parts, origins, and meanings), and opportunities are provided to use these new terms in a wide variety of learning activities and exercises.

Components and features

Medical Language: Terminology in Context focuses on building vocabulary for the purpose of communication in health-care and health science settings with professional colleagues, patients, and their families or significant others.

Components that promote learning include the following:

• Exceptional illustrations and diagrams

• Clinical and medical examples that enhance learning

• A variety of exercises that require the immediate use of new terms and knowledge

• Exercises that require critical thinking about words and their contexts

• Exercises that require reflection on what has been presented to draw meaning from it

• Chapter review exercises

• Instructional tables

• Informative tables

• Clinical algorithms and pathways

• Exposure to and practice with a variety of documentation

Features include the following:

• Patient scenarios and updates

• Dialogues

• Career Spotlights

• Right Word or Wrong Word?

• Critical Thinking exercises

• Free Writing exercises

• Memory Magic

• Eponyms

• Focus Points

• Word Building

• Pronunciation Practice

Medical Language: Terminology in Context comes with an extensive array of supplementary support for both the student and the instructor. All of the supplementary materials for this text are easily accessed online, and they fit hand in glove with the material in the textbook.

The Medical Language Lab

Included with every new copy of Medical Language: Terminology in Context is access to the ultimate online medical terminology resource for students. The Medical Language Lab is a rich learning environment that makes use of proven language development methods to help students become effective users of medical language. To access the Medical Language Lab, students can simply go to http://www.medicallanguagelab.com and register using the personal identification number provided with each new copy of the book.

Each lesson in the Medical Language Lab teaches the student how to critically listen for important terms, how to respond to others with the use of medical terminology, and how to generate his or her own writing and speech that are rich in terminology. By following the activities in each lesson, students graduate from simple memorization to becoming stronger users of medical language.

In addition to critical listening, response, and generation exercises for each lesson, students are supplied with a wide variety of practice activities that will help them to solidify their recall of key terms from the chapter, as well as audio glossary features during which students can hear words pronounced and used properly in context.

Each activity in the Medical Language Lab has been designed to work seamlessly with Medical Language: Terminology in Context and crafted with content that is specific to the textbook. Every chapter in Medical Language: Terminology in Context has a corresponding lesson in the Medical Language Lab, so students can be confident that every activity in the Medical Language Lab is relevant and useful for helping them to understand the content of the textbook.

Instructors will benefit from a powerful yet easy-to-understand instructor's page that allows them to decide which chapters and activities will be available to their students. Instructors also control how student scores are reported to them: either through the native Medical Language Lab grade book or through their own Blackboard, Angel, Moodle, or SCORM-compliant course management solution.

DavisPlus online instructor resources

Instructors can access a wealth of instructional support at the textbook's DavisPlus page. These instructional support materials, which are password protected for safety, provide new and experienced instructors with additional resources to help make the teaching of medical terminology easier and more effective. These materials include the following:

• An electronic test bank with ExamView Pro test-generating software

• PowerPoint presentations for each chapter

• A searchable image bank

• A printable Instructor's Guide

• Resources in Blackboard, Angel, Moodle, and SCORM formats

Electronic test bank

This edition offers a powerful ExamView Pro test-generating program that allows you to create custom-made or randomly generated tests in a printable or online format from a test bank of more than 1,200 test items.

PowerPoint presentations

Bring the book to life in the classroom with the accompanying Lecture Note PowerPoint presentations. Each chapter has an outline-based presentation that consists of a chapter overview, the main functions of the body system, and selected pathology, vocabulary, and procedures. Full-color illustrations from the book and in-class assessment activities are included.

Image bank

The image bank contains all of the illustrations from the textbook. It is fully searchable, and it allows users to zoom in and out and to display a JPG image of an illustration that can be copied into a Microsoft Word document or a PowerPoint presentation.

Instructor's Guide

The Instructor's Guide provides instructors with specific guidance regarding how to organize, pace, and succeed in medical terminology instruction using Medical Language: Terminology in Context. Specific resources include the following:

• Sample syllabi. Suggested syllabi are provided to help instructors plan courses of various lengths with the use of Medical Language: Terminology in Context.

• Student- and instructor-directed activities. These comprehensive teaching aids offer an assortment of activities for each chapter that addresses a body system. Instructors can use these activities as course requirements or as supplemental material. In addition, they can assign activities as individual or collaborative projects. For group projects, peer evaluation forms are included.

Medical Language: Terminology in Context has been written with you, the adult learner, in mind.

It is a language book: you will be learning a new language that is an advanced subset of English. To do so, you will follow five patients as they journey through the health-care system after a motor vehicle accident. The text is written in the context of real-world health-care situations to make it easy to relate to and remember. Exercises in each and every chapter have been included so that new material, terminology, and knowledge can be used as soon as possible. This consolidates your learning. The book progresses from simple to complex as it presents information and new vocabulary.

The chapters have been designed to do the following:

• Provide opportunities for reading, writing, listening, and speaking

• Build a vocabulary that includes foundational medical terminology and that expands to include career-specific language

• Provide opportunities for the practical application of new vocabulary, word building, and word-recognition skills

• Build a foundation in medical terminology and language that is readily transferable to other health situations and employment settings

• Introduce different health-care careers

In addition to the material in the book, you will also find the same progressive, context-based approach in the accompanying Medical Language Lab at www.medicallanguagelab.com. In the Medical Language Lab, you will hear the scenarios from the book come to life through a variety of audio-based activities. With the combination of the text and the Medical Language Lab, you will be immersed in the exciting and dynamic world of health care, and you will be able to see the important role that effective medical language plays in patient care.