Acquisition of medical register through the communicative act of speaking

Abstract

The study explores the role of speaking skills in the acquisition of medical register by inter-national students learning Bulgarian as a foreign language in their preparatory year at the Medical University – varna. Speaking as a productive language skill is particularly effective for the acquisition of the medical terminology that is most common, appears in speech with high frequency, and is typical mainly for the low and middle register. although the study examines some of the challenges that the students experience specifically with Bulgarian oral speech (intonation, stress, pausing, clarity of articulation), it bears implications for the theory and practice of teaching the host country’s tongue to international students of medicine or medical interns. it concludes that the objectives of language courses for international students cannot be limited to the students’ acquisition of medical register for academic purposes, but inevitably ought to address their needs as future interns who will interact with patients and medical staff with different language and culture.