reading for medical purposes: medical knowledge and english language proficiency.

purpose: the present study seeks to explore the effects of general language proficiency, text readability, and medical knowledge on comprehending medical texts. material & method: 63 medical students in the second year of their study were randomly selected from the english language classes. they answered 100 multiple-choice questions on grammar and vocabulary to establish the level of language proficiency. two texts were selected as content familiar (from medical language) and unfamiliar (from medical language) and unfamiliar (from general language) based on the opinions of the lecturers of the university and the students enrolled in the fourth year of their study. the students themselves also measured the familiarity of the tests. the students read the texts and wrote a recall in their first language. the tests were analysed based on meyer's rehetorical structures. all the propositions were hierarchically organized and were used as the coding templates. the propositions, which were in the recall, were cross-checked with the templates. text readability was measured using fry's graph. while both texts were at the same level of text readability, the familiar medical text was better comprehended regardless of the level of language ability. conversely, even those with high language proficiency had difficulties in comprehending the unfamiliar text. conclusion: texts related to the students' area of study are more comprehensible for both groups of low and high level of language ability. when it comes to selecting texts for language classes, the readability formulas may not indicate the level of the difficulty of a reading text. prior knowledge of medicine is a better indicator for assessing the comprehensibility of a text for the students of medicine. it is suggested that the focus in university language classes should be on students' area of concern. the criteria for the selection of texts for university language classes and consequently the exam questions should be related to students' prior knowledge, in our case medicine. texts not related to the students' area of study may disadvantage all students regardless of their language ability.