SCAFFOLDING: AN EFFECTIVE APPROACH FOR TEACHING ENGLISH FOR HEALTH CONTENT PURPOSES

EFL students of all language proficiencies that are focused on studying Medicine or Engineering need scaffolding techniques and practical methodologies that build language competencies and bridge the understanding of content based material that is demanded of them. How can EFL teachers teach the language that students need to be successful in the field of Medical Science without necessarily being an expert in the field? This paper explores the application of teaching methodologies in an EFL for Medicine classroom that uses Vygotsky's scaffolding and the ZPD theory to create material that allows the students to practice and build the four integrated skills of English while at the same time building English language Schema of the content material needed to excel. This paper will argue that this approach is possible with all EFL learners, despite their level of English or TOEFL / IELTS score and that if this practice is implemented in foundation level courses at the beginning of the student's study, and then true learning of the language, skills and content will merge.