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This paper examines the dictionary use of Chinese medical students as
ESP learners and their trial experience with the online Health Termfinder (HTF), a
specialized dictionary tool for medical terms. Empirical data were collected first
from a survey among a group of medical students at Fudan University on their
previous dictionary-use behaviors and initial response to the introduction to the HTF
and its bilingualization, and second from an assignment of using the bilingualized
HTF for reading comprehension with the same group of students. The survey
findings reveal that the medical students in general are aware of the importance of
dictionaries in their ESP learning in spite of the alarming fact that the majority of
them have not even used any English medical dictionaries (monolingual or bilingual).
They are thus quite open to the idea of using an online termbank of specialized
medical terms. But the HTF assignment findings also show that proper
guidance and training is necessary for the termbank to be made actually useful for
the lexical needs of Chinese ESP learners. It is also expected that the students’
feedback on their HTF experience, especially their demand for the termbank to
include more cross-disciplinary medical terms, could be taken into consideration by
the HTF builders