Language as a barrier to the acquisition of anatomical knowledge.

The language of instruction for medical students at the University of Hong Kong is English, which is their second language. This presents a potential barrier to their academic learning. We have studied the extent of this problem by looking at the amount of terminology students have to assimilate during their anatomy course and the way in which the terminology is structured and explained (this provides, more generally, an indication of the factual loading to which medical students are exposed). We have also investigated the effect of the quality of students' language skills on their examination results in anatomy class tests and MBBS exams. It was found that students' entrance levels in English correlated well with their final examination results and that the quality and quantity of their English also correlated highly with scores in class tests. On this basis, we conclude that language is one of the most important barriers to students' academic success in the department and that current teaching materials may not be appropriate.