Research On The Structure And Language Problems In English Abstracts Of Master Of Public Health Degree Theses

Objectives English abstract is an essential part of the Master of Public Health(MPH) dissertation. It reflects the learner’s professional knowledge and the ability of scientific research. The specifications, accuracy and rigor of an English abstract directly affect the public health master’s thesis in the final assessment. For the purpose of developing medical education, improving the level of national public health management, and promoting the international academic communication of MPH as well, high quality English abstracts in the public health academic theses are particularly significant. By investigating and analyzing the writing structures and translation gramma of210English abstracts samples which collected from master degree theses of Preventive Medicine and Hygienics, we found that various language problems existed in the English abstracts of the domestic MPH theses. This research aims to explore the causes of the language errors and influence factors, and suggest to avoid these errors in order to improve the English abstract writing standard in MPH degree thesis.Methods In this thesis, the author used the research methods of literature analysis and mathematical statistics, randomly selected210outstanding postgraduates’theses from7professional categories in Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology as samples, as a first level discipline, which including environmental hygiene, labor hygiene, radiation hygiene, nutrition and food hygiene, personal hygiene and health care, Family Planning and Maternal and Child Health hygiene, and epidemiology and prevention. By the position, confirmation, statistics and analysis of the linguistic errors in the English abstracts, we got the following results.Results1. The average number of total words for the English abstracts of MPH theses was659.7±389.4.The average number of words for each professional categories were listed as the following:environmental hygiene was683.7±265.2, radiation hygiene was670.5±447.3, labor hygiene was619.0±300.1, epidemiology and prevention was642.8±255.8, nutrition and food hygiene was692.7±275.2, personal hygiene and health care was525.1±243.9, Family Planning and Maternal and Child Health hygiene was784.2±389.4.2. On average, the number of errors of each English abstract of MPH was5.5±4.4, the error rate (the number of errors/the total number of the words) was0.87%±0.71%. The number of errors of each English abstract for each professional categories were listed as the following:environmental hygiene was7.3±4.4, the error rate was1.10%±0.55%; radiological hygiene was5.0±3.1, the error rate was0.75%±0.17%; labor hygiene was5.6±3.7, the error rate was0.88%±0.28%; epidemiology and prevention was3.1±4.3, the error rate was0.49%±0.62%; nutrition and food hygiene was7.4±3.9, the error rate was1.19%±0.72%; personal hygiene and health care was3.7±2.1, the error rate was0.72%±0.39%; family planning and maternal and child health care was4.8±3.0, the error rate was0.63%±0.28%.3. Through the classification and statistical analysis on various types of common grammatical errors in the English abstracts, we got the results in which the spelling error rate was10.2%, Singular and plural error rate was11.6%, the the error rate of articles using was7.0%, the preposition collocation error rate was9.9%, the error rate of adjectives and adverbs using was8.2%, tense and voice error rate was15.3%, the error rate of misnomer or improper word choice was10.7%, the error rate of subject-predicate agreement was6.0%, the error rate of ambiguous reference of pronouns was8.1%, the error rate of Chinese type English phenomenon (also called Chinglish) was3.0%. The tense and voice error rate was highest, followed by Chinese type English phenomenon (also called Chinglish), subject-predicate agreement got the least error rate. Grammatical errors of these10types were different in in these seven majors.Conclusion The reasons caused language problems in dissertation abstract of MPH degree are many and various. According to my research, the most common reason may be the inadequacy of authors’ English language skill, especially in medicine major. Language problems in MPH English dissertation may also caused by the neglect of English translation from both tutors and authors. A large group of students focus on investigations, experiments and researches in profession area and overlook their English abstract translation. In order to improve the English translation level in MPH degree dissertation abstract, one has to proceed with developing the English teaching system, modifying students’ learning technic, helping students with writing and speaking practice, and promoting international communication,etc.