An Investigation of English Language Needs of the First Year Pre-Medical Students at Sebha University, Libya

Today, English is considered as an international and very important language as most of the scientific and technical works (spoken or written) are done in English. Moreover, it is also considered as the second official language used in many developing countries like Libya. Like other professions, English plays a very important role in medical profession as medical students need to use English for various purposes. They require English to read textbooks as well as journals written in English, to understand the lectures given in English, to communicate with their teachers, to write their exams and projects in English, to write the reports of the patients in English, to write prescriptions for patients in English, and sometimes even to communicate with patients in English, also communicate with other professionals in the same field from different countries to share the experiences with each other and to share studies etc. This indicates the needs of English language for the medical students. In this respect, the present paper investigates the English language needs of the pre-medical students of the University of Sebha in order to analyze their needs so that a good program can be designed for these students to fulfill their English language needs.