Acquisition of Latin Roots with Implications for EAP

This study explores whether semantically elaborated keywords facilitateslearning of Latin roots. The freshmen of a medical school were the treatment groupprovided with the translation equivalents of the target roots supplemented withkeywords. The control group (second year students of the same medical school)received only Turkish translations; the anatomy courses in their first year had alsofamiliarized them to the roots incidentally.After a pretest and the subsequent presentation of the self-study materials, theywere informed of a similar test they will take three weeks later. The students assumedtheir testing is over; however, fifteen weeks later a similar test was administered toassess in which group the decline might be lower. With t-tests and ANOVA, all thepairwise comparisons (pretest – first posttest, pretest – second posttest and first posttest– second posttest) indicated statistically significant differences acquired by thetreatment group with implications for English for academic purposes.