MEDLEX-25: DIAGNOSING THE RECOGNITION-PRODUCTION GAP IN MEDICAL ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Vol.12, Issue 1, 2026, pp. 113-132 Full text: PDF . HTML
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.26.1.8
Web of Science: [WOS=]
Author:
Evgeni Stanchev https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1108-1067
Affiliation: Medical University of Varna, Varna, Bulgaria 03jkshc47
Abstract
[abstract=This study introduces MedLex-25, a compact diagnostic instrument designed to quantify recognition-production asymmetries in medical English vocabulary. Second-year medical students at Medical University Varna, Bulgaria completed nine parallel test forms (50 targets per form; 225 unique lexical targets sampled from a coursebook corpus) under supervised conditions; usable data from 186 students were analysed, with a total of 9300 questions answered. Each form paired a four-option receptive item with a sentence-production task for the same targets; production responses were binary-scored (correct/incorrect) with tolerance for non-meaning-preventing surface errors. Results suggest a systematic recognition-production gap across five lexical categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, two-word multiword items): receptive accuracy consistently exceeded productive accuracy, and no item achieved perfect production. Counts of perfectly recognized items were: nouns 33/45, adjectives 27/45, verbs 23/45, adverbs 25/45, and multiword items 28/45. Verbs, adjectives and, most strikingly, adverbs exhibited the largest productive weaknesses (lowest production for erroneously = 0.071). Item-level diagnostics identify concrete teaching targets. The MedLex-25 test can guide focused instruction and recommend follow-up studies that expand item coverage, refine production scoring, and investigate etymology and cross-disciplinary exposure as mediating factors.]
Keywords: Medical English, ESP vocabulary, recognition-production gap, error analysis, corpus-based item selection
Article history:
Submitted: 18 December 2025
Reviewed: 12 January 2026
Accepted: 10 March 2026
Published: 22 June 2026
Citation (APA):
Stanchev, E. (2026). MedLex-25: Diagnosing the recognition-production gap in medical English vocabulary. English Studies at NBU, 12(1), 113-132. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.26.1.8
Copyright © 2026 Evgeni Stanchev
This is an Open Access article published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Handling Editor: Stan Bogdanov, New Bulgarian University
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