TEACHING ENGLISH FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES IN MEDICAL INSTITUTE AND MEDICAL TECHNICAL COLLEGES: A NEEDS-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING STUDENTS' PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

English has become an increasingly important component of medical education because healthcare professionals require English not only to access international scientific information but also to communicate with patients, colleagues, and professional communities. However, General English instruction in medical technical colleges does not always address the specific communicative demands that students are likely to encounter during clinical practice and future employment. This conceptual and practice-oriented article examines the role of English for Medical Purposes (EMP) in medical technical education and proposes a needs-based framework for developing students’ professional communication skills. The framework integrates medical vocabulary, patient–healthcare worker communication, clinical instructions, symptom description, medical documentation, reading of professional texts, and oral interaction. Particular attention is given to the relationship between students’ medical knowledge and their English-language development. Previous research indicates that effective EMP programmes should be based on systematic needs analysis and should connect classroom language learning with authentic professional situations. The proposed framework therefore places professional tasks at the centre of instruction rather than treating medical terminology as an isolated vocabulary component. The article does not report original participant data; instead, it synthesises established EMP and ESP principles into a practical framework that can be adapted and empirically tested in Uzbek medical technical colleges.