Evaluating a corpus-based intervention in medical English writing: a mixed-methods study
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Recent work in medical education has begun to explore how language teaching may contribute to the humanistic aims of health professions training. While technology-assisted language learning (TALL) offers one possible pedagogical space, and corpus-based approaches provide structured access to authentic language use, less attention has been given to how corpus-based TALL may support students' written representation of humanistic and professional values in clinical and ethical contexts. METHODS: Grounded in experiential and constructivist views of learning, this quasi-experimental mixed‑methods study explored on a corpus-based intervention implemented in a technology-assisted language learning environment at a medical university in Southeast China. Sixty medical students were assigned to experimental and control groups. Quantitative analyses compared pre‑ and post‑test writing performances through rubric scores and frequency tracking of humanistic expression within and between groups. Qualitative content analysis of writings examined changes in the discursive realization of clinical, ethical, and humanistic concerns. Semi‑structured interviews with experimental group students explored students' reflections on how corpus-based learning influenced their written articulation of ethical responsibility, sensitivity to patients' perspectives, and discursive engagement with clinical and ethical issues. RESULTS: = 0.23; adjusted means: 79.21 vs. 66.38). Frequency tracking further showed significant gains in clarity, accuracy, appropriateness, and use of disciplinary language in the experimental group, with large effect sizes for the first three dimensions (all p < 0.001); improvement in the integration of ethical concepts was smaller and not statistically significant. Qualitative analysis nevertheless indicated more explicit written representation of ethical considerations in clinical scenarios, and interview data suggested increased awareness of how professional values and ethical concerns are conventionally framed in medical discourse. The control group, by contrast, showed limited change in both overall writing performance and the written representation of ethical and professional concerns. CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide empirical support for embedding corpus consultation within technology-enhanced, task-oriented medical English instruction. The intervention appears to have been most effective in strengthening linguistic precision, professional register, and the explicit framing of ethical issues in writing. It therefore offers a modest methodological contribution by showing how the written representation of humanistic values can be examined with identifiable discursive patterns. It also contributes to ongoing discussions on integrating technological and linguistic dimensions within bio‑psycho‑social approaches to medical education.
Source: BMC Medical Education
Authors: Yu Pan, Lixun Wang, Yanle Zhang
Institutions: Wenzhou Medical University, Education University of Hong Kong
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,990
OpenAlex ID: W7165026940