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 After controlling for pre-test scores, the experimental group achieved significantly higher post-test writing scores than the control group (F(1,57) = 16.72, p < 0.001, η2 = 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.

Evaluating a corpus-based intervention in medical English writing: a mixed-methods study

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2026年6月17日

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Yu Pan,
Lixun Wang,
Yanle Zhang

摘要

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

After controlling for pre-test scores, the experimental group achieved significantly higher post-test writing scores than the control group (F(1,57) = 16.72, p < 0.001, η² = 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.