Developing Medical Learning Materials to Promote Learners’ Creativity: A Corpus-based Case Study

Abstract

For a long time in Mainland China, there exists a need for authentic supplementary materials and an extensive native speaker environment in courses like English as a Foreign Language and English for Specific Purposes. Yet, how to promote learners’ creativity in the process of developing medical learning materials practice? This study aims to develop certain medical learning materials as an Enriched Corpus-Based English Supplement. Developing those proper medical learning materials for medical learners can help them to develop relevant strategies of corpus-based learning creatively. It had been conducted from December 2016 to November 2019 with four teachers and 180 third-year medical students at Xinxiang Medical University in the Medical English course. Mixed methods were chosen to observe and investigate the use of ECBES among third-year medical students. Both quantitative and qualitative data in the learning process and the outcome had been collected and analyzed. The practice showed that more than 60% of the learners thought they were language learners; their needs were the starting point of enriching creative supplementary materials. Quantitative data of learners’ production after the practice were displayed, which implied that the ECBES practice of four skills was practical and useful. Then it discussed several aspects of qualitative indexes for the learners’ creative production, such as their choosing autonomy opportunities, practice opportunities from the learners’ views. The findings suggested that certain corpus-based materials could be developed to promote learners’ creativity in ESP learning.