Expansive learning in the genre-based framework of medical English instruction: an intervention study informed by critical needs analysis.

• Other Authors: Yang, Miao
• Format: Others
• Language: English; Chinese
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: English language > Medical English > Study and teaching; Learning; Needs assessment
• Online Access: http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b6075306; http://repository.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/en/item/cuhk-344939

A comprehensive investigation of the medical students' English learning needs in the investigated context reveals that the medical students' English learning needs are perceived differently by different parties. As the students proceed in their academic study, their perceptions change from an initial need to pass examinations, to the need to acquire subject knowledge through English, and finally to the need to conduct academic activities, thus indicating the necessity to take a developmental view of their English learning needs and consider these needs in designing the ME course instead of imposing the course on students externally. The teachers of the medical college identify the medical students' English learning needs from the practical, academic, and utilitarian perspectives. They suggest implementing language policies that suit the students best according to the real needs in the Chinese contexts and the students' personal desires. But those in the collegial administrative posts tend to over-stress the importance of learning English despite the pre-dominantly resistant attitudes expressed by the students towards English learning. === Based on the findings of the research, the thesis argues for a renewed GBP-mediated expansive learning model to observe learning happening in the GBP framework. In spite of the inevitable weaknesses of the research, it seems clear that further research is essential in areas such as interscholastic needs analysis, genre-based medical English course development, and teacher collaboration. === In the various activity systems in which these parties mainly involved, English is perceived as an examination tool, a linguistic tool, or an administrative tool, hence we find contradictions at different levels. GBP was introduced into the ME class in the form of boundary-crossing actions between the researcher and the ME teacher. The GBP-mediated expansive learning has been explored in three observational dimensions: the vertical development as displayed by the medical students' reconceptualization of their object of English learning, namely their English learning needs; the horizontal development as displayed by the boundary-crossing learning of the ME teacher and the researcher; and the teacher and the students' concept formation of genre and GBP as an indication of developing both vertically and horizontally. === Resulting from the intervention instruction, new teaching/learning tools were formed, new values were attached to learning English, new understanding of the objects of the ME course were developed, and new identities emerged. The introduction of a new mediating tool (i.e. GBP) had led to changes in the other components of the ME class activity system and finally transformed it into a culturally more advanced one, with shared object perceived by all subjects, new conceptual tools (e.g. the new values of English learning), new quality of the subjects (i.e. enhanced ability in ME learning/teaching), and new responsibility towards learning (the division of labour). === The research was conducted in two stages in a medical college in China. The first stage involved critical analysis of medical students' English learning needs through questionnaire survey, classroom observations, focus group discussions, and interviews among medical students in different grades, teachers, and medical doctors (N =696). The second stage was an intervention case study with 46 first-year medical students, using GBP in their medical English class and collecting data through questionnaire surveys, classroom observations, focus discussions, and interviews. === This thesis borrows insights from various theoretical trends, including critical theories, activity theory, particularly expansive learning theory, and genre-based pedagogy (GBP), to formulate a triadic theoretical framework to explore possible improvements in the instruction of medical English (ME) in EFL (English as Foreign Language) contexts. The research aims at answering the key research question regarding the ways in which genre-based pedagogy, informed by critical needs analysis, transforms Medical English instruction and leads to expansive learning. There are three sub-questions that deal with the three-folded research purposes, namely investigation, critical analysis, and transformation, which comprise a unique way to conduct a critical needs analysis of medical students' English learning needs. === Yang, Miao. === Advisers: Evelyn Yee Fun Man; Icy Kit Bing Lee; Angel Mei Yi Lin. === Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . === Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. === Includes bibliographical references (leaves 593-613). === Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. === Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. === Abstract also in Chinese.