Specialist Language Courses

Should you choose a paper-based or digital Medical English course?

English paper learning vs digital learning

Medical students can find it hard to engage in anything that is not clinically focused. This includes Medical English, an essential part of most undergraduate Medicine degrees. This article looks at what kind of course – paper-based or digital –  will best engage and motivate today’s students.

The problem

Medical students often have high levels of English from their time at school, as well as exposure to mass media and travel. However, they may also have poor clinical communication skills, gaps in more technical vocabulary, and lack the skills to write formally, necessary when writing research articles, for example.

Medical English teachers therefore need to cover a lot of ground in a short time to make sure doctors are prepared to enter a world where English is the lingua franca – whether it be treating international patients, working with international colleagues, reading journals, attending conferences, or taking opportunities to work in other countries.

Medical English, however, can be a little dry and this is a problem if your students are bright and easily bored. It’s important to work with materials that engage and motivate them.

Option 1: Paper-based Medical English coursebooks

There are some good coursebooks on the market – clearly set out, well-organised, with a wide range of content.

However, most publishing companies haven’t invested in their Medical English portfolio recently. Many of the Medical English course books used in medical schools around the world were published at least 15 years ago and look and feel dated. Not ideal for a generation of learners constantly using technology to discover answers to their questions.

As a result, teachers have increasingly turned to the internet to source materials they can use to supplement their books. It’s an incredible resource of course, but a lot of work for teachers to be continually finding fresh material, quality assuring it, creating activities and bringing them all together in a coherent course, rather than a series of disconnected lessons.

Option 2: Digital Medical English coursebooks

A well-written digital course has the potential to combine the best of what paper-based books offer with highly engaging online content.

A digital course can provide clear structure, the sort of thing that is recognisable from a classic coursebook. There should be units and sub-units, a wide variety of inputs and activities, language that is introduced then recycled and recontextualised, a broad focus across vocabulary, grammar, communication and language skills development, and regular testing on key target language.

So far so good, but similar to familiar paper-based options, so why consider changing? This is where the differences kick in.

Unlike a classic coursebook, a digital course provides a rich, multimedia learning experience, both for the teacher and students. You and your students can watch videos, listen to embedded audio files, link to websites and download files. In the activities, rather than write words into gaps, you can also drag and drop, resequence and categorise them – a much more engaging, tactile experience. You can have the course on multiple devices, including your phone, so no need to carry heavy books around.

What’s best for teachers?

Paper-based books bring familiarity and certainty. Opening the book at a well-worn activity is easy and requires minimal preparation. However, while a digital course can also offer familiarity after it has been used for a certain period of time, it can also empower teachers much more than a paper-based book ever can.

On the SLC digital teaching platform, for example, teachers can add their own content to the course, set digital assignments for students to submit, and set discussion forums for students to contribute to. They can leave feedback and voicenotes, send messages via the chat, pull reports of student activity and see at a glance how everyone is doing.

Creating unique courses

With a modular course like SLC’s English for Doctors, teachers can use the platform tools to select which units and sub-units the students should do and in what order. In this way, they can map the content to the students’ clinical syllabus or a pre-existing Medical English programme. Each course therefore becomes unique, reflecting the specific needs of every group.

Teaching and learning on these courses then becomes a richer, more satisfying experience for everyone involved. Motivation levels are higher, and students learn more effectively through stronger levels of engagement, both in and out of the classroom.

In conclusion

Some teachers worry that using a digital course in the classroom will be difficult and unsatisfactory. They lack the reassuring familiarity of paper-based coursebooks. However, the opposite is true. With a little thought and some support – SLC provide onboarding and ongoing mentoring to all teachers using our courses – your classroom practice and your students’ learning experience can be truly transformed.

Get in touch for more details and to discover how SLC’s digital courses can work for you, your team and your students.

pros and cons of digital vs paper based learning
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