A Pedagogical Dialogue Between English for General Purposes and English for Medical Purposes: Marching From Short Story Reading and Art Practice to the Writing of a History of Present Illness

A Pedagogical Dialogue Between English for General Purposes and English for Medical Purposes: Marching From Short Story Reading and Art Practice to the Writing of a History of Present Illness

In a country where English is not a native language, the language course designs for undergraduate medical students may usually underscore the instruction of language itself (e.g., grammar). This study demonstrated how literature (i.e., stories in this study) and the practice of art were integrated into the pedagogy of English for Medical Purposes, i.e., writing the history of present illness (HPI), which records the progression of a patient's present illness from the first sign and symptom to the present. The integration was based on the shared elements between the genres of story and HPI: the characters, the setting, the plot (i.e., a beginning, middle, and end), the conflict (i.e., a problem), and the resolution (i.e., the solution of the problem). Forty-three freshmen medical students first read “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. Then they learned categories of vocabulary words from the text of the story, such as those of aging and light. They then drew and described their favorite scenes. An instruction by a doctor on the components of an HPI followed. Finally, they practiced writing part of an HPI for Emily, the protagonist of the story, by imagining she was a patient at a clinic. The results demonstrated students’ profound depiction of the characters’ appearance, understanding of their psychological world, the role of women, their empathy toward them, and their imagination of the story. The essential elements of an HPI were also found in their HPI write-ups. The pedagogical implications of this integrated approach to language teaching was also discussed.