For Students
Language & Health Research Lab
Exploring the intersection of linguistics and healthcare for A-level, IB, and undergraduate students
Introduction
Welcome to the Language & Health Research Lab! This page is designed to give you inspirations on research ideas, readings, and the chance to connect with linguists and healthcare professionals, all of which will be useful for A-level, IB, and undergraduate studies.
We create learning materials and resources to help the public and professionals understand how communication shapes healthcare practice. These resources come from our portfolio of work linking language and health.
You can find some examples in our Suggested Reading or under the R.E.S.P.O.N.D. ResourcesLink opens in a new window tab at the top of the page. We share our work through different formats — from written articles to more accessible videosLink opens in a new window and interactive tools.Link opens in a new window
Watch this short video about the 999R.E.S.P.O.N.D. project. It introduces the emergency medical services, how language plays a vital role in emergency calls, and how clarity affects emergency decision making.
Why Language Matters in Health
Words shape health. How doctors explain diagnoses, how 999 call-handlers communicate with panicked callers, how NHS leaflets reach diverse readers—this is research on language and health. A good starting point for (current and future) linguistics, medical, psychology, and sociology students is to analyse consultation videos and patient advice webpages. Start with accessible projects that reveal dynamics, gaps, and barriers to treatment access.
About This Lab
This webpage serves as a practical toolkit for students to explore language and health research. From ready-made prompts and curated suggested readings to a chance to enquire healthcare professionals and linguists, the page is designed to spark your curiosity and equip you with essentials needed to launch meaningful projects that bridge linguistics and healthcare challenges.
Research Idea Prompts
Below are some examples for you to get started with language and health research. Each one uses free online materials like YouTube consultations, NHS webpages, news articles, and social media posts (no special access needed). Click on the text for each item to view more details, tips and links to data you could use.
Designed for A-level essays or undergraduate projects, the examples guide you to explore how (verbal and non-verbal) language can create confusion or clarity in healthcare communication, with simple methods that produce charts and insights ideal for coursework.
Health Information
Prompt: Analyse NHS health information materials (such as those on 111 websites). How accessible is health information for people with varying literacy levels? Propose improvements.
Medical Jargon
Prompt: Watch a few videos on consultations between patients and healthcare providers on YouTube. Note each medical term used and how (if at all) the doctor explains it to the patient. Which explanatory strategies—e.g., reformulation, exemplification, metaphors—made the medical terms appear most accessible to you?
Language in Discharge Advice
Prompt: Collect publicly available discharge information leaflets for conditions like minor head injury or chest pain from Emergency Department or urgent care websites, then analyse readability, use of metaphors, and directness of safety-netting advice (“come back if…”).
Hospital Posters
Prompt: Do an image search for 'A&E waiting room poster" (with A&E referring to Accident and Emergency). Download five posters. Analyse the use of words, emoji, and pictures vs written text—such as when they appear, where they appear, for what purposes they are used. Which looks to you easiest to understand for people with lower language proficiency?
News Stories
Prompt: Do an internet search for "ambulance language barrier". Read 5 news stories. Do they blame patients, ambulance personnel, ambulance services, or the government? Identify recurring phrases, count how many times they appear, and explore what they imply both within that particular news story and in the broader societal context.
Health & Gender
Prompt: How do gender stereotypes affect how health concerns raised by women are (not) responded to adequately? Or, explore how understanding of different conditions recorded in the medical literature is often based on the male body, hence affecting interventions and health outcomes for females.
Multilingualism
Prompt: How do local GP practices (general practices) support patients who do not speak much of the dominant language of the system, e.g., English in the UK? Look into the communication services offered by a local GP practice.
Communication Training
Prompt: Compare the training formats and resources of (at least) two providers (e.g., a university, a professional training) that focus on one same aspect of medical English or clinical communication training, and identify any assumptions behind the training.
Consultation Interaction
Prompt: Use short clips from the GP: Behind Closed Doors series to explore how GPs communicate in a busy surgery. Analyse how the GP opens the conversation, manages multiple problems, and checks the patient’s understanding.
Breaking Bad News
Prompt: Watch 2–3 publicly available training or role-play videos where clinicians deliver difficult news. Analyse the interaction, focusing on both examples of good and bad practices.
Act of Questioning
Prompts: Use call clips from our interactive workbook 1 on the use of questions to explore how call-handlers ask questions and how different question styles can affect how the conversation unfolds.
Reading Suggestions
Below is a curated reading list featuring research articles and online resources on language and health research. Click on the links to explore introductions to doctor-patient communication, health literacy challenges and healthcare team communication.
- Teamwork In Covid-19 Zone
- Emergency Dispatch Training WorkbookLink opens in a new window
- Glossary of terms used on this websiteLink opens in a new window
- ‘JUMPED OUT OF THE WINDOW’: Textual trajectories in emergency medical dispatch Link opens in a new window
- Experiences and views of people who frequently call emergency ambulance services: A qualitative study of UK service usersLink opens in a new window
- Let's talk about it: Reframing communication in medical teamsLink opens in a new window
- Anything I missed out↑: Pre-briefing in ad hoc trauma emergency teamsLink opens in a new window
- Study brief on complex decision making and risk negotiation in emergency medical dispatchLink opens in a new window
- Patient brief on video technology for remote clinical assistanceLink opens in a new window
