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Description
This study examines what makes a medical English reading textbook readable for medical students. Questionnaire data were collected from two cohorts of first-year medical students at a Japanese medical school over two consecutive years. In the first year, students evaluated a medical English reading textbook, while in the second year they evaluated medical English reading handout materials developed by the author.
The present study focuses on these two reading materials and analyzes students’ Likert-scale ratings and open-ended comments in relation to objective textual features, including the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level and the density of medical terminology. Rather than directly comparing the two groups, the study explores how students describe the strengths and weaknesses of medical English reading materials and investigates which textual features appear to shape perceived readability.
The findings are expected to provide practical implications for the development of medical English teaching materials that are both linguistically accessible and academically appropriate for medical students. This study does not aim to determine which material is superior; rather, it seeks to better understand how medical students perceive readability in medical English reading materials and how such perceptions relate to objective textual features.