Toward an Integrated Understanding of Language Use in Health Communication: Discourse-analytic and Message Design Approaches

Abstract Applied linguists and Communication scholars have mainly adopted different yet complementary approaches to research on language and health communication. Using discourse-analytic (DA) approaches such as conversation analysis and corpus analysis, applied linguists tend to focus on describing and explicating health messaging techniques in naturally occurring interactions. In contrast, communication scholars favour message design (MD) approaches that compare the effects of different message features on participants’ perceptions, attitudes, and behavioural intentions. Drawing on examples from interpersonal medical consultation and public health campaign, I demonstrate that an integration of these two paradigms is beneficial for creating a holistic understanding of research on language and health communication. Specifically, the DA paradigm offers rich descriptions of social actions in terms of their organizational structures and linguistic realizations, whereas the MD paradigm quantitatively assess the impact of particular messaging strategies. The challenges and opportunities of this integration are also discussed.