CLIL and Micro-lecture Stratified Teaching Model in Surgical Clinical Education for the "Belt and Road" Medical Students: Application and Effect Evaluation

Background This study aims to develop and validate a stratified teaching model that combines Content and Language Integrated Learning(CLIL) with micro-lecture methodologies. The objective is to address language barriers encountered by medical students from Belt and Road countries during surgical clinical practice and to enhance their clinical competencies. Methods A cohort of twenty international medical students studied at the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University between August 2023 and July 2024 was selected as the study population. These participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group, which received Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) combined with micro-lecture stratified teaching, or the control group, which underwent traditional teaching methods. Comparative analyses were conducted on their theoretical examination scores, objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) results, and clinical communication self-efficacy scale ratings. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Results The experimental group demonstrated significantly higher scores in the theoretical examination (89.2 ± 4.1), objective structured clinical examination (85.7 ± 3.8), and clinical communication self-efficacy scale (82.3 ± 6.5) compared to the control group, which scored 78.5 ± 5.3, 76.4 ± 4.2, and 68.9 ± 7.1, respectively. These differences between the two groups were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusion The hybrid stratified instructional model, characterized by "online language enhancement combined with offline clinical practice," precisely addresses the linguistic and cultural challenges encountered by medical students from the Belt and Road Initiative countries during their clinical training in China. This approach significantly enhances both the clinical competencies and communicative confidence of these medical students.