Development and Validation of the Vocal Health Literacy Scale (VHLS) for English-Medium Instruction Educators: A
1School of Foreign Languages, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China.
Summary
This study developed and validated the Vocal Health Literacy Scale (VHLS) for English-medium instruction (EMI) educators, providing a tool to assess their voice health knowledge and behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Occupational Health
- Health Literacy
- Education
Background:
- English-medium instruction (EMI) educators face high vocal load and voice-related risks.
- Existing tools to measure educators' voice health literacy are limited.
- Vocal health literacy is crucial for managing occupational voice demands.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate the Vocal Health Literacy Scale (VHLS) specifically for EMI educators.
- To assess the competencies of EMI educators in accessing, understanding, appraising, and applying voice-health information.
- To provide a reliable instrument for evaluating voice health readiness among EMI educators.
Main Methods:
- Sequential exploratory mixed-methods design across five phases.
- Semistructured interviews (N=12), Delphi process (N=15), pilot testing (N=52), and large-scale validation (N=520).
- Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (EFA/CFA), reliability (McDonald's ω, Cronbach's α), validity, and measurement invariance testing.
Main Results:
- Qualitative analysis identified seven domains relevant to health literacy and EMI-specific demands.
- The final 35-item VHLS demonstrated strong content validity, reliability (ω=0.94), and factor structure.
- The scale showed measurement invariance across subgroups and coherent external validity with vocal hygiene and fatigue.
Conclusions:
- The VHLS is a psychometrically sound, multidimensional instrument for assessing vocal health literacy in EMI educators.
- It comprises core literacy competencies, behavioral enactment, and contextual factors.
- The VHLS can inform interventions to improve voice health management in this population.
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