assessing iranian ophthalmologists’ perception of english language presentations in scientific congresses

purpose: to assess the english language competence of iranian ophthalmologists and their points of view regarding the need for and importance of holding ophthalmologic congresses in english.   methods: a descriptive-analytic, cross sectional study was conducted during the 17th iranian ophthal-mology congress, tehran. data collection was performed via a standard self administered question-naire. five-hundred question forms were distributed among ophthalmologists and answers were graded using an ordinal five-level score.   results: the response rate of this study was 94.6%. the english competence of 200 (42.3%) of the responders was good or perfect. overall, about 90% of the responders agreed on holding ophthalmo-logic congresses in english; 72 (15.2%) individuals proposed holding speeches in english at all sessions, 189 (40.0%) preferred holding the main hall speeches in english and 162 (34.2%) said that the best way is to have only foreign guests’ speeches in english. conclusion: most ophthalmologists implied that holding ophthalmic congresses in english and inviting foreign lecturers is of great importance and the best form of performance is holding all lectures in the main hall in english. it seems that improving the english abilities of ophthalmologist together with holding english congresses and inviting foreign lecturers may help improve international communi-cations and update their knowledge.