An Evaluation of Dentistry Students Proficiency of Guilan University in Understanding Educational Dentistry Films in English

Introduction. As English is today's dominant language of science and technology (EST), students having passed general and EST courses need to interact primarily with the scientific community specially in their field of study for various purposes, including the use of educational films. This study specifically aims to evaluate the proficiency of Iranian students of dentistry in understanding educational films. Methods. 57 students of dentistry at Guilan Medical School, who had already passed general English and EST courses, were the participants of this study, with focus on the measurement of students proficiency in listening skills. In fact, the students were shown two chosen educational dentistry clips, while they were required to answer some comprehension test items. The data collected in this way was then analyzed through descriptive statistics. Results. As a result, only 10.5% of the students gained scores higher than 10 out of possible 20, the total mean of 6.46 with standard deviation of 3.29. Conclusion. This pattern of results (89.5% of scores below 10) overall indicates that the majority of students of dentistry at Guilan Medical School are not proficient enough in understanding educational dentistry films, and that there should thus be a change of the curriculum through the inclusion of listening skills, as well as the adoption of modern approach to teaching English at our universities.