Needs Analysis of Chilean Students of Dentistry for Dental English Course Development

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to determine the necessity for a Dental English course in the dentistry degree program at the Universidad Autónoma de Chile. To achieve this objective, the target needs analysis instrument developed by Hutchinson and Water (1987) was adapted and distributed to 91 dentistry students and 35 of their teachers in order to determine the students' necessities, lacks, wants, expectations, preferred style of learning and teaching, and interest in the English for Dentistry course. For the quantitative data analysis, descriptive statistics were utilized, while thematic analysis was adopted for the qualitative data analysis. The results indicated the perceived importance of English is related to studying dentistry in their program and practicing dentistry in their future careers as dentists, the sense of lack is demonstrated in the inadequacy of English learning courses in their program curriculum as well as their current low level of English proficiency, and the need to focus on reading, writing, and vocabulary skills in order to write and read research articles in English. The study recommends implementation of a comprehensive branch of English language instruction that include English for General Purposes and English for Specific Purposes, such as English for Dentistry, English for Dental Consultation, and English for Writing Research Articles.