title: English language education in Japanese dental schools.
abstract: English is the common language of international scientific and cultural exchange. As the world becomes more globalized and with increasing dependence on the Internet, English becomes increasingly important as a second language. English is the official language for all international associations, societies, organizations etc and their meetings and publications. High quality international collaboration usually requires a high standard of English language proficiency. There is very little information regarding English language education in dentistry on a global basis, particularly in Japan. In 1999 we undertook a comprehensive survey of English education in all 29 Japanese dental schools in the form of a questionnaire. Few schools had native-speaking educators or those at native speaker level and most did not have a background in dentistry or the health sciences. There are no ideal textbooks for dental students studying English. Most disciplines within dentistry have a professional society or an association with meetings and publications. Currently there is no such group for English-language education in dentistry. Closer collaboration amongst those concerned may help improve the quality of education. The level of English-language ability of current dental students will affect the quality of future dental educators and researchers.
authors.affiliation: The Nippon Dental University, Niigata, Japan. zacmorse@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Morse
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakahara
mesh_terms: D018865:Dental Research; D004497:Education, Dental; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007802:Language; D019303:Multilingualism; D012575:Schools, Dental; D012953:Societies, Dental; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires