Volunteer registration
A total of 194 senior undergraduates and postgraduates (age: 22.23±1.94 years; female: 130, male: 64) from the Guanghua School of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University were volunteer candidates. There were 15 students who registered for the English volunteer, accounting for 20% of the total number of registration students and 7.73% of the total number of volunteer candidates. There were 60 students who registered for the Chinese volunteer, accounting for 80% of the registration students and 30.93% of the total number of volunteer candidates.
Sample characteristics of the questionnaire survey
A total of 121 questionnaires were released and 116 valid questionnaires were collected, with a response rate of 95.87%. Since the students were not required to answer all the questions, unanswered questions were considered missing data.
The characteristics of the 116 participants (age 22±1.7) from 22 top stomatology schools in China are summarized in Table 1.
The evaluation of participants’ stomatology English ability based on knowledge quiz session
To evaluate the participants’ English ability, the comprehension of and reaction time to Chinese and English questions in the knowledge session was examined. We selected 96-97 subjects who participated in the knowledge quiz session. The results showed that 82.29% of the participants thought the Chinese questions could be fully understood, while only 7.72% thought the English questions could be fully understood. A total of 63.92% of the participants thought that the response speed for English questions was much slower than that for Chinese questions.
The English ability of undergraduate and postgraduate volunteers was compared based on the knowledge quiz session of the Guanghua Cup. The questions in Table 2 were calculated on a scale of one to five, and the scores of the undergraduate and postgraduate volunteers were compared. The scores for Chinese question understanding (U=28, P=0.48), English question understanding (U=35, P=0.96) and reaction time to English and Chinese questions (U=31.5, P=0.67) between the undergraduate and postgraduate students were not statistically significant.
The comparison of the answer rate (answered questions in proportion of the total English questions) and accuracy (correct answer in proportion of the answered questions) of 8 English questions between the Chinese and international teams in the knowledge quiz session was statistically described. Twenty-two Chinese teams and one international team vied to answer the eight English questions using the buzzers. The Chinese team answered two questions (answer rate: 25%) with one correct answer (accuracy: 50%). The international team answered 6 questions (answer rate: 75%) with four correct answers (accuracy: 66.67%).
The use of English in stomatology English courses in China
We investigated the status quo of stomatology English education in participating schools from the aspects of the language used by the teachers, textbooks, references and exams. A total of 115 subjects from 22 stomatology schools in China who had already taken stomatology English courses were studied.
The results showed that 63.48% of the participants thought that teachers spoke a little English in the class, 35% of participants used Chinese textbooks, 60.00% of participants used references in mostly Chinese and a little English, and 55.65% of participants took the exam in mostly Chinese and a little English. The statistical descriptions for existing oral English education are shown in Table 3.
The use of English from each stomatology school was given a score that was defined by the author as the stomatology English education score based on Table 3. Eighty contestants from 22 stomatology schools were included. The score of each stomatology school of the university and the ranking of the Chinese stomatology school based on the 4th China University Subject Rankings (CUSR) by the Center for Degree and Graduate Education Development of the China Ministry of Education in 201711 are shown in Table 4. The correlation of the score and the ranking of the stomatology school in China was examined using the Spearman test. The results show that the relationship between the use of English in the course and the ranking of the stomatology school did not differ significantly (Rs=0.315, P=0.189).
The influence of stomatology English education on Guanghua Cup activity
We investigated how the participants thought about current stomatology English education with regard to helping them communicate and understand in the Guanghua Cup activity. The participants’ ability to understand English was evaluated. A total of 115 subjects who had already taken stomatology English courses were studied.
Regarding how the stomatology English class helped the participants in the Guanghua Cup activity, 45.83% of the students thought that stomatology English education in class was of considerable help in communicating with international students and teachers. In addition, 47.83% of the students thought that it was of considerable help in understanding the Guanghua Cup activity. Vocabulary was found to be the most helpful (98, 85.22%). To understand the detailed aspects of how the stomatology English class helped the participants, the correlation of Table 3 (teachers, textbooks, references and exam) and Table 5 (communication and understanding) was examined using Spearman’s test. The results show that the English textbook score was positively correlated with the score for international communication between teachers and students (Rs=0.348, P=0.016).
The statistical results of the current stomatology English education for the Guanghua Cup activity are shown in Table 5.
The influence of Guanghua Cup activity on the participants' English ability
The influence of Guanghua Cup activities on participants' English ability was examined among all the participants (N=116, 100.00%). The results showed that 43.97% of the participants had a little English preparation before the Guanghua Cup activity, and 58.62% of the participants said that they had no chance to communicate with international students or teachers. Approximately 30% of the participants said they saw little or no improvement in vocabulary, speaking, listening and reading.
Regarding the participants perception of how they could improve their stomatology English ability, 82.76% of the participants thought that English textbooks and essays helped to improve their stomatology English ability the most, followed by courses focusing on stomatology English (N=81, 69.83%) and participating in an international competition, exchange program, or international conference (N=80, 68.97%). In addition, participants suggested holding an ‘oral stomatology English competition’ and ‘increasing the variety of the forms of stomatology English exams’. The statistical results of the influence of activities on participants’ English ability and perception are shown in Table 6.
The participants’ perception of the improvement in stomatology English was determined. The subjects were divided into English volunteers (N=9, 7.76%), Chinese volunteers (N=27, 23.27%) and contestants (N=80, 68.97%). The scores of the three groups differed in English preparation before the Guanghua Cup activity (H=23.87, P<0.001). The score of English volunteers was higher than that of contestants and Chinese volunteers, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). There was no difference between Chinese volunteers and contestants (P=0.064).
The scores of the three groups differed in communication with international students and teachers (H=24.63, P<0.001). The score of English volunteers was higher than that of contestants and Chinese volunteers, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). There was no difference between Chinese volunteers and contestants (P=0.058).
The scores of the three groups differed in the improvement of comprehensive English ability (H=17.86, P<0.001), including vocabulary (H=16.41, P<0.001), speaking (H=20.48, P<0.001), listening (H=13.95, P=0.001) and reading (H=9.2, P=0.01). The scores of English volunteers were higher than those of Chinese volunteers and contestants, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). There was no difference between Chinese volunteers and competitors (P=0.09).
English volunteers, Chinese volunteers and competitors all attached more importance to oral English after the Guanghua Cup activity than before (U=1969.5, P<0.01).