The Effectiveness of Watching English Movies on Pragmatic Improvement and Willingness to Communicate among Nursing Students

Communication skills can be improved in a variety of ways. Watching movies is thought to contribute to the acquisition of permanent knowledge. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effect of watching English movies on nursing students’ pragmatic improvement and communication skills. This experimental study included 36 volunteer nursing students at Kerman University of Medical Sciences who conformed to the criteria for inclusion. The participants were classified into two groups experimental (EG = 18) and control (CG = 18). Three instruments were used to collect the data of this study: Quick Oxford Placement Test, pre and post-test of Pragmatic Analysis, and WTC questionnaire. The results were analyzed using EXCELL and SPSS Software. The mean for the pretest of CG and EG was 12.95 ± 1.08 and 13.45 ± 1.02, respectively changed to 13.65 ± 0.1.4 and 16.7 ± 0.651 in the posttest. A significant difference was observed between pre and post-test of the experimental group (P = 0.000). The mean for the pre-administration of the WTC questionnaire for CG and EG was 103.87 ± 1.23 and 99.77 ± 1.88, respectively changed to 125.66 ± 0.96 and 175.06 ± 2.43 for the post-administration of the groups. As the data reveals, a positive relationship was observed between WTC and pragmatic knowledge: Beta = 0.668, t = 8.889, P<0.05) among nursing students. Study aids along with theoretical lessons help nursing students to enhance their English language communication skills permanently. Accordingly, watching movies is beneficial for students' communication and learning professional skills that are peculiar to the occupation of nursing. Further studies about the impact of movies should be done on much larger samples of students.