An article review of

MARITIME ENGLISH CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

IN GLOBAL MARITIME CONTEXT
By: Li Bingbing (Dalian Maritime University)
, Du Hualiang (Nanchang Institute of Aeronautical Technology)

A review by:
Jaan Lloyd G. Cabantac
Welbert Jhun L. Cayabyab
BSMT 1-ECHO
Introduction

The article chosen, “MARITIME ENGLISH CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

IN GLOBAL MARITIME CONTEXT” written by L. Bingbing and D. Hualiang, discuss
about the problems and difficulties in teaching and learning Maritime English. This article
stresses the need of competitive seafarers, in terms of mastery of the maritime English, due to
the multicultural environment in their job(p.1). The article utilized the cases and scenarios in
DMU (Dalian Maritime University) where students and teachers alike were having problems
in studying maritime English. Resulting to the cadets’ incompetence in terms of intercultural
communication and therefore blocking their potential to be competitive seafarers(p.1).
This article concentrated on studying the internal factors lingering inside the
classroom, as well as the students and the teachers’ interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects.
Furthermore, the educational system as well as the syllabus for the maritime English course
were also examined and were taken note of(p. 2).
In this paper, the article summary, conclusions, critical reflections, as well as
comments and suggestions to the issue being raised are precisely presented. The data
gathered were meticulously analysed in order to produce sound recommendations and
suggestions which were also carefully assessed in order to precisely tackle the conerned
issues.

The Authors and DMU

Dalian Maritime University (simplified Chinese: 大连海事大学; traditional Chinese: 大
連海事大學; pinyin: Dàlián Hǎishì Dàxué) is a university located in Dalian, Liaoning, People's
Republic of China. It is a key maritime institution under the Ministry of Transport of the People's
Republic of China, and is a Chinese Ministry of Education Double First Class Discipline
University, with Double First Class status in certain disciplines.[1]Known as the "cradle of
navigators", the university is the most famous maritime institution of higher learning in China and
one of the few maritime institutions in the world "enjoying international reputation" recognized by
the international maritime organization. (Wikipedia)

Abstract

This article offers a review and further analysis of the study entitled: "MARITIME
ENGLISH CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IN GLOBAL MARITIME CONTEXT" by L.
Bingbing and D. Hualiang. The review evaluated all of the issues concerning maritime
English mentioned in the source article and related it to other journals and studies conducted
by other researchers. Through the comparison of the findings of the source article with other
studies, new perspectives were unlocked , new conclusions were made, and thus new
solutions were formulated. This review tackled and expounded the issues presented in the
source article one by one. Each of those issues were referred and compared to other journals
in order to come up with a more sound conclusion and offer a much more effective solution.
These issues were carefully presented in this review as well as the conclusions and
recommendations.

Issues Being Tackled

The authors cited several issues concerning the maritime English both in the context of
the academy, the workplace, and the international industry of seafaring. The issues were
introduced and studied beginning from the most broad or general topic then breaking it down
to more specific problems, tackling the said issue from its roots. The following are the main
points and issues discussed in the paper:

Globalization and Maritime English Teaching

The first issue tackled was the effects of globalization, labor market, and other
factors to the international shipping industry specifically, the manning industry.
With the continuous developments In the economy and the world seafarer labor
markets, world seafarers are in serious shortage (p.2). Furthermore, Shipping
companies’ crucial need for cost cutting is their main motive for employing seafarers
of different nationalities and forming multicultural crew(s) onboard their merchant
vessels (M. Progoulaki , M. Roe, 2011, p. 1)
The employment of multi-national crews has become common since the
1980s. ( F. HU, 2017). Multi-lingual and multi-cultural crews have become main
composition of world merchant ships. In addition, almost two thirds of the global
maritime fleet is composed of several and varied nationalities (p.2) . The fast-
growing global shipping community requires multi-lingual and cross-cultural
cooperation (Horck, 2005, p. 12). However, this practice brought a number of
difficulties in communication, including cultural misunderstanding, language barriers,
etc. among crew on board as it was suspected as one of the major causes of marine
accidents and disasters. ( F. HU, 2017).
This is why The importance of maritime English teaching has become a
growing concern.(p.2). Maritime English education should be ramped up in order to
comply with the demands of the global shipping industry.

Difficulties in Learning and Teaching Maritime English

 “The increasing need of good knowledge and skills of maritime English is one
of characteristics in global maritime field. Studies have reflected that Maritime
English instructors and students in DMU (Dalian Maritime University) have difficulties
in the process of teaching and learning maritime English”(p.2). Below are the
different factors affecting the maritime English studies/learning in DMU as
discovered by the authors

Low learning motivation

“One of the reasons is that some of them are not aware of the importance of
the future use of maritime English which relates with their opportunities of getting
better life and job performance” (p.2).
Motivation is the backbone of learning process. Learning is a complicated and
dynamic process, and learning in full potential is achieved through motivation. Since
will to learn builds one of the basic elements of learning, students take an important
step towards learning through motivation. However, students may sometimes lose
their motivation and interest towards lesson, which puts a major barrier in front of
effective language learning. (G.D. Dağgöl, 2013, p. 35)
Therefore, motivation and willingness to learn specially the maritime English
should be every students and teachers’ first and foremost priority. This should be
done prior to the actual lesson proper or before proceeding into the syllabus.

Students lack in enough courage to speak English

“The cadets always worry about the errors they will make during the
conversations. Therefore, they become idle during the learning process; and have
barriers in speaking English psychologically. Hence, these hinders them to be a
competent seafarer”(p.3).
Foreign students who are learning English tends to have a certain fear or
anxiety in speaking the language because; they feared humiliation of being corrected
in public or receiving negative comments or feedbacks from their teachers and their
friends. (D. Zhiping, S. Paramasivam, 2013, p. 1)
This problem can be traced back to their learning environment. If their class or
classmates will have an open mind about learning and disregard judgements, a
healthy learning environment will be established and a progressive and interactive
learning will take place.

Chinglish

“Some of them convey the information in long and perplexing Chinglish

sentence”(p.3).
Chinglish is a blend of Chinese and English, in particular a variety of English
used by speakers of Chinese, incorporating some Chinese vocabulary or
constructions.(Wikipedia)
 Chinese students who are not in an English environment usually ignore the
syntactic distinctions between English and Chinese. They construct their idea in
Chinese and then translate what they think into English without consideration of
English syntax. (P. Wang, W. Wang, 2012, p. 71)
This habit can also be observed to some Filipino- Chinese citizens in our
country, commonly known as “chinoys”. They tend to construct their sentences
based on the Chinese syntax , or sentence formation, then translate the words into
Filipino,also, ignoring the Filipino or tagalog syntax.

Lack of basic knowledge of vocabularies (including Maritime vocabularies)

“Another difficulty students met in learning is that they cannot memorize the
maritime vocabularies due to their lack of basic knowledge of vocabularies” (p.4).
The first steps in successful teaching vocabulary are to identify the difficulties
that faced by the students. Thornbury (2004: 27) These are ; a. Pronunciation, b.
Spelling, a. Lenght and complexity ,b. Grammar ,c. f. Range, connotation and
idiomaticity.
The educators can start back to the basics of vocabulary before proceeding to
the more complex maritime vocabulary. This is in order for the cadets or students to
have a proper foundation in vocabulary when they are going to study maritime
vocabulary.

Lack of academic hours, flaws in the education system, and lack of

educational materials.

“As to the technical skill, the students have some problems in writing due to
lack of some knowledge of English. At the same time, the proper selection of
textbooks and maritime English teaching materials is one of the primary factors in
commanding maritime English. If the students learn the outdated textbook, they
would not keep up with new development in some new technical terms. What is
more, the number of academic hours provided by the curriculum for maritime English
teaching is not enough though we have almost two year maritime English teaching.
Therefore, the students/cadets do not have enough practice onboard”(p.4).

Suggestions for Classroom Instruction

Based on the conclusions made, the following suggestions were made:

Role-Playing Activities

“In practicing their acquired knowledge of maritime englsih from the

textbooks, the instructors should give the students a scenario and perform a role
playing about it. The role play must be done as natural as possible and the
instructors should minimize their criticism in order to avoid undermining the cadets’
confidence” (p.4).
Tompkins (2001) defines role play as “it is one of the classroom teaching
techniques that encourage students to participate actively in the process of learning
English. Therefore, foreign language students practice the target language in context
similar to real-life situations where stress and shyness are removed”(p.864).
“It was indicated that the students were enthusiastic about role-play and
simulation activities because they never got bored and could practice speaking so
many times. This approach also was different from other activities done in class.
After the treatment within 14 weeks, they showed outstanding enhancement in
their communication ability and they were able to speak
confidently”(Nurul,A.,Abdul,R.,2018).

SMCP

The Standard Marine Communication Phrases (SMCP) is a set of key

phrases in the English language (which is the internationally recognised language of
the sea), supported by the international community for use at sea and developed by
the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
“To improve the students’ ability to speak, the concise, and understandable
SMCP should be the first selection in training the students to operate the ship and
handle other problems that occur in shipping. For non-native speakers, SMCP is a
short-cut to communication with other language speakers on board”(p.3).

Reading Skills

“As for the students’ poor command of maritime English vocabularies, the
lecturers should assign some students home reading tasks” (p.4).
Iwahori (2008) examined the effectiveness of extensive reading on reading
rates of high school students in Japan and his study found that extensive reading is
an effective approach to improve students’ rate and general language proficiency.
This indicates that home reading tasks or extensive reading is a good and effective
way to further improve the students, reading skills (p.306).

Bibliography

 Krebt, D.M. (N.D.). The Effectiveness of Role Playing Techniques in Teaching

Speaking for EFL College Students. Iraq: University of Baghdad.

 Nurul,A.,Abdul,R.(2018).The Effect of Role Play and Simulation Approach on

Enhancing ESL Oral Communication Skills. Sela: Polytechnic of Sultan
Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Alam.
 Iwahori,Y.(2008).Developing Reading Fluency: A Study of Extensive Reading
in EFL. Japan: Nirayama High School (p.306).

 Progoulaki,M.,Roe,M.(2011).Dealing with Multilingual Human Resources in a

Socially Responsible Manner: a Focus on The Maritime Industry. World
Maritime University (p. 1).

 Hu,F.(2017).Tackling the Challenges of Multicultural Crewing Practices in The

Shipping Industry: An Approach to Enhancing Cultural Awareness Among
Crew. Sweden: World Maritime University.

 Daggol,G.D.(2013). The Reasons of Lack of Motivation from the Students’

and Teachers' Voices. Adana Science and Technology University (p. 35)

 Zhiping,D.,Paramasivam,S. (2013). Anxiety of Speaking English in Class

Among International Students in a Malaysian University. Malaysia: Universiti
Putra Malaysia (p. 1)

 Wang, P., Wang, W.(2012). Causes of and Remedies for Chinglish in Chinese
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