BETTER WAYS TO DEVELOP STANDARDIZED MARITIME ENGLISH SYLLABUS

摘要

Being deeply involved in the professional education of a future "officer-in-charge-ofa-navigational-watch" the English Language Department of the Far Eastern State Technical Fisheries University has developed a new approach to maritime language teaching. Given below are some recipes, which can help to properly implement the standardized IMO recommendations regarding the Maritime English course with account of the increased requirements to the professional training of seafarers. The basic task of the whole course of the Maritime English (ME) language developed by the department-to teach students to use every bit of their knowledge of language for their own survival (both at sea and ashore). The most difficult and crucial task was to choose the ingredients, i.e. the topics most important for the daily routine of a navigator of many possible ones because of the time frames for the whole course of English for the students of navigation department. On the one hand the language competence of a seafarer should meet very strict international standards specified by the International Maritime Organization, which recommends the "Model Course 3.17:Maritime English"1. On the other hand the situation with the EFL teaching in Russia differs from the global one: on the quantity of hours allotted for ME; on the students' motivation for language learning; on the basic language proficiency of the students and their entry level (not all of our students studied English at school); on the students' professional knowledge (to teach ME to the first year student is rather ungrateful task), etc. So we needed to bring about changes taking into consideration the mentioned differences. Then we needed the specialist advice concerning the basic themes to be included into the course within the framework of the allotted time. The next step was to think over the very recipe that is the logical sequence of the themes input. But this task was not the difficult one,bearing in mind the starting point: the ship's calling at foreign port. The daily routine of a navigator is governed by numerous regulatory documents; so the best way to arrange the themes within the Maritime English course was to apply for the recommendations and requirements of the said documents. After all ingredients have been double checked, analyzed and prepared 'the chef' got a good recipe of a Russian cuisine which required special tools and techniques (methodology), as well as additional spices (jokes, songs, proverbs and sayings, puzzles) to get a tasty final product.