中国航海英语教育培训外文文献

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Policy journal homepage A critical examination of the seafaring English education and training in China Lidong Fana Jiangang Feia Ulf Schrievera Si Fanb a National Centre for Ports and Shipping Australian Maritime College University of Tasmania Launceston 7250 Australia b Faculty of Education University of Tasmania Launceston 7250 Australia A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords Communicative competence Chinese seafarers Communication barriers Maritime English education and training A B S T R A C T The increased maritime accidents attributable to communication barriers have raised great concern about in ternational shipping safety The requirement for eff ective communication has been contained in the compulsory part of the International Convention on Standards of Training Certifi cation and Watchkeeping for Seafarers in 2010 However many Chinese seafarers still experience diffi culty in communicating with foreign seafarers at sea even though they passed the English exams required for a Certifi cate of Competency Literature argues that the outcomes of maritime English education are not satisfactory However this claim is too general and has not been substantiated with empirical evidence Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods this paper reveals that English communicative incompetence of Chinese seafarers was attributable to the maritime English ex aminationssystem teachingmaterials teachingmethodsandteachersandstudentsthemselves Recommendations were made to improve maritime cadets English communicative competence 1 Introduction Communication barriers at sea have become an increasing concern in the shipping industry due to the fact that many maritime incidents are related to communication failures Consequently the Manila Amendments 2010 adopted new requirements on eff ective oral com munication among seafarers in every shipping company in order to address the increased frequency of communication related maritime accidents worldwide 1 The increased communication requirement brings great pressure to maritime English education in China where English is taught and learned as a foreign language Although maritime English is defi ned literally as an umbrella term covering the English language used by individuals working in the maritime industry 2 maritime English in most cases refers to the English used in the sea faring context 8 a defi nition adopted in this paper In China all seafaring students known as maritime cadets must passthemaritimeEnglishexaminationforthe Certifi cateof Competency required by the International Convention on Standards of Training Certifi cation and Watchkeeping for Seafarers STCW 78 95 2010 Meanwhile Chinese students also need to pass general English tests as part of the requirements for their academic degree or diploma With double requirements Chinese seafarers should be competent in English communication if they have passed all the required English tests However despite the fact that they have passed the tests and examinations most Chinese seafarers cannot meet the industry re quirements for English communication in the international maritime labour market 3 The outcomes of maritime English education and training in China are unsatisfactory Since there is limited empirical research conducted on the maritime English education and training in China this paper intends to make a critical examination of the issue in order to improve the English communicative competence of Chinese seafarers The re search objectives of this paper are to 1 investigate the current levels of Chinese seafaring graduates communicative competence 2 identify the factors that can aff ect the outcomes of maritime English education in China and 3 explore appropriate ways to improve maritime English education in China Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this paper The data collection tools comprised a ques tionnaire survey for Chinese seafarers and semi structured interviews with maritime English teachers and Chinese seafarers 2 A review of causes of Chinese seafarers English communication defi ciency Using the search keyword Chinese seafarers that contained in a paper title there were limited peer reviewed papers found in diff erent http dx doi org 10 1016 j marpol 2017 09 013 Received 17 June 2017 Received in revised form 11 September 2017 Accepted 11 September 2017 Corresponding author Present address National Centre for Ports and Shipping Australian Maritime College University of Tasmania Locked Bag 1397 Launceston Tasmania 7250 Australia E mail address Lidong Fan utas edu au L Fan Marine Policy 86 2017 56 63 Available online 19 September 2017 0308 597X 2017 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved T databases between 1991 and 2017 12 papers in Web of Science 16 papers in Scopus and 20 papers in ProQuest Around 60 papers were found through the library MegaSearch which covered all databases at the University of Tasmania Within these articles there were much limited papers related to the causes of Chinese seafarers English com munication defi ciency The review of these papers found that the causes included but not limited to linguistic competence cultural competence work environment interpersonal relationships power relations psy chological factors and maritime English education While some scholars claim that Chinese seafarers English language profi ciency has been improved through a consecutive quality control system and advanced facilities in maritime English education and training MEET in China 4 5 many Chinese seafarers still fi nd it diffi cult to communicate in English with others such as port state control offi cers and pilots 6 7 A survey of 28 Japanese Vessel Traffi c Services VTS offi cers conducted by Uchida and Takagi 8 shows that among 19 nationalities of seafarers the English spoken by Chinese seafarers was one of the three most diffi cult ones to understand due to their heavy accents and poor vocabulary Similarly Russian seafarers agreed that it was diffi cult to understand the English spoken by Chinese seafarers at sea 9 Due to diff erent linguistic and cultural backgrounds of English users English as a lingua franca used at sea exhibits signifi cant varia tions infl uenced by various mother tongues and diff erent levels of English profi ciency thus making the communication among them ex tremely challenging 8 The world merchant fl eet is manned with seafarers from various nations and the majority of merchant vessels are manned with multinational and multilingual crews 10 In China there are 55 minority ethnic groups with diverse cultures 11 which may aff ect English communication in the same way as the dominant Han Chinese culture would Chinese seafarers receive dif ferent levels of maritime English education in diff erent maritime edu cation and training institutes across the nation The diversities of Chi nese seafarers in terms of cultures and English profi ciency may impair eff ective communication onboard With a fast wage increase for shore workers seafaring is no longer attractive to young people especially those from coastal areas where the income level is relatively higher compared to that in inland areas With an increasing number of mar itime cadets are sourced from the western and other remote parts of China Chinese seafarers must have both Chinese and foreign cultural awareness Nearly three quarters of seafarers working on multicultural vessels agreed that cultural diff erences among crew have an impact on the level of communication onboard 12 More than 30 of seafarers believed that cultural barriers frequently aff ect eff ective communica tion onboard 13 Cultural barriers have become one of the main ob stacles in maritime communication that can lead to misunderstanding communication failures distrust and even confl icts In China cultural awareness training has been neglected in maritime education and training 13 Besides demonstrated English and cultural knowledge the eff ec tiveness of communication can be infl uenced by other factors such as the environment the attributes of interlocutors and the relationships among interlocutors 14 Seafarers are exposed to great risks and stresses attributable to their high pressure work involved and a harsh work environment onboard which would impair the eff ective com munication at sea The hierarchical structure onboard can also be a barrier to upward communication 15 16 The highly hierarchical nature of Chinese societies 17 could to some extent aff ect the eff ective communication for Chinese seafarers For example some seafarers might be reluctant to report a minor malfunction to the captain due to power distance Psychosocial stresses caused by isolation loneliness and fatigue are common for seafarers 18 Communication eff ectiveness plays a dominant role in dealing with psychosocial stress encountered in a multicultural environment 19 As a social interaction communication can also alleviate one s loneliness and isolation 20 In return the sense of loneliness and isolation among seafarers can be aggravated without social interaction onboard 21 The aggravated psychosocial stress because of isolation loneliness and fatigue can interfere with one s thinking and speaking Wang and Gu 13 fi nd that maritime communication in English can be aff ected by psychological factors and maritime cadets must be trained to be open minded and confi dent in using English From a psycholinguistic perspective some Chinese students as foreign lan guage learners are shy and reluctant to speak English or ask questions since they are afraid of making mistakes and losing face 22 23 The sensitivity to one s face is infl uenced by the Chinese value and culture under a highly hierarchical and collectivistic structure 17 In practice You 24 fi nds that there are limited interactions in English between maritime English teachers and students as well as among students themselves even though they are encouraged to do so Without suffi cient practice of English in their daily life some Chinese maritime ca dets are known as dumb English learners 24 The English communication ability of Chinese seafarers is greatly aff ected by the MEET system in China For both maritime English tea chers and students passing the exams has been the top priority in maritime English teaching and learning 24 The exam oriented MEET neglects the practical use of English and cannot eff ectively improve Chinese maritime cadets English communicative ability 25 26 In stead of testing English communication ability maritime English ex amination questions normally focus on testing maritime subject knowledge in English 26 There are limited open ended questions in the maritime English examination since students are only expected to complete multiple choice questions in exams However multiple choice questions may be suitable for testing English grammar but not appro priate for communicative tests which focus on the use rather than the usage of a language 27 Similarly the contents of maritime English textbooks are subject knowledge based and exam oriented 28 Maritime English teachers tend to spend signifi cant amount of time explaining in Chinese the maritime knowledge in textbooks leaving little time for language practice activities Even though maritime English teachers try to carry out language practice activities only a small number of students pas sively respond to the teachers initiatives of interactive activities and students prefer to ask questions in Chinese from teachers after class rather than in class 24 The limited interactions can also be attribu table to large size classes 29 30 It is common for maritime English teachers to face over 50 maritime cadets in one classroom in China As such interactions in English among maritime English teachers and students in class are greatly limited 3 Research method In order to provide empirical evidence on maritime English educa tion in China in terms of the outcomes of maritime English education the factors contributing to the outcomes and recommendations for improvement a mixed methods approach including both quantitative and qualitative methods was applied to this research The research in struments included an online questionnaire survey and a mix of semi structured face to face and telephone interviews A comparison of viewpoints between maritime English teachers and seafarers was made to identify similarities and diff erences between the two groups A total of 235 Chinese seafarers participated in the questionnaire survey and 25 maritime English teachers and 12 Chinese seafarers participated in theinterviews Confi dentialityandanonymityweremaintained throughout the data collection process A recruitment advertisement for the online questionnaire survey was posted on the public areas of some major websites targeting Chinese seafarers and regularly reposted to gather suffi cient data The questionnaire was made available online for around 8 months The 25 teachers were selected from the total 50 registered maritime higher education and training institutes in China The 50 institutes were fi rst L Fan et al Marine Policy 86 2017 56 63 57 categorised in terms of educational levels and geographic locations The interview arrangements were then made with the assistance of ad ministration staff randomly selected from institutes in each category The 12 Chinese seafarers were selected from the 18 questionnaire re spondents who volunteered to participate in the interviews The questionnaire consists of four main parts 1 the current English communicative competence of Chinese seafarers 2 the importance of Chinese seafarers English communicative competence in their em ployment in the international maritime labour market 3 Chinese seafarers feedback on the MEET in China and the barriers to eff ective communication and 4 the recommendations for the improvement of Chinese seafarers English communicative competence This paper reports and discusses the fi ndings of the third and fourth parts of the questionnaire There are 12 statements related to feedback on the MEET 8 statements regarding the barriers to eff ective commu nication and 5 statements concerning suggestions to improve the MEET from Chinese seafarers perspectives These questions used a 5 Point Likert Scale anchored from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree With the numerical answers on the Likert Scale mean calculation was conducted to assess the degree of signifi cance of each statement using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS Qualitative data collected from the interviews were analysed using the software NVivo Maritime English teachers were categorised and coded according to the diff erent levels of education of students in structed years of teaching experience professional backgrounds and types of maritime English delivered Since there is no systematic re search on the outcomes of maritime English education from the per spectives of maritime English teachers in China the views from mar itime English teachers in diff erent categories were compared and analysed 4 Data analysis and discussion 4 1 Demographic information about participants The majority of the maritime English teachers in the interviews had taught maritime English for 1 5 years or 6 10 years accounting for 32 n 25 and 36 n 25 respectively Most of them had English linguistic or seafaring background representing 48 n 25 and 36 n 25 respectively Some maritime English teachers had other professional backgrounds such as Maritime Logistics Vehicle Operation Engineering and Ship Building Engineering There was one maritime English teacher who had both seafaring and English linguistic background The distribution of each category of maritime English teachers is shown in Table 1 The questionnaire respondents had a wide range of age and educational qualifi cations Most of them held an Ad vanced Diploma 58 03 n 235 or Bachelor s degree 18 47 n 235 and around 90 n 235 of them aged from 18 to 40 years old see Table 2 4 2 Maritime English teachers views on the communicative competence of seafaring graduates Nearly 90 n 25 of maritime English teachers interviewed showed great dissatisfactions with the English communicative compe tence of their seafaring graduates Most of them believed that their seafaring graduates were poor 44 n 25 or very poor 44 n 25 in their English communicative competence Maritime English teachers with seafaring background and those teaching English for marine engineering students showed relatively greater dissatisfaction with their graduates English communication ability see Fig 1 Since most maritime English teachers with seafaring background are competent in teaching technical knowledge but lack English teaching knowledge and skills 31 it is more challenging for them to improve their students English communication ability compared to those with English linguistics backgrounds As such compared to English teachers most maritime English teachers with seafaring backgrounds may show more dissatisfaction with their students English communication ability All maritime English teachers interviewed who had taught marine engineering students were not satisfi ed with their students English performance Maritime English for marine engineers is undervalued at many maritime education and training institutes 32 It is not given the same attention as maritime English for deck offi cers who are re sponsible for external communication on the bridge Some marine en gineering teachers believe that marine Engineering students must concentrate on their technical subjects rather than maritime English 33 Consequently marine engineering students would have little motivation to improve their English communication In China normally maritime English is not treated equally as technical subjects For example the qualifi cation requirement for a maritime English teacher is lower than that for a technical subject teacher On the one hand most teachers with seafa