添付資料 14
ENGLISH TEACHER FOR ASIAN CLASS OF 21st CENTURY
With the next generation of seafarers likely to be predominantly Asian, the demand for competence in the English language will test training colleges' resources, but help is at hand
AS AN AUSTRALIAN LECTURER IN MARITIME and Technical English, Valerie Short faced yet another challenge this year when she was invited to devise and implement a training programme for teaching staff at the Dalian Maritime University in the People's Republic of China.
Valerie, the principal of International English Services, which is based at Legana in Tasmania, is a pioneer in her faculty, having initiated the first Maritime English course for non-English-speaking students at the Australian Maritime College in 1991. Since then she has introduced teacher-training programmes at leading maritime educational facilities in the Asia-Pacific region, including Vladivostok, Hong Kong and Manila.
The Dalian University, in the seaport of the same name in Liaoning Province, is one of several government-owned institutions in China and provides merchant-marine officer training for around 4,000 students. Valerie's assignment involved the preparation and implementation of an eight-week course for groups of up to 30 teachers at the university.
While she praised the Dalian authorities for their initiative in commissioning the teacher-training programme in Maritime and Technical English, Valerie said her experience at the university pointed up the profound problems that Chinese seafarers experience in mastering English communication.
'The absence of teaching oral Maritime English to competent levels was very evident, even though trainees spend many hours practising with good equipment in language laboratories. Yet listening to and repeating pre-programmed phrases of general English does not equate with the levels of competency required by STCW'95 in understanding and speaking English and "effective communication in the execution of shipboard duties" defined in the ISM Code,' she said.
