ABSTRACT

The aim of the presented paper is to discuss some directions of the English language teaching intended to meet the requirements of (Manila amended) STCW 78/95, the IMO Model Courses 3.17 and 1.39. The Maritime English teaching is mainly directed to provision of the Specification of minimum standard of competence for officers in charge of a navigational and engineering watches.

At the same time, it is not of less importance to focus the teaching directions on provision of performance of the officer’s duties under requirements of the IMO model course 1.39 “Leadership and Teamwork” directly related to knowledge and ability to apply effective resource management through efficient cross-cultural communication on board and ashore; cultural awareness, allocation, assignment and prioritization of resources; decision making reflecting team experience; assertiveness and leadership, including motivation; obtaining and maintaining situational awareness; appraisal of work performance.

Thus, the empirical data of the paper presents a set of case studies (a real situations on board merchant ships) giving possibility on one hand to analyse the factors causing effectiveness of situational awareness and on the other hand the propose the principles of the possible conflicts prevention.

Taking into account a newly introduced term “a helmsperson” instead of a traditional “a helmsman” and the other terms gradually entering the maritime terminology, we’d like to mention that the future ship officers, provided with such conversational skills, will successfully perform their duties showing ability to apply effective communication on board and ashore at the same time providing the principles of leadership and team working.

In order to provide the above mentioned advantages, we propose to introduce politically corrected communicative technologies and cross-cultural communication principles into the Maritime Education and Training.