- Is your country’s history or commerce connected to the sea?
- Where are your country’s main ports and naval establishments?
- Do you know any nautical terms in your own language
Read the passage and decide if these statements are true or false.
Maritime English
There are many versions of the English language in the world today. The most well-known variants are separated by large expanses of ocean. Maritime English is a product of life on the ocean itself.
There are at least three reasons for its appearance:
(i) the need for clear communication:
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between ship and shore |
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between crew members |
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between crew and passengers |
where the cost of communication breakdown can be damage to property, to the environment or loss of life.
(ii) the development of a set of terms to refer to the parts of ships, and the procedures involved in sailing them.
(iii) the globalisation of the shipping industry:
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crews have become ever more international in character |
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the need for a lingua franca has arisen |
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English, being a world language, has filled the gap |
The attempt to bring some standardisation into the terms and phrases used at sea initially came from two directions: from those who taught English to mariners and wrote books on the subject, and from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
It was only from 1995, however, that the IMO officially adopted English as the language of the sea. It also introduced the International Safety Management Code to reduce communication failures, and developed the SMCP (Standard Marine Communication Phrases) as a comprehensive safety language.
The results have been an increase in the teaching of English to mariners, whether in the state or private sectors. The IMO established the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden in 1983, to which students come from as far apart as Chile, Kenya and India.
Maritime English appears as a course module in places as diverse as the Maritime Academy in Kiev, Ukraine, the Department of Maritime Transport in Istanbul or the Maritime University at Dalian, China.
The International Maritime Lecturers’ Association holds an international conference every year to discuss aspects of research and methodology. The Centre for Maritime Studies at Turku, Finland is currently pioneering a web-based Maritime English learning tool.
So what constitutes Maritime English? One way is to classify it by domain:
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Above deck - navigation, safety communications, cargo operations |
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Commercial business of the merchant marine, Maritime Law procedures, insurance |
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Below deck – operation/maintenance of main and auxiliary engines, the electrics and electronics |
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General education in English |
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Despite a widespread recognition that safety at sea and competency in English are inextricably linked, it is often the technical side of training rather than the acquisition of linguistic competence which is seen as a priority at maritime colleges and institutes. In any case, is increasing internationalisation of ships’ crews in fact leading to the creation of pidgin English on board?
And how much longer will it be needed? With increased automation of navigational systems, computers may well speak directly to other computers in order, for example, to bring a ship successfully into port, so eliminating the human element in communication entirely.
Check your understanding of the text by completing these sentences.
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