A Study on the Cohesion of Course Content between College English and Maritime English

Liu Tingting

【Abstract】ESP （English for Specific Purposes） and EGP （English for General Purposes） teaching in maritime vocational colleges are new varieties of English teaching in this age. Hence， this research aims to explore an appropriate design of the bridging course content for maritime majors at vocational college by carrying out an empirical experiment. To test the effectiveness of the bridging course design， the pre-experiment and the post-experiment were done on 49 first-year maritime majors in Jiangsu Maritime Institute by adopting the bridging course. The results of the experiment data revealed that before the experiment was conducted， there was not much difference in the English level between the experimental class and the control class. However， after the experiment， it was found that the bridging course had a positive influence on the English academic achievement of the experimental class， which was superior to that of the control class. Finally， designing a bridging course between College English and Maritime English can covered the following three perspectives： choosing language content， compiling suitable ESP materials and teaching the bridging course on the basis of Needs Analysis. All mentioned above by the author were effective in enhancing students awareness of ESP study and College English study efficiency but needed to be further explored.

【Key words】Cohesion; Course content; College English; Maritime English; Vocational college

This chapter will present two research questions and then introduce the questionnaire and the interview used as measurement of the teaching content of the bridging course. Reasons for the adoption of the questionnaire and the interview will be listed to justify the validity of the research. The basic information on the subjects in the present study including their educational background， present study situation and so on will be explained in detail. Specific information about the research procedure and data analysis procedure will also be described.

1. Research Objectivees

The study was conducted concerning the cohesion of teaching content in reading and writing between College English and Maritime English courses at the maritime vocational college. The teaching content was directed at arousing students interest in college English， making good preparations for the highly efficient teaching and study of Maritime English in order to help maritime majors pass National Qualifications Examination for Seafarers successfully.

2. Research Questions

Due to the insufficiency of the previous studies， the present research would choose vocational college students as subjects and attempt to answer the following two questions：

2.1 Is it necessary to have a bridging course between College English and Maritime English at the end of the College English study （in the second term in Grade One）？

2.2 What is the teaching content of the bridging course？ How can teachers identify the teaching content？ Is the teaching effective in enhancing maritime majors efficiency and effectiveness in studying both College English and Maritime English？

3. Subjects

The subjects of this empirical research were 97 maritime majors， who enrolled in the Navigation Department at Jiangsu Maritime Institute in China in 2011， from two different classes： one was the control class and the other was the experimental class. Those students just began their College English study and about one year later， they were going to study ESP， i.e. Maritime English.

4. Research Instruments

The study was conducted through both a qualitative approach and a quantitative approach.

5. Results And Discussions

As illustrated in the introduction， the purpose of the research was to discover the effect of the bridging course between College English and Maritime English for the maritime majors. In other words， the author tried to examine how effectively the teaching content of the bridging course would improve students English studying effectiveness and interest. Consequently， the research was designed to get the proposed hypotheses tested and to find some significant results， which might provide implications and inspiration for College English teaching in China. Research results will be presented in this chapter and discussion will follow each data analysis.

6. Conclusion

6.1 Research Findings

As for Question 1 “Is it necessary to have a bridging course between College English and Maritime English at the end of the College English study？”， this research has confirmed that such a bridging course is really needed， which is shown by the research data of the questionnaire， especially in the maritime majors future study and qualification of examination of ESP.

When it comes to Question 2 “What is the teaching content of the bridging course and how to identify it？ Is it effective in enhancing maritime major students efficiency and effectiveness in studying College English and Maritime English？”， both of these two questions have been showed by the research and data analysis. Based on the theory of EGP and ESP， Needs Analysis and the Comprehensible Input theory， the teaching content concerning the general background information of maritime has covered the following aspects： subject words， important grammar items and basic reading materials. Study of the bridging course is definitely instructive for maritime majors， which is proved true by the data analysis in the research.