Investigating Maritime students' academic and professional language skills: A needs analysis

This case study investigated the language skills that maritime students need in order to perform effectively in both, their academic and professional contexts, with the aim of designing an ESP course, tailored to the needs of this particular discipline. Data were obtained through questionnaires, interviews and a group discussion from maritime students, subject-specialists and human resource managers working in locally-based shipping companies. The findings are unequivocal signals for language educators to adapt new approaches to teaching ESP that are no longer solely directed towards the development of students’ receptive skills and specialized vocabulary. ESP courses should become more interactive, fostering students’ productive skills by exposing them to both authentic and simulated field-related tasks and making use of authentic materials relevant to the students’ area of specialisation. Part of the ESP course should focus on raising students’ intercultural business awareness, essential for their professional careers. Pedagogically, for ESP course designers and instructors, the current study proposes a framework to needs analysis, and offers insights into making the teaching/learning process beneficial for all stakeholders. It is the researcher’s hope that the outcomes of this study can serve as a valuable reference when developing new ESP programs or revising existing ones.