THE TRAINING NEEDS OF DECK WATCHKEEPING OFFICERS

At this stage, navigation cadets are required to perform many communication tasks concerning situations that might happen in daily life when they are steering the ship at sea. For example here is the VHF (Very High Frequency) radio communication between two merchant vessels. The basic skills in communicating daily ideas and thoughts are further tested when they call other vessels in vicinity for establishing contact or coast stations as depicted in the �igure below.

5.0 Overview of SMCP (Standard Marine Communication Phrases)

In 1973, at its twenty-seventh session the Maritime Safety Committee agreed that where language dif�iculties arise, a common language should be used for navigational purpose, and that language should be English. The consequence was the 1977 adoption and development of Standard Marine Navigational Vocabulary (SMNV), and it was amended in 1985 SMNV was widely used to train the seafarers’ communication abilities for quite a good period. Sea Speak, also by Fred Weeks and collaborators, was born in 1984. It was

The Training Needs Of Deck Watchkeeping Officers

later introduced and recommended for use particularly in communication at sea by VHF (Very High Frequency Radio) Though being one of the best publications at the time, the latter was much less in�luential in the maritime community.

A number of sea accidents came directly of language inabilities resulting in the serious consequences of loss of lives and properties and ocean environment. The "Scandinavian Star" incident in 1990 and the "Sea Empress" accident, led to the revision and ex tension of SMNV, under IMO, making it more useful and offering a considerably wider and updated range of phrases. Thus, at its sixtieth session, in 1992 the Maritime Safety Committee instructed the Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation to develop a more comprehensive standardized safety language than SMNV 1985, taking into account the changing conditions in modern seafaring and covering all major safety -related verbal communications The IMO-SMCP was adopted by the Assembly in November 2001 as resolution A. 918(22) and the usage of these Phrases is required by the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certi�ication and Watch keeping for Seafarers (STCW 78/95).

Therefore, Governments are recommended to give the IMO-SMCP a wide circulation to all prospective users and all maritime education authorities, in order to support compliance with the standards of competence as required by table A-II/1 of the STCW Code.

The intended SMCP is compiled “ to assist in the greater safety of navigation and of t he conduct of the ship, to standardize the language used in communication for navigation at sea, in port approaches, waterways and harbo rs, and on board vessels with multilingual crews, and to assist maritime training institutions in meeting the objectives mentioned above.”

5.1 SMCP in Maritime English training at ALAM

At ALAM, SMCP have been a prominent part of Maritime English subject for navigation cadets. This is because the teaching of SMCP is governed by the STCW (International Convention on Standards for Training, Certi�ication and Watch- keeping for Seafarers) and the ability of understand and apply the SMCP is mandatorily required for the certi�ication of Of�icers of the Watch (OOW) on vessels of 500 Gross Tonnage or more (international voyage vessels).

5.2 Some current met hods of teaching SMCP

The SMCP cannot be taught solely by lecture and classroom discussion as per university studies (Pritchard, 2007). This is because of the nature of its usage on board of vessel that requires each cadet to practice and be familiar with the standard phrases/register/words. Moreover, navigation cadets must demonstrate their ability of using the precise command/phrases in speci�ic situations. So the followings are some of the existing methods in facilitating SMCP in class: a. Role-plays (selected situations for each incident e.g. �ire on board, routine communication etc ) b. Ship simulator (Ship to ship & ship to coast communication) c. Ship practical training (on board ALAM training ship, MT Pernas Propane : ship familiarization and on-board communication) d. Real life training at the bridge/communication console as in ca dets’ 12 months of sea training on board of merchant vessels on international voyage.

Role-plays are crucial in the teaching of SMCP. It starts with the lecturer demonstrating the correct phrases in selected situations via scripts and actual ship communication recordings (sound clips). Each cadet is given ample time to demonstrate their ability in recognizing and using the phrases. The lecturer could intervene and make immediate correction should any of the phrases or words need correction. Takagi et al (2007) stressed the need for navigation cadets to acquire ‘ practical use of Maritime English through hands-on simulator and lab sessions and on board training’ (pp. 2). He further asserted that classroom instructions alone ‘ cannot go anywhere without practical support from the bridge environment (pp.6). As such, cadet of�icers need this kind of exposure to be able to master SMCP effectively.

5.3 Assessment tools for SMCP/Maritime English

Currently, there are two major assessment tools to evaluate the competency and skills in Maritime English for all maritime colleges and universities However, they are only recommended to be used as there still no provision of law/regulations by IMO to enforce these two examinations into the certi�ication of Of�icers of the Watch (OOW) on vessels of 500 Gross Tonnage or more (international voyage vessels).

The two measurement tools are:

1. TOMEC (Test of Maritime English Competency)

2. MARTEL (Maritime Test of English Language)

However, many maritime colleges, institutions or universities have already integrated major parts of these two assessments into their �inal evaluations for their cadet of�icers As for ALAM’s case, major sections from TOMEC had already been integrated sinc e 2008 �inal examination for cadets.

5.4 Further support for SMCP

Further support for SMCP in teaching-learning could be gained from the following:

1. Sea trainings for Maritime English Instructors

2. Interviews with Seagoing professionals (Ship Of�icers)

3 Coaching by Master Mariners (Ship Captains)

4. Seminars/courses locally and internationally

5. Computer software (Marlins Study Pack)

6. Internet resources (Safe Sailing)

These resources are proven to be very bene�icial as they provide enrichment tools for lecturers especially teaching materials and drills/exercises Moreover, by using computer program, a self-assessment learning environment could be provided to cadets in order to reinforce their mastery of SMCP.

6.0 Conclusion

It is highly anticipated that these training methods and tools will be suf�icient to enhance the mastery of English, particularly Maritime English and IMO SMCPs by the navigation cadets As their noble aim is to promote safe navigation that ensures the safety of crew, cargo, vessels and environment, there should also be more effective methods in facilitating these needs so as to provide more enhancements. Getting the TOMEC/MARTEL well underway in Malaysia as the measuring tools of Maritime English requirement is not an easy task for MARDEP (Malaysian Marine Department), MISC (Malaysian International Shipping Corporation) and ALAM. But with consideration to the international safety of lives and property at sea and the clean ocean environment, there is no reason to delay the enforcement of internationally recognized examinations for SMCP and Maritime English in Malaysia. This paper also welcomes more collaborations and ideas from the English language teaching fraternity in order to further improve the teaching and learning of English.