A Proposal to Enhance Cultural and Language Awareness in the Training Ships

1. The Proposal

Although some of these proposals are already in place, it is recommended to enhance these further as explained below:

Assigning dedicated room/space for reading, studying and inter-acting with each other in a free-talking environment.

Providing a dedicated LIBRARY that contains the following materials in English language:

Culture and Life of the different countries in the region, example: Famous sites, food, activities of these countries

Whole-some movies – animated, drama, social or historical stories, etc. – that do not tackle historical and cultural sensibilities.

Collecting and/or Subscribing to English maritime magazines (e.g. “Seaways magazine of The Nautical Institute” Society, etc., and other Engineering magazines) and/or other reading materials conducive to motivate students to read (Site-seeing, culinary, food, etc. that will spark their interests and passions).

Conduct INTER-CULTURAL ACTIVITIES like games, shows, and contests. During the international sailing period, both ships celebrate Safe-Sailing Festival wherein the ships conduct ceremonies and contests. Enhancement of these activities is highly recommended that focus also on other cultures.

Establishing “LANGUAGE-SCHOOL” onboard. This can be pursued in a non-formal setting and instructional methods to ease awkwardness among students and promote friendly ambiance:

ENGLISH-language sessions – conducted by foreign students themselves among their Korean classmates in a rotational-schedule, say, twice a week sessions.

KOREAN-language class – can be taught by Korean student volunteers, also on rotational basis.

To make these conversation sessions lively, useful and inspiring, it is suggested to introduce the Hanguel alphabet- reading and writing; and to tackle everyday topics like “riding a taxi”, “buying something”; “asking directions”; “weather” etc. emphasizing on the polite common, everyday-spoken expressions and discouraging (prohibiting!) foul, malicious language so common among the young generations. Below are already in practice, however, suggested to enhance to a broader scope:

PA announcement of everyday routine activities and important information concerning (affecting) student life onboard

English communication (English Speech contests, free-talking activities)

Another hot-item issue, however, also important and necessary:

Inserting English explanations on subject taught during actual and lecture (classroom) instructions.

The issues above are the most prominent and outstanding “concerns” of foreign students. It was revealed, discreetly and sometimes during mentoring sessions, that most of times they sat in class and did not understand what was taught, but, they “somewhat understood” that the subject matter discussed was important for them to learn.

Another part of the study is about the inter-cultural diversity. As long as maritime regulatory agencies have not yet introduce a common standard for cross-cultural learning and development, cross-cultural competency development for maritime professionals and the delivery of such education and training programs rely on the training needs of the participants and the specific goals of the education and training provider, i.e. maritime institutions, private MET sector, and others (Parsons et al, 2011). There are studies on how to improve cross-cultural learning and competency by promoting meaningful opportunities for foreign language communication and intercultural exchange which helps the students succeed in a global environment and successfully cope with unfamiliar situations (Bachner & Zeutschel, 1994).

The need for competence in the English language by all seafarers and a means to measure these competencies are vital because, in case of emergencies, rote memorization of SMCP alone will not be effective in time of panic(Ziarati et al, 2009) No. 5.

2. The Survey

The proposals in Section 3.1 were made into questions. The questionnaires were given to the senior cadets onboard the training ships. There are 120 respondent-cadets that participated in the survey who are composed of the total navigation and engineering apprentice officers onboard at that time.

This is a descriptive study and the questions use the Likert scale in the responses to the items posted where it is arranged from ‘strongly agree’ (A), ‘agree’ (B), ‘undecided’ (C), ‘disagree’ (D), and ‘strongly disagree’ (E) shown in Table 1. The responses were culled together and graphed shown in below figures according to each question’s responses.

<Table 1>

Distribution of responses

Question 1, shown above in [Fig. 1], has most cadets agreeing to assign dedicated space or room for them to interact in a semi private-social setting. It means that the room has the necessary tools and equipment for such interactions.

[Fig. 1]

Assign dedicated space

Question number 2 has 3 sub-topics about having a dedicated library where reading materials and cyber-supports are fitted. It deals with the contents and arrangement of the proposed dedicated library. [Fig. 2] (Q2.1) is about the culture of Korea and other countries. It shows that the “Agree” and “Undecided” have the most responses consecutively. It is recommended to conduct more info-drive regarding these matters. This reading room-library should have the proper reading materials to attain the purpose of inter-cultural awareness and improving the English language skills. The materials proposed, [Fig. 3] (Q2.2), are maritime and non-maritime magazines and books. Historical and cultural materials of Korea and other maritime countries. It is prayed that these materials, when subscribed to, have a bigger impact on the cadets’ cultural awareness.

[Fig. 2]

Q2.1. Dedicated library

[Fig. 3]

Q2.2. Types of reading materials

Since the proposal is about enhancing English language proficiency, the materials therein should be in English language whether they pertain to maritime and non-maritime topics. The responses are graphed in [Fig. 4] (Q2.3) where majority agreed to the proposal.

[Fig. 4]

Q2.3 English reading materials

Question 3 is about enhancing inter-cultural activities onboard. During the whole stay of cadets onboard (one semester) they having special events. Highlighting cultural diversity in these events, especially during international sailing, can boost interaction and understand different cultures particularly when foreign students are onboard. [Fig. 5] graphs the response to the proposal where 58 agreed.

[Fig. 5]

Q3 Inter-cultural activities

[Fig. 6] (Q4.1) graphs the responses to the proposal to conduct English language teaching during the students free time. The agreed are 43 but the disagreed are 29. It is viewed that the unwillingness number to this proposal is due to inferiority complex felt by students in the English conversations. It is this very deficiency that this proposal wishes to address.

[Fig. 6]

Q4.1. English language sessions

[Fig. 7], Q4.2, is the counter-part of English language class. It is proposed to have Korean class also conducted by cadets themselves with the foreign students onboard. The agreed responses likewise got the majority but the undecided also is deemed high at 42.

[Fig. 7]

Q4.2. Korean language class

Overall, the data from all topics and responses were averaged together and taken their percentile means. These are presented in [Fig. 8] which shows the 40% agreed to all questions posed and only 2.8% strongly disagreed.

[Fig. 8]

Accept sum of all proposals in percentile means

Noticeably, the ‘undecided’ stood at about 32% which the authors assumed is due to the students’ lack of understanding or their nonchalant attitude of the pros and cons of the subject matters being proposed.

3. Statistical analysis

The items were statistically analyzed using the Chronbach’s alpha for internal consistency. <Table 1> distributes the responses. The highest responses are in the ‘Agree (B)’ scale and shown in the ‘mean’ column and the standard deviation also has the greatest values.

The internal consistency of the items was proved in <Table 2> and the calculation of coefficient alpha follows.

<Table 2>

Inter-item correlation – Coefficient alpha

Where r_cc is the Chronbach’s alpha, k is the number of items, is the overall mean of the responses. The average of the data in <Table 2> was found to be 0.736.

The coefficient (Chronbach’s alpha) of 0.951 shows a very strong correlation of the items in the questionnaire. This can be predicted that the items can stand a single test because of strong relationships among themselves and can prove reliability.

The responses in <Table 1> is further tested whether the means are equal. The factor being measured was the acceptance or the rejection of the proposal posited. It tests whether the variances of the factors differ significantly.

<Table 3> is the F-statistic for ANOVA test used and it shows the P-value 0.943 is greater than the 0.05 alpha. The F-value (0.278) is also less than the F-critical (2.445). These results mean that there is significant differences in the means of the factors – the acceptance level to the proposal. Observation of <Table 1> gives the differences of the means of responses and, thus, support the ANOVA test result.

<Table 3>

Anova: Single-factor, single-replication Summary

1. Conclusion

This study highlights the importance of developing inter-cultural skills and English language enhancement to the apprentice officers leading to their leadership roles in the maritime profession. The authors believe that this is the first empirical study conducted for cadets onboard the university training ships on the issues of cultural and language development. The ergonomics of ship’s designs undisputedly play a greater part in the assignation of spaces so posited on this study onboard the training ships. Albeit the limitation, it can be achieved by activating un-used spaces and transforming these into learning centers discussed in this study. The acceptance level is high from the respondent-students. The authors likewise believe that the students, on their level of education and experiences, first onboard merchant ships and followed up onboard the training ships, are the best gauge and source of the ways to improve cultural and language learning skills.

2. Recommendations

The responses are skewed on the positive acceptance which means that when these observations merit approval, the recommendations herein may be achieved into fruition;

With the incoming newly built training ship later this year 2018, the assignation of dedicated space can be realized and activated;

The re-valuing of extra rooms onboard the existing training ship ‘Sae Nuri’ which can be converted into learning centers where ambience for cultural development give more motivation and invite free-talking activities during the free time hours;

Inserting activities in the training ship curriculum that offer a more pro-active approach to cultural learning;

Improving the offering of English language in the daily life of cadets onboard the training ships; and

Inserting English language teaching in the lecture hours and routine shipboard operations and training.

More information drive should be conducted to make the students understand the advantages and the long-tern benefits they will get from the proposal.

Re-indoctrination or re-orientation of professors and ships’ officers and staff is a vital step in the overall success of this endeavor.