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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

Modem shipping industry is going through a wide-ranging and deep-goingtransformation with the development of navigation technologies and equipments, whichrequires further improvement and enhancement of national Education in the relevantdomains including teaching modes and teaching contents, in order to cultivatecompetitive high-quality seafarers who are capable for the international interdependentshipping environment. For the sake of supporting the effective implementation of theInternational Convention on Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping forSeafarers (hereinafter referred to as STCW) and based on the competences that arerequired in the STCW convention, the International Maritime Organization (hereinafterreferred to as IMO) developed a series of model courses. These model courses are widelyregarded as guidance for teaching material compilation for seafarers around the world. Asa member of IMO, China has accepted most of the requirements listed by IMO. ForChinese seafarers，they have to pass a special English examination for the certification ofserving onboard or upper their rankings on board. Whether this English examinationwould help its testees ftilfill the international expectations of qualified seafarers is to bediscussed. Importance of Communicative Competence at SeaThe most essential interpersonal idea exchanging method between human beings iscommunication. Invalid communication or misunderstanding will cause problems oreven catastrophes at sea especially when dealing with an emergency. Due to the fact thatseafarers may come from every comer of the world and may have multicultural andmultilingual backgrounds, the communicative competence for them is quite crucial. As amatter of fact, English has been accepted as an international communication languageamong seafarers all over the world, it is quite obvious to discover the importance ofeffective communication in English.According to the statistics published by Istanbul Technical University (2002), 85%of a pilot's duties depend on his listening and speaking abilities. Canadian pilots pointedout that there were up to 75% of communication barriers took place between them and theforeign vessels was caused by language barriers. Thus it can be seen that competence ofcommunication for seafarers, especially for pilots is of great importance. Furthermore,the result of the investigation on casualties and accidents provided by IMO shows thatcommunication disorders are the most important crime culprits that lead to tragedies.Hence，to cultivate qualified seafarers and to ensure safety onboard, it is crucial toimprove the communicative competence of seafarers. English Requirements for SeafarersIMO is a specialized agency under the United Nations whose responsibility is toprotect navigation safety and to prevent marine pollution. Since its inception IMO hasrecognized the importance of human resources to the development of the maritimeindustry. It also attached great importance of assisting developing countries in improvingtheir maritime training abilities and devoted itself to support its member states withtraining facilities so as to reach an international level. Meanwhile, IMO also set up WorldMaritime University in Malmo, Sweden to assist its member states in postgraduatetrainings.According to Zhang (1998), most of the marine perils were caused by human errorsinstead of engine faults. 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。