Evaluating English Syllabus for Maritime Vocational School: Towards Redesigning a New Syllabus

The English syllabus provides the students of the Maritime Vocational Schools (MVS) with necessary Maritime English (ME) competence compatible with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) curriculum, or the Indonesian Seafarers Quality Standard System (QSS) Curriculum (adapted from the IMO, in an Indonesian context). The gap in the ME learning process which represents a crucial problem in the Indonesian MVS is the availability of a syllabus for the subject. This study aims to evaluate the existing ME syllabus from the 2013 Curriculum for the MVS. This evaluation seeks to discover whether the given syllabus fulfills the real demands of the workplace by comparing it with the competencies presented by the QSS Curriculum. The result of this evaluation is to redesign ME competencies according to the international maritime workplace requirements. Observations, questionnaires, and interviews regarding the English competencies used on board ship were utilized to gather qualitative and quantitative data. The results indicated that (1) the current ME syllabus is acceptable for six out of the eight competencies proven to be needed for deck officer class IV, and (2) a new ME syllabus consisting of fourteen ME competencies according to the 2013 curriculum, The results of a needs analysis in the maritime workplace is proposed.