This study aimed to investigate the problems faced by ESP lecturers when teaching low English proficiency students during online Maritime English lessons and their strategies in dealing with the problems. A questionnaire with six open-ended questions was distributed to 9 Maritime English lecturers from 6 different Maritime Polytechnics in Indonesia. A follow-up interview was conducted with four lecturers to obtain more detailed information regarding their online teaching practices, especially the difficulties and the strategies to mitigate them. The findings of this study revealed 3 (three) main problems faced by the lecturers. Firstly, students were reluctant to interact and participate in class activities. Secondly, students showed low motivation and interest in learning English. Thirdly, the lecturers needed extra time to explain the teaching materials. To overcome the problems, the lecturers used various texts, pictures, videos, or online platforms to expose students to maritime vocabulary. They also grouped the lower proficiency students with the higher proficiency students in a collaborative activity, designed class activities based on students’ learning styles, and employed various scaffolding techniques. Keywords: English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching, low English proficiency, Maritime English, online learning.
Conversation Analysis (CA) has a great implication in the second or foreign language teaching and learning. This study was aimed to analyse a casual conversation, to identify what people do to sustain a conversation. The conversation, which lasted for 20 minutes and involved three speakers, was transcribed verbatim. Several features of the spoken text are analysed: spontaneity, interactivity, interpersonal features, coherence features, negotiation of meaning, and speech function. The result of the analysis showed that there are several strategies used by the speakers: time-gaining strategies (filled pauses; frequent use of conjunctions: and, but, so); using chunks and producing one clause or phrase in small �runs�; self-monitoring strategies (repetition, backtracking), and interactional strategies (backchanneling, showing amusement by laughing or chuckling, using certain discourse markers, hedges, vague language, showing empathy by completing and repeating each other�s utterances). The speakers also negotiate interpersonally and logico-semantically to keep the conversation going on. The equal number of rejoinders that each speaker produces indicates that they are willing to support each other to sustain the conversation. This study implies that when teaching speaking, English teachers should include communication strategies to achieve the goals of communication.Keywords: casual conversation; negotiation of meaning; speech function; strategies.
Cadets’ perception is very important in teaching and learning process. Cadets who perceive the teaching methods used by their teachers positively are more likely to achieve better results. This study aims to investigate cadets’ perceptions on teaching methods used by English teachers in the Co-curricular English class and how they influence cadets’ language learning process especially on the aspect of language improvement, motivation, self-confidence and attitude. As many as 200 questionnaires were distributed randomly to the first-year cadets of PIP Semarang and 10 of the cadets were involved for the interview. The study found that 79.2% cadets have positive perception towards the teaching methods used by English teachers, while the rest (20,8%) have negative perception. This study also revealed that cadets perceive their class more positively if the teachers use interesting method such as games and challenge. It is expected that the result of this study can become an evaluation to improve teaching and learning process ahead.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.