Teaching marine engineering terms through online methods in maritime training courses

Abstract

Verbal communication is an integral part of seafarers’ professional activity and a compulsory condition of vessels’ safety, the prevention of marine environment pollution, the fulfillment of international and national legislation in the field of sea transport, and the organization and management of sea transport traffic involving multinational crews. The present study contributes to the resolution of professional communication linguistic support problems within the framework of the marine engineer’s activities. Additionally, it ensures safety at sea by developing the terminological component of the foreign-language competence of marine engineers. The purpose of the research presented in this article is to identify patterns of teaching the English maritime engineering term system used in oral professional communication and technical documentation engaging the Moodle Platform. The concept of marine engineering terminology, as well as the principles of distinguishing it from a more general concept of «maritime terminology», was considered in order to achieve this goal. The article suggests a combination of the most efficient Moodle tools that can be used to develop trainees’ specific terminological competence. Highlights A comprehensive analysis has allowed identifying differences in the functioning of ship engineering terms in technical documentation and oral professional communication The elements of this terminological system under analysis form hierarchical paradigms The functioning of ship-engineering terms in professional communication is complicated by the presence of synonyms within the terminological system and pseudo-international vocabulary Marine engineering terms can be successfully taught through a combination of several Moodle instruments, which enables trainees to conduct comprehensive structural-semantic comparative analysis of the English ship engineering terminological system