The Compliation of a Maritime English Corpus for Esp Learners

Abstract

One of the contributions of corpus linguistics is to provide real features of language use. In particular, specialized corpora in English can contribute to presenting a language used in specific areas which is very different from General English. For this reason, it is necessary to compile a corpus of Maritime English (ME) which can offer authentic ME language usage for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learners and seafarers. Unfortunately, current ME methodologies are not likely to be effective and efficient in that they are restricted to words and phrases recommended by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) or other official maritime organizations. In fact, ESP learners and seafarers have to learn the more realistic language used in the maritime community, reducing the gap between ME and General English. In other words, building on their previous General English knowledge, they must acquire a language which they can use every day in their jobs in the community. Our study describes the compilation of a one million word corpus of ME and its descriptive features and discusses related issues.