PECULIAR FEATURES OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITY OF FUTURE SEAFARERS

Abstract

The article specifies the peculiarities of professional communicative activity of future seafarers.Professionally-oriented communicative competency is defined as a fundamental component of the professionaltraining of seafarers which, in turn, suggests that the key objective of language training in higher maritimeeducational institutions is the formation and development of all the components of this complex phenomenon.It is argued that the development of the effective model of professionally-oriented communicative competencyformation of future seafarers and the selection of the adequate teaching methodology is doomed to failure ifall the aspects and peculiar features of professional communication are not taken into thorough consideration.It is determined that the peculiar features of maritime sphere specialists’ activity predetermine distinctiverequirements to professionally-oriented communication of those working in shipping industry. It is provedthat Maritime English can for sure be determined as professional sub-language because it, first of all, serves for the specific needs satisfaction of one certain, independent, self-sufficient area of human activity and,at the same time, it has distinctive peculiar features at each level of teaching-learning process.Extensive review and thorough analysis of statutory and requirements documents which are straightforwardlyconnected to the organization of the professional communication at sea provided for the conclusion thatlaconism, clarity and accuracy together with the zero tolerance towards the discrepancy are acknowledgedas the key fundamental requirements to professional communication of seafarers, as the safety of navigation,human life and environment depend greatly on their timely, unambiguous and laconic communication. It isdetermined that because of the fact the professional communication usually occurs in the condition of pressof time and psychological tension, the linguistic peculiarities of standard maritime phraseology are the following:the minimum use or even complete omission of the functional words, such as articles and auxiliary verbs (a/an, the, am/іs/are etc.). Besides, it is stated out that due to the possible interferences while communicating bymeans of radiotelephone and VHF it is recommended not to use the shortened forms which are so typical forcommon spoken English. And, finally, one more specific feature of the professional communication of futureseafarers when using VHF is the requirement to use specific word markers to specify the type of the messageor the end of the phrase or the conversation.