English-for-Specific-Purposes Lecturer in English-Medium-Instruction Environment – Maritime English Case Study

In this paper, the Maritime English lecturer's role is considered from the point of view of their ecologically sustainable development. This will be done according to the survey carried out with experienced and novice Maritime English lecturers. The survey examines the current role of a Maritime English lecturer and seeks to envisage the best course of their future development in an English-medium-instruction (EMI) environment. Thus, a questionnaire with appropriate questions for a group of respondent Maritime English lecturers was created and then distributed; next, the responses were analysed and the results’ overview elaborated; last, an attempt was made to model the Maritime English lecturer's optimum development according to the guidelines of ecological sustainability. The essential prerequisite was to consider the idea of an ecologically sustainable development process, its establishment and purpose, and how it can be overlaid onto the professional and pedagogical role of Maritime English lecturers to support their current role, but also to assist in their future development. The latter seems unavoidable due to changes in the maritime industry and requirements from the maritime educational sector.


INTRODUCTION
This paper's aim is to consider the current role of the Maritime English lecturer at maritime HEIs in non-Anglophone countries through an analysis of the Maritime English courses as presently delivered.It also brings an attempt at a projection of the Maritime English lecturer's role in EMI environment, and how it can be altered so as to be 'ecologically sustainable' to ensure better job satisfaction to the lecturers, and hopefully higher course satisfaction to the students.The Maritime English lecturer's role differs from most other ESP roles at HEIs because no other but English is the language of the maritime profession, and not only of academic research.
A lot of study has so far been dedicated to the introduction of English as the medium of instruction at HEIs, e.g.perhaps the most comprehensive seems to be the project titled EMI-TAEC, Transnational Alignment of English Competences for University Lecturers, an Erasmus+ project from 2020, mainly focused on EMI lecturers, i.e. content lecturers, and their trainers.However, with all the extensive body of research literature on EMI, among which some studies refer to content lecturers, others to students, or to the change of e.g.teaching style that accompanies the change in the language of teaching, few studies have focused on Maritime English lecturers at maritime HEIs.At the University of Taiwan, there was a research funded by The Ministry of Education in Taiwan [(Teaching Practice Research Program in 2019), Measuring the Effectiveness of English Medium Instruction in Shipping Courses (Tseng, Pilcher & Richards, 2020), following an earlier study by the same authors, Constructing English-medium instruction indicators (2018), where focus is on the students' perception of what course contents should be focused on and what teaching elements are most valued.However, the cultural element here underlies many of the students' responses, so the study is hardly applicable to some other parts of the world.A most recent study (Rasmussen, 2023) undertaken at the Danish SIMAC also focuses on the "plans and resources for the mentioned preparations and functions for both teachers and students" accompanying the introduction of EMI, but does not consider the necessary alteration of the language lecturer's role.Thus, the reason for concentrating on the Maritime English lecturer is that a part of the contents of their lectures will necessarily be taken over by the content lecturers in EMI, who are certainly professionals in their fields and are qualified to lecture on the respective contents.So, we will here try to see how a Maritime English lecturer's role can be transformed to the satisfaction of all the stakeholders in a maritime HEI's teaching processes.
In chapter 1 of this paper, the notion of an ecologically sustainable development will be considered and followed by some ideas on EMI in non-Anglophone countries, particularly accounting for the narrowed scope of EMI in this paper.Chapter 2 deals with the research method, i.e. survey creation, distribution, and analysis.In chapter 3, an attempt to model the Maritime English lecturer's future development in an EMI environment is attempted and supported by the survey results.Chapter 4 brings the conclusions and suggestions.

Origin of the notion of ecologically sustainable development
Ecologically sustainable development1 is defined in its simplest in the so-called 1987 Brundtland WebFirst "Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."The statement is perfectly clear in itself, but overlaid onto a Maritime English lecturer's role within a maritime higher-education institution, it implies the following: a) The Maritime English lecturers' role does not always meet the needs of the present, and a growth is necessary to sustain their role.b) The Maritime English lecturers' development should ensure that their role is transformed according to the requirements of the maritime profession(s) without interference with the content lecturers' roles.
The essential prerequisite of any development is communication, no matter what human activity is considered.Thus, as recognized in the Brundtland Report Chairman's Word (1987:8), we read: "I am deeply grateful to all the Commissioners for their dedication, their foresight and personal commitment to our common endeavour.It has been a truly wonderful team.The spirit of friendship and open communication, the meeting of minds and the process of learning and sharing, have provided an experience of optimism, something of great value to all of us, and, I believe, to the report and its message.We hope to share with others our learning process, and all that we have experienced together.It is something that many others will have to experience if global sustainable development is to be achieved."3Following in the path of the above-mentioned, the requirement or the essential, conditio sine qua non, of any development is team work.Team does not mean just a group of people, but the notion implies peer communication, exchange of opinions without the fear of being judged or isolated, sometimes even clash of opinions, but always with a respectful attitude.Only different opinions and questioning of own practices can make any development possible.Last, but not least, requirement is sharing because an isolated example of good practice does not contribute to a better future if it is not shared and multiplied.Thus, the scope of the development, like in any system development, does not affect one part of the system only, i.e. the Maritime English lecturer in this case, but is also reflected on other stakeholders in the teaching process, while the purpose is to ensure the ESP lecturers' future in their own field of study and development.
The principle of ESD has been included in more than 60 items of Australian legislation (2022:2).Thus, in one of them (1992:2), ESD is described as: "… using, conserving and enhancing the community's resources so that ecological processes …. are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in future, can be increased."As can be observed, ESD's pivot point are community's resources.Here, we can focus on the resources Maritime English lecturers represent as a knowledgeable group, but not only -there are also content lecturers in their environment, without whom Maritime English lecturers could hardly survive.The second point emphasised above is the need to develop and always increase the total quality of life.This refers to the need of life to always develop, transform, and possibly improve.With reference to the teaching processes at maritime HEIs, a model should be developed through which all lecturers, whether content or Maritime English ones, would be able to do their best within their own fields of study as such an approach to education would provide the most advantage to all the stakeholders in the teaching/learning process.Furthermore, social, economic and environmental considerations in decision-making are pointed out, as well as the principle of inter-generational equity, i.e. "…that the present generation should ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment is maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations…" (2022:2).The beginnings of Maritime English back in the 1970s and the learning-centred approach of the 1980s were due exactly to social, economic and environmental considerations.Namely, the focus then brought onto a new object of study, which was the language as used in maritime operations, meant thinking socially because the importance of the jargon used in the profession was taken into consideration, and the focus shifted from the language itself to sociolinguistics, i.e. how language serves and is used by a social community of professionals; next, it also meant thinking economically because novice sailors would manage better if they were taught some necessary language before joining their first ship, and a lecturer could teach a number of them in a classroom at the same time.Lastly, thinking globally, from such an approach the whole community could benefit: the students could get a better language education from a language specialist; the language lecturers saw a possibility of development to better serve the community; many content lecturers were relieved of the need to teach both content and language; so, the community benefited from all of the above.
However, as all things change, both the content lecturer's role and the Maritime English lecturer's role have been undergoing a slow but constant change that will be further discussed and an attempt of creating a model of a sustainable development of the current system will be made to achieve the above-mentioned intergenerational equity.The Maritime English lecturers of today should start their transformation to ensure the appropriate development of the ESP lecturers at maritime HEIs of tomorrow.

Maritime English as taught at maritime universities and colleges
Currently, at maritime HEIs, the English language teachers have already traditionally been teaching not only General English and its 4 main communicative abilities, but they are also expected to teach some technical English of shipbuilding and boatbuilding, differentiation of ships operating on waterways, terminology related to different ships' operations including cargo handling and the relative equipment, ship manoeuvring, elements of navigation, pilotage, meteorology, etc., to mention just a few of much wider terminological fields that the Maritime English lecturer is expected to master.Thus, Maritime English does not refer to the English language used in ship's navigation only.It refers to 'Maritime Englishes' of different maritime professions: navigator's (deck officer's), marine engineer's, electrotechnical officer's, boater's or skipper's (i.e.terminology related to sailing and power boats, and marinas), as well as maritime legal, economic, and management terminologies.All this requires from a Maritime English teacher to be a Jack of all trades.

HEIs
A novice Maritime English teacher embarks on their first voyage normally as an English teacher who has no or very little, mostly amateur knowledge of maritime affairs.Even for a ship's officer who is about to embark on a different type of ship, familiarisation time is of great importance even if they start as already experts in their profession and with a certain onboard experience.The Maritime English lecturer does not have this privilege.Of course, the university management normally does not see this as a problem, but a real problem it is.Facing several dozens of students at the beginning of a Maritime English lecturer's career is anything but pleasant.A novice lecturer has the only advantage over their students of having good knowledge of General English, which enables them to master the maritime-related terminology more easily.Otherwise, in the beginning of their career, they feel like students again, even if they are or have been English teachers for some time.Therefore, a familiarisation time of e.g. one year would be a great relief.In that period, a novice Maritime English teacher should be relieved of teaching maritime-specific terminology and should assist the experienced Maritime English teacher in their courses, teaching students only the General English skills and at the same time using this privilege to master the Maritime English terminology as best they can.Of course, the best way to master it is to embark on a merchant vessel, if possible, and gain first-hand experience.This, however, brings about the problem of absence from teaching, funding the novice teacher's time on board, finding a substitute for the novice teacher's teaching hours at the institution, etc.However, when there's a will, there's a way, and with good will on all sides, i.e. novice lecturer's in the first place, other Maritime English lecturers' in the language department, and the management's, it should not be impossible.The prerequisite would be to create the atmosphere of mutual understanding, will to support novice teachers, earnest communication, or in shortteamwork atmosphere, in which each member of the team will do their own tasks, but will also be willing to make WebFirst a little contribution for the benefit of the novice teacher as this is the only way to their easier and faster inclusion as fully-fledged Maritime English lecturers.With an initial experience gained, the novice Maritime English lecturer continues their life-long learning, which with the fast development of maritime affairs, their technologies and professions has become a necessity.Thus, a Maritime English teacher is expected to follow the industry developments in its different fields to be able to teach the language used among the professionals instead of dealing with their true profession of an English lecturer.This is certainly time-consuming and except for own learning, it requires consultations with the content lecturers, which comes on top of their own teaching.Secondly, it is also hardly possible for a Maritime English lecturer, let alone a novice teacher, to follow the developments in the English linguistics and glottodidactics, and research relative issues to produce scientific papers necessary for their election procedures at determined intervals.
In conclusion, it can be stated that the communication among Maritime English lecturers exists, but has been witnessed to decrease slowly but steadily over the past 2 decades: Maritime English workshops are not frequent; lecturers get into contact at the annually organised International Maritime English Conference, but being funded for the participation has become a real problem for many.If it is held in Europe, there are mostly lecturers from European universities and a part of Asia; if it is organised on some other continent, there are mostly participants from that part of the world.Thus, communication is far from effective to enable any sound academic cooperation or team work; too few projects are currently underway and examples of good practice are scarcely shared and the community's resources are rather scattered due to a lack of communication in general.Therefore, inter-generational equity is under a serious threat.

3.
RESEARCH METHOD: SURVEY CREATION, DISTRIBUTION, AND ANALYSIS

Survey creation
The aim was to create a survey that would cover the following aspects of the Maritime lecturers' role: a) their age and current education status, b) the number of departments at which they teach, c) whether Maritime English is taught as a separate course, or EMI is already partly/fully implemented at their institution, d) their current experience in teaching Maritime English, and how they have started their Maritime English lecturers' careers, e) who or what helped them most in their development, and how confident they feel in teaching Maritime English as a language of non-own profession(s), f) how they feel about their status in their institutions, g) how their content-teaching colleagues feel about their role, h) how satisfied they are overall with their job, and how safe they think their jobs are, i) whether they offer any language assistance to the content-course lecturers, j) how they see their role in the EMI environment, k) whether there should be any alterations made to their English courses, l) how they think their current students would react to EMI, and m) what maritime higher education institutions should do to ensure that English-medium instruction does not compromise the quality of education provided.
Thus, the idea was to collect some objective information about the respondents' work and their status at the institutions with which they are affiliated, but also some subjective information about how they see their current job, their development and their future.

Survey distribution
Even if it may seem that with the survey completed, a good deal of the work had been done, the survey distribution was even more demanding.
First, due to a long experience as a Maritime English lecturer, the author herself had a number of other Maritime English lecturers' contacts; however, a decreasing number of lecturers have lately been participating at Maritime English conferences and workshops, and many lecturers have retired over the years.So, the list of the International Association of Maritime Universities (IAMU) members was very useful.However, this list should also be regularly updated for IAMU contact members at the universities, as this information is changing all the time and requires more frequent updating, so that in many cases, the contacts had to be made indirectly, which was time-consuming if effective at all.The universities from the Anglophone countries have been left out of this survey for obvious reasons.Thus, the survey was finally sent to Maritime English lecturers in 22 countries on 4 different continents: Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central America.65 responses that returned will be analysed in the following chapter.

Survey results' analysis and overview
The survey questionnaire developed includes 21 questions plus a final slot in which the respondents were asked to add anything that they possibly thought was relevant and had not been included.
From the responses collected to Question 1, we can see that the largest group of Maritime English lecturers at the moment belongs to the age range 55-65, and the smallest group is made by the age range 25-35.Even if the information collected for this survey is not all-inclusive as it is based on the responses that could be collected, this small number of 25-35 age range lecturers could be an indicator of: 1. lower number of students at maritime universities, at least in Europe, 2. improving proficiency in English of the content lecturers; 3) a reduced need for Maritime English lecturers due to the implementation of EMI at some universities, etc.
From the responses shown above, it can be seen that most Maritime English lecturers now active have either an M.A. in English language and literature or a Ph.D. in English linguistics.It is definitely a very hard work to do two things at the same time, related but still different, i.e. being immersed in the sea of Maritime English, which is a true professional language and not at all easy to master due to the fact that it evolves along with the developments in the related maritime industry with a number of different fields, and at the same time being deep enough in the English linguistics or glottodidactics to pursue a Ph.D. and periodical elections into higher academic titles.However, the modern professional and scientific developments point out to specialisations, as both the general knowledge and specific sets of knowledge related to a particular profession have expanded and become enormously complex.Thus, the question is for how long can Maritime English lecturers endure this two-dimensional race, with the profession on the one hand, and with science on the other, and still do their work properly.
It is visible from the responses above that Maritime English is still mainly taught as a separate course.However, in 30.8% of the responses, it has been stated that it is taught within content courses, and this number means that the implementation of EMI is on the rise because it is definitely the highest considering the past 3 decades.
The responses to this question show the largest number 6, which means that at different departments Maritime English is taught across all the semesters of the bachelor study.This case is followed by those institutions at which it is taught for 2 or 3 semesters.Only a smaller number of responses vary among only 1, 4 or 5 semesters.This certainly indicates the importance of English in all the professions within the maritime industry and the need to include English as the professional language into all the courses at maritime universities.
With this question, the aim was to find out the level of competency that the respondents felt to belong to.Almost 85% of Maritime English lecturers feel proficient or expert in Maritime English, and this means a very high investment of time and readiness to master various contents of one or more non-own professions.However, a particularly sensitive question remains the advanced beginner group, not numerous, but still deserving a better shaped set of responsibilities.immediately start as Maritime English lecturers, which was also a 1 st -hand experience of the author of this paper.It is most frustrating for the lecturer and, certainly, at a higher-education level most irresponsible to throw a novice lecturer without any previous maritime experience into this battle, on the one hand; on the other, our students certainly do not deserve to be taught by a novice whose knowledge of the subject matter is limited, to say the least.Therefore, the 21.5% of the respondents, who were allowed some time for their 'internship' by teaching General English only while getting acquainted with Maritime English can be said to have had a proper start.However, this can all be better shaped as our model in section 3 will show.
The responses to this question have shown that 70.8% of the Maritime English lecturers have had some help from their experienced colleagues, Maritime English lecturers, in mastering maritime professional knowledge, while 32.3% were helped by their content-lecturer colleagues.This clearly shows that even a fullfledged language professional is simply not able to start immediately teaching another profession's contents in a foreign language, nor should that be permissible.However, as this was a question with the possibility of multiple answers, a high percentage of respondents, 37%, have also chosen to study maritime professional literature on their own to develop the maritime-specific knowledge of language.A comment in the final slot of the questionnaire says: "Who really helped me have been seafarers outside the institution (a friend of mine and my fiancé).Little or no help arrived from my colleagues or other people at the institution."15% of the respondents had the luck of having a Maritime English supervisor on their starting on the new position; however, the number is almost too low to mention.Some Maritime English lecturers have had the opportunity to attend the 15-day IMO's Maritime English Instructors' Training Course (MEITC), e.g. in Szczecin in 2005, which was a great opportunity to immerse oneself into the contents and teaching techniques and methodology with the most prominent names in this branch; this initiative is highly recommended for further development and organisation.For example, a comment found in the comment slot at the end of the questionnaire says: "I believe there are no courses for teachers of Maritime English, I would also appreciate professional materials, workshops or onboard training."The last group, 4.6% of the respondents, come from the maritime sector, but currently teach Maritime English, and have responded that this fact has helped them most in becoming Maritime English lecturers.This is certainly understandable as only the professionals in the field can competently teach the related terminology; every other solution takes a lot of time and effort without ever reaching the true competency level.As it can also be seen from the responses above, only 10.8% of the respondents has ever had any experience on board a merchant vessel.
It is clear from the responses shown above that most lecturers feel fairly competent only after a long experience in teaching Maritime English.These responses are in favour of the fact that when an English teacher, no matter their language or linguistic competence, starts working as a Maritime English lecturer, they are not competent unless they come from the maritime sector and have a very good knowledge of English, or have previously had some onboard experience.A small percentage that have declared themselves as 'not very competent' work as university lecturers nevertheless.This number is also higher than the number of 'advanced beginners' from Question 5. On the other hand, less than 1/3 of the respondents, i.e. 27.7%, have declared themselves 'entirely competent' even if, according to the responses to Question 7, only 10.8% have had any onboard experience, and only 4.6% come from the maritime sector.The apparent conclusion is that only after years of being in Maritime English does an English teacher feel competent to teach; having novice teachers or advanced beginners thrown into this arena is unprofessional with regard to these teachers and to the students.

WebFirst
We can see from the chart above that most Maritime English lecturers, i.e. 58.5%, teach at 2 different departments at their institutions, and 29.2% teach at only 1 department.The latter can certainly consider themselves lucky as they can devote themselves to one maritime subfield and delve deeply into it over time so as to feel competent in their teaching after some time.However, those who teach at 2 or more departments, the latter number sounding almost impossible, have a much harder time and can hardly ever reach the level of competency required at the higher education level, not to mention the need to follow the developments in their own, language-teaching profession.
As can be seen from the chart above, 72.3% of the respondents feel very or entirely satisfied with their Maritime English lecturers' status at their institutions.However, 20% feel fairly satisfied, while 7.7% feel either hardly satisfied or not satisfied at all.The following questions and answers will shed some light on these responses, too.
From the responses to Question 11, can be concluded that most Maritime English lecturers, i.e. 64.6%, think that the content lecturers at their institutions see them as a valuable assistance.However, even if content lecturers sometimes congratulate Maritime English lecturers for professional topics the students have learnt in their Maritime English classes, which is true in 29.2% of the responses and is quite a high number, the content lecturers expect the Maritime English lecturers in their departments to master the professional topics (40% of the respondents to Q 11) and are willing to help them do this.Here, the situation seems to be overturned, or at least confused.After the time spent to be awarded a M.A. or Ph.D. in the English language or linguistics, Maritime English lecturers are expected, and rightfully so, to master a number of professional topics of at least one other maritime profession, mostly 2, and sometimes 3 or 4, as we have seen in the responses to Question 9 above.This is actually hard or impossible to achieve to a level required at a higher-education institution if the quality of teaching is to be retained.No wonder then that 10.8% of the Maritime English lecturers feel that their contentteaching colleagues at the HE institution see them as trespassers on their own property, i.e. not competent enough to teach the contents of their professional courses in the foreign language of the profession.
From the chart above, it is clearly and undoubtedly visible what mainly motivates the Maritime English lecturer respondents, or 90.8% of them: it is the possibility to teach something useful as a foreign working language, such as Maritime English in the maritime professions.Again, in this question, it was possible to choose more than one answer.So, 21.5% the respondents respect the opportunity of travelling abroad to participate in international maritime lecturers' conferences or training and refreshment courses, and this is highly appreciated both for the insights into the profession whose working language they teach and for the opportunity of meeting their colleagues from around the world and exchange experiences in person, so creating a network of colleagues with whom to develop further cooperation.On the other hand, 18.5% of the respondents are most satisfied with the respect they have been getting from their content-teaching colleagues.This is also an overturned value as one should be first of all valued and respected for what one does in their own profession.It is not often the case that Maritime English lecturers assess the work their content-teaching colleagues do.Finally, as 27.7% of the respondents have chosen that 'having a safe job and income' is what they are most satisfied with in their careers, this almost 1/3 of the respondents should have to seriously be taken into consideration.A safe job and good income are of utmost importance, but life, and working life as part of it, should provide more to an individual more than that: it should be an opportunity to develop and grow in an own profession, where the feeling of being respected by the community for the efforts made would come as a result.
This question follows reasonably from the previous one in which the question of job safety was relatively highly appreciated.It is clear from the chart above that 50.8% of the respondents see their job as entirely safe even if internationalisation of studies is well under way and the need to deliver studies in English is steadily increasing.18.5% of the respondents are highly convinced that their jobs are safe, while another 16.9% see their jobs as fairly safe.However, 13.9% see their jobs as hardly safe or not safe at all.This question refers to the main problem this paper is addressing, i.e. what should be done to make the language courses at our institutions more sustainable in an ecological way, which has been addressed in chapter 1.This question aimed to find out approximate share of institutions that have already implemented EMI.From the responses, it is visible that 47.7% of the respondents work at the HEIs where it is possible to undertake maritime studies in English, while 18.5% respondents work at the institutions where this is only partly possible; this usually refers to the possibility of enrolling the master studies in English, and to the work with Erasmus students on temporary exchange.However, 1/3 of the respondents work at HEIs where there is no possibility of even partly studying in English, and English is nevertheless the working language of the profession.This means that the responsibility for the mastering of the students' future language of the profession is entirely on the Maritime English lecturers.This certainly does not seem to be right.This question was for the respondents who chose the answers 'yes' or 'partly' as responses to Question 14.It is interesting to see that 30.5% of the respondents work at HEIs where Maritime English is taught as part of content courses by fully professional lecturers.However, behind 69.5% of the responses, there are Maritime English lecturers who teach their Maritime English topics along with the content lecturers delivering their courses in English.This latter seems to be duplicating of contents, especially if both are lectures.However, Maritime English lecturers in their own right would not be happy to do only exercises with the students after their content-teaching colleagues have already introduced the necessary professional language topics.This is the reason for the necessity of reviewing the Maritime English lecturer's role in a wider context of actual changes to enable better solution in the future.
Question 16 logically follows from Question 15, i.e. content teachers are mostly graduated maritime science, so it is reasonable to expect that they may need some help in starting to deliver their courses entirely in English.From the responses above, it can be seen that 32.3% of the Maritime-English respondents offer no assistance to their content-teaching colleagues, while 35.4% help content lecturers mostly by their professional or scientific papers.With a decent knowledge of English necessary to deliver their courses in the language of the profession, content lecturers should be able to have their papers' language checked using nowadays widely available software.Otherwise, these services by the Maritime English lecturers should be additionally paid for as they are not part of the Maritime English lecturer's job description.Only a small number of 13.8% of the respondents stated that they have English (refreshment) courses for the content lecturers at their HEIs, but a high 29.2% deliver courses jointly with the content lecturers.As one of the comments in the final slot says: "Co teaching method of maritime English is very productive." Question 17 required from the respondents to try to envisage the way their job could change when/if their institution starts with the delivery of content courses in English.18.5% of the respondents do not feel there will be any changes to their job, which is hard to believe as there should not be doubling of contents in the HEIs' study programmes.However, 81.5% of the respondents expectedly envisage that in the situation where the content course lecturers will be teaching the specific terminology as part of their courses, the Maritime English course could easily become General English courses, possibly exercises including Maritime English terminology.
From the chart above, it can be seen that a high number (67.7%) of Maritime English lecturers think that developing intercultural competence through English would be a useful substitution for lecturing about Maritime English terminology and phraseology.This would definitely be very useful for maritime students who have, for some time already, been working in a multinational environment on board a large majority of ships.However, this solution certainly brings up the question of the English lecturer's intercultural competence first.Hi-quality intercultural competence in English courses have already been delivered for some time, e.g. by ELC -European Language Competence in Frankfurt, and the respective handbooks published, e.g.A-Z Intercultural Competence, by Camerer and Mader (2017), so this would certainly be a useful extension to the Maritime English lecturer's existing package of knowledge and competencies.The part of their courses dedicated to teaching intercultural competence in English can be prepared according to the already existing CEFR Illustrative Descriptor Scales: Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence (2020), published by the Council of Europe.A language lecturer rooted in the humanities, with an appropriate intercultural training, would certainly be much more competent to teach intercultural competence in English than anyone else.
The chart above also shows that almost as many lecturers (61.5%) have chosen soft skills as a highly necessary and useful package of skills to teach their students through the use of English.These skills are again very much related to intercultural competence, but they also build on one's general communicative skills, respect, time management, leadership, etc.This is what humanities are mainly about: consideration, respect, flexibility, teamwork, problem-solving, conflict resolution, leadership, research, creativity, to mention only a few skills among those that can be built through the use of language.
The next skill chosen by the lecturers to be incorporated into the Maritime English course is academic English.It is definitely necessary for those students who would like to pursue a career in maritime higher education; however, it is not seen as essential to the students who aim to pursue their careers at sea.Therefore, it would make a precious elective course.
Finally, the solution of non-inclusion of any contents beside General English if/when Maritime English is taught by content lecturers is certainly not a sustainable solution in the present-day society where online courses, both with grammar explained in detail by native speakers and grammatical exercises provided and the conversational ones, are widely offered and taken, and also when the need other skills conveyed through language have emerged.
As it can be seen from the chart above, the question posed to the respondents was if they felt their students would be more motivated if the language lecturer taught them General English enriched with other necessary skills supported by language, and the content lecturers taught them the necessary language of the profession.While 33.8% of the lecturers responded negatively, which means that they feel at least as competent as the content lecturers in teaching maritime terminology, other 27.7% of the respondents were undecided.However, most lecturers, i.e. 38.5%, responded positively to this question.Just as language is more successfully learnt in its natural environment, thus it is natural to expect the students to take it as more natural from a language lecturer to teach them the language and some language-supported skills, e.g. the parts of an electric motor or switchboard, that a Maritime English lecturer may have never seen and their knowledge is only second-hand in such a case.One of the comments in the dedicated slot at the end of the questionnaire says: "Maritime English lectures should be exposed to the nature of the job, this can be achieved by organizing field trips to simulators, ports, or even ships if possible.Developing knowledge of what we teach is critical to be able to answer questions asked by students."This comment supports the idea that second-hand knowledge is neither thorough enough nor inspiring to students.An easier solution would be that the English lecturers remain in their field of expertise, while the maritime field is entrusted to maritime professionals, whose language of profession is English, particularly as regards the terminology.
Question 20 presupposes the transformation at a by which content lecturers would deliver their courses in English.For many content lecturers, this would not be a problem due to the fact that they follow the developments in their scientific area, field, and branch, and use English for academic purposes of publishing their own research.However, the language they use in reading and writing is written language, and reading comprehension or writing skills do not necessarily imply speaking or lecturing skills in a foreign language, even if it is the language of the profession.Therefore, as it can obviously be seen from the chart above, most respondents, 61.5%, have opted for the refreshment language courses abroad for the content lecturers, while 53.8% have opted for the support to content lecturers by the English lecturers at their own HEI.This means that some respondents felt both of the solutions mentioned would be useful, while a minority of 36.9% of the respondents opted for on-line refreshment courses for content lecturers, perhaps combined with one of the above-mentioned solutions.This last solution is the most readily available one and does not require much time or funds, but it may not be as effective as the first two.
The last Question 21 refers to the Maritime English lecturers' expectations in an EMI environment regarding their own development.The majority of 66.2% of the respondents have chosen the support in the form of teacher development courses abroad, while the necessity of periodical language courses abroad has also been very highly appreciated by 50.8% of the respondents.35.4% of the respondents expect their hours spent co-teaching with the content lecturers or assisting them in preparing their lectures in English to be paid by their HEI.However, what most respondents expect, and that is the key word in the first two options, is more understanding from their HEIs for their needs, which are prerequisites for their successful teaching English and the related skills.
The slot intended for comments has seen many valuable suggestions from the respondents.Thus, as a valuable contribution and support to this last discussion related to Question 21, one of the lecturers wrote: "I would also add that ESP teachers or language teacher have been until lately and at some faculties are still considered to be only translators or proofreaders -not academicians involved in the research work.However, now the situation has been changing and we are not put aside solely as language teachers.We are appreciated for the effort to dig into the specific subject domain and contribute with our interpretation of as many maritime discursive situations in a specific context." Next, a respondent also reacted to Question 18 as follows: "Addition to question 18: in my experience, students are motivated when they see a direct connection between the thematic content taught in English lectures and practical experience on board.So, another point under 18 are contracts (like C/Ps or salvage contracts), IMO guidelines and IMO circulars."The direct relatedness of the teaching content with the practical onboard experiences are certainly most inspiring for maritime students; however, with all this in mind, Maritime English lecturers should not forget that e.g. the language of maritime contracts, i.e. maritime legal language, is a specialisation in itself, particularly because this is a very specific language different from that for navigators or marine engineers, just as maritime law is a specific branch of law.
Another relevant comment has been found in the comment slot, which says: "I think one of the most serious problems maritime instructors face is the poor level of English proficiency of the students that hinders the educational process.This is coupled with the students' relative sense that the subject is not as important as the other maritime core courses."This comment addresses another part of the educational system at the HEI, i.e. the students.Their level of General English should certainly be at a satisfactory entrance level so that they can take their studies in English; however, this part of the system is not within the scope of this paper.Another comment also brings a valuable suggestion: "Given the complexity of the subject matter, ME course could be organized as a preparatory course in order to enable students to follow the content courses delivered in English."Thus, HEIs could organise a preparatory Maritime English (in its narrower sense) course for those enrolling maritime studies once EMI has been implemented.Still another relevant comment refers to the level of proficiency in English that should be required of the content lecturers if they are expected to deliver their courses entirely in English: "Personally I feel it is not advantageous to offer an entire curriculum in English, unless it is taught by native or near-native speakers.At the MET institution where I am employed, staff teach the majority of courses in Dutch and French.All non-native speakers of Dutch and/or French are required to sit a language exam and obtain level C1 or C2 (native or near-native speaker) before they can lecture.The other potential problem with English-medium teaching for non-native speakers is that the STUDENTS themselves don't have a sufficient level of English to understand, particularly in first year!"However, even if all these problems are related, they cannot be tackled all at once, even if the entire system should be considered before EMI is introduced.This is stated in the following comment from the comment slot: "EMI lectures require more lectures (as conducting classes in English takes longer) + EMI lectures should be planned and conducted in accordance with EMI pedagogic and didactic strategies + EMI requires more time for preparations both for teachers and students.Last but not least, implementing EMI needs to be carefully planned and part of a conscious strategy within the institution."Nothing is truer than the need for a unified, well-thought approach if changes are to be made, and it seems that only variation is constant both in the nature and in the society, as nicely stated in another comment from the comment slot, which says: "As we have seen in many countries during the last decades the entrance level in English of students in general has been increasing.Parallel to this development also the command of English of content lecturers has improved.The result is a considerable reduction in contact hours for Maritime English.Also, AI with its enormous potential for instant translation and production of both written and spoken texts is changing the contents and methods of language teaching in the near future.That is why I foresee a completely different role of language instruction and instructors' formation any time soon.For this case I would suggest a balanced combination of a linguist's approach as basis, plus a rather considerable input of computer, systems analysing, and digitalizing sciences that definitely must include artificial intelligence to be the recipe."

ATTEMPT TO MODEL MARITIME ENGLISH LECTURER'S TRANSFORMED ROLE IN EMI
With all the useful comments in mind, let us now consider the role of the English lecturer, first within the HEI's organisation, and then on its own.Why their title can remain unchanged will soon be clarified.

Figure 1. Main stakeholders in EMI environment
Figure 1 is a simplified representation of the maritime HEI's system.If EMI is implemented, it will certainly be reflected on all the stakeholders.This image is not complete as e.g.student offices have not been included.The elements related in the current education scheme are the above shown four, with the students at the top as the institution's final product; content lecturers and Maritime English lecturers are shown at the mid-level and of equal importance.The HEI's management is shown last as its role should be to serve the main stakeholders in the education process and provide support to the lecturers, students, and the related services, by supporting them all in the organisational, professional, financial, and every other possible way.So, instead of having a topdown organisation, EMI would require a bottom-up organisation of the system.

Maritime
English lecturers HEI's management, and relevant Ministry content lecturers

Figure 2. Contents of present-day Maritime English courses
It all starts with General English, which is a prerequisite for any further development.Some maritime HEIs have General English classes only in the 1 st year of their maritime studies, while others have preparatory courses for students before the beginning of their 1 st -year courses.The central content, however, is the maritime-specific terminology and phraseology that is in some cases very varied as one lecturer can work at different departments, so their preparation, which as we have seen above, can be very exhausting when they first immerse themselves into a mostly unknown profession, but are nevertheless expected to start teaching and have to face a number of students expecting them to be the masters of their profession.With all this, there is little time left for other language contents, e.g.some language functions, such as expressing one's opinion, agreeing/disagreeing with another person's opinion, etc., which certainly differ from language to language.This content is related e.g. to intercultural competence, but a Maritime English lecturer hardly has any time for these important language topics because they teach e.g. the types of maritime contracts in English, in which they are anything but experts.So, if the content course lecturers start teaching the maritime terminology related to their fields of expertise and discussed under the topics of their courses, let us see what a Maritime English lecturer's course contents can be:

General English
Maritime English terminology and phraseology (from 1 or more different maritime fields) other contents, such as Academic English, etc.

Figure 3. Contents of Maritime English courses in EMI environment
Obviously, the share of each of these course contents can be varied to suit a particular institution and, above all, the students in the course.For example, if a HEI has preparatory General English courses for their future students, the share of General English will be reduced in favour of the other 3 components.However, this would certainly bring more satisfaction to the English lecturers at maritime HEIs, and consequently, to the students.Novice lecturers would be spared from the shock of teaching a non-own profession in English immediately at the start of their careers, while the more experienced lecturers' knowledge of the maritime professions would be welcome in the Maritime English exercise classes.Finally, they would also be in closer contact with their own profession, i.e. glottodidactics or linguistics, and the developments in the respective fields so that they could more easily meet the requirements of periodical elections into scientific/teaching titles.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on the survey responses and the discussion, the following conclusions and suggestions can be made: 1) EMI and ESD mean more communication, more teamwork, and more sharing.This survey has revealed, among other things, the lack of communication within the Maritime English lecturers' community.Notwithstanding the IAMU list of member universities, some do not respond to any invitations for cooperation.This results in poor teamwork mainly based on personal contacts, which further leads to poor sharing of ideas and resources.EMI could improve this as the English lecturers would have more time to dedicate to the language-related topics, i.e. their own subject matter, instead of studying mostly on their own, the language of the developments in the non-own, maritime profession(s).EMI would also require more cooperation and sharing between the English lecturers and content lecturers, or even co-teaching, which some of the respondents consider very useful and awarding.Co-teaching does not necessarily imply being in the same lecture room and teaching side-by-side, but it could mean topic-based courses, the language class structured around topics or themes of a professional course, but the English lecturer could deal with the content material for language analysis and practice once the content lecturer has introduced the topic in their lecture.
2) EMI and ESD mean using, conserving, and enhancing the community's resources with the resulting increase in the total quality of life.

General English Intercultural competence in English
Soft skills Maritime English exercises Academic English

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If the requirements mentioned above are met, this means the use of the human resources in an institution would improve: each group within the organisation would be more professional at work, i.e. developing competences in their own field, which exclusively lets one achieve high standards, and being focused on their own-profession's requirements.
3) EMI and ESD mean a human-centred approach in the organisation, and inter-generational equity.
An organisation is as healthy as any of its members, and health is the result of self-care.Therefore, individuals caring for their own professional requirements and developing to meet them contribute to the overall soundness of an organisation in which each element of the work process knows its own position, and is awarded appropriately if the requirements are met.Even the requirements of inter-generational equity could be achieved by a better organisation of the English lecturers' community at their institution first, and then at national and international levels, which would enable a constantly updated database of materials with relevant topics for the new generations of lecturers to inherit and maintain.4) Therefore, the current Maritime English lecturer's job is not sustainable due to: a) the lecturers' lack of communication, teamwork, and sharing; b) focusing mainly on non-own professional topics; c) delivering lectures on topics they are not expert in instead of their own profession-related ones; d) lacking time for the requirements of their own profession: language teaching and linguistics, due to focusing on the ever-developing terminology of different maritime professions across usually more-than-one department at which they teach; e) EMI is underway at a number of institutions because, with an initial effort from all the stakeholders (content lecturers' investment into an appropriate improvement of their proficiency in English; students' investment into a better entrance English proficiency to ensure their ability to undertake their studies in English; the management's increased readiness to show understanding for the language needs of both the content lecturers and the English lecturers at their institution, etc.), it will result in a neater organisation of work and healthier environment, in which the students will come out as a higher-quality end product, content lecturers will be more directly immersed both in the professional language and in academic work, while teaching in English when an appropriate proficiency is achieved will facilitate a further use of both; the English lecturers will focus on their own profession-related topics and will lecture on what they are expert in, while still supporting the language of the maritime professions in their exercises.
5) A suggestion is that The IMO Model Course 3.17 Maritime English should be available in electronic form and a committee formed to periodically meet and update the requirements of the Maritime English course, just as the updates about the regulations related to seafarer education and training are followed.
The changes in the maritime professions and practices are happening more frequently than ever before, and no doubt -because only change is constant.

Report 2 .
It was actually the Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development entitled Our Common Future, transmitted to the United Nations General Assembly as an Annex to document A742/427 -Development and International Cooperation: Environment.A statement opening Part 3 (para.27:18), reads: