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【Abstract】ESP （English for Specific Purposes） and EGP （English for General Purposes） teaching in maritime vocational colleges are new varieties of English teaching in this age. Hence， this research aims to explore an appropriate design of the bridging course content for maritime majors at vocational college by carrying out an empirical experiment. To test the effectiveness of the bridging course design， the pre-experiment and the post-experiment were done on 49 first-year maritime majors in Jiangsu Maritime Institute by adopting the bridging course. The results of the experiment data revealed that before the experiment was conducted， there was not much difference in the English level between the experimental class and the control class. However， after the experiment， it was found that the bridging course had a positive influence on the English academic achievement of the experimental class， which was superior to that of the control class. Finally， designing a bridging course between College English and Maritime English can covered the following three perspectives： choosing language content， compiling suitable ESP materials and teaching the bridging course on the basis of Needs Analysis. All mentioned above by the author were effective in enhancing students’ awareness of ESP study and College English study efficiency but needed to be further explored.
【Key words】Cohesion; Course content; College English; Maritime English; Vocational college
This chapter will present two research questions and then introduce the questionnaire and the interview used as measurement of the teaching content of the bridging course. Reasons for the adoption of the questionnaire and the interview will be listed to justify the validity of the research. The basic information on the subjects in the present study including their educational background， present study situation and so on will be explained in detail. Specific information about the research procedure and data analysis procedure will also be described.
1. Research Objectivees
The study was conducted concerning the cohesion of teaching content in reading and writing between College English and Maritime English courses at the maritime vocational college. The teaching content was directed at arousing students’ interest in college English， making good preparations for the highly efficient teaching and study of Maritime English in order to help maritime majors pass National Qualifications Examination for Seafarers successfully. 2. Research Questions
Due to the insufficiency of the previous studies， the present research would choose vocational college students as subjects and attempt to answer the following two questions：
2.1 Is it necessary to have a bridging course between College English and Maritime English at the end of the College English study （in the second term in Grade One）？
2.2 What is the teaching content of the bridging course？ How can teachers identify the teaching content？ Is the teaching effective in enhancing maritime majors’ efficiency and effectiveness in studying both College English and Maritime English？
3. Subjects
The subjects of this empirical research were 97 maritime majors， who enrolled in the Navigation Department at Jiangsu Maritime Institute in China in 2011， from two different classes： one was the control class and the other was the experimental class. Those students just began their College English study and about one year later， they were going to study ESP， i.e. Maritime English.
4. Research Instruments
The study was conducted through both a qualitative approach and a quantitative approach.
5. Results And Discussions
As illustrated in the introduction， the purpose of the research was to discover the effect of the bridging course between College English and Maritime English for the maritime majors. In other words， the author tried to examine how effectively the teaching content of the bridging course would improve students’ English studying effectiveness and interest. Consequently， the research was designed to get the proposed hypotheses tested and to find some significant results， which might provide implications and inspiration for College English teaching in China. Research results will be presented in this chapter and discussion will follow each data analysis.
6. Conclusion
6.1 Research Findings
As for Question 1 “Is it necessary to have a bridging course between College English and Maritime English at the end of the College English study？”， this research has confirmed that such a bridging course is really needed， which is shown by the research data of the questionnaire， especially in the maritime majors’ future study and qualification of examination of ESP.
When it comes to Question 2 “What is the teaching content of the bridging course and how to identify it？ Is it effective in enhancing maritime major students’ efficiency and effectiveness in studying College English and Maritime English？”， both of these two questions have been showed by the research and data analysis. Based on the theory of EGP and ESP， Needs Analysis and the Comprehensible Input theory， the teaching content concerning the general background information of maritime has covered the following aspects： subject words， important grammar items and basic reading materials. Study of the bridging course is definitely instructive for maritime majors， which is proved true by the data analysis in the research. 6.2 Implications for College English Teaching
The study has confirmed that the course cohesion between College English and Maritime English does have a positive influence on students’ interest arousal， study efficiency improvement and knowledge preparation for study of Maritime English. The following pedagogical implications can be generated. So far there have been some articles about the cohesion between College English and ESP teaching， but the descriptions of and solutions to the problems and suggestions in these articles remain superficial. Fewer books and researchers have made a thorough analysis of maritime learner’s needs in English study. Compared with the previous papers concerning problems and reform in College English teaching， this thesis may shed light on the following aspects：
First， teachers can make use of the end of College English teaching and arrange the bridging course in order to arouse the students’ interest in the current English study. To some degree， the teaching reform in College English will generate learners’ motivation to study English more efficiently.
Second， this research may help people concerned recognize the importance of needs analysis and may also help English teachers discover the problems existing in College English teaching. Moreover， on the basis of needs analysis， the author has tried to give some suggestions about the bridging course between EGP and ESP teaching.
Third， the research has confirmed the students’ roles and the market needs， and the reform of College English teaching based on needs analysis will no doubt help the students more in the study of their disciplines and in their future career. This also makes College English teaching more practical and more meaningful.
Fourth， the results mainly depended on the subjects’ responses. Questionnaires are convenient for statistical analysis， yet the researcher also encountered a risk that students might not be honest in answering the questions. If possible， more research methods should be used. Quantitative and qualitative methods have their respective strengths and weaknesses， so both are necessary if researchers are to develop multifaceted insights.
Lastly， there might be variable interference in the study. The teaching experiment was affected by different factors， such as age， learning tasks， individual styles， and different cultural backgrounds. Although some variables like age and teaching content were carefully controlled in this study， factors of individual learning styles and the total level of the class were not controlled by the researcher. This might give rise to intervention and affect the findings of the study. So further study should consider more relevant factors.
References：
[1]Chambers， F. A re-evaluation of needs analysis in ESP[J]. ESP Journal，1980，1：25-33.
[2]Mackay， R.
【Key words】Cohesion; Course content; College English; Maritime English; Vocational college
This chapter will present two research questions and then introduce the questionnaire and the interview used as measurement of the teaching content of the bridging course. Reasons for the adoption of the questionnaire and the interview will be listed to justify the validity of the research. The basic information on the subjects in the present study including their educational background， present study situation and so on will be explained in detail. Specific information about the research procedure and data analysis procedure will also be described.
1. Research Objectivees
The study was conducted concerning the cohesion of teaching content in reading and writing between College English and Maritime English courses at the maritime vocational college. The teaching content was directed at arousing students’ interest in college English， making good preparations for the highly efficient teaching and study of Maritime English in order to help maritime majors pass National Qualifications Examination for Seafarers successfully. 2. Research Questions
Due to the insufficiency of the previous studies， the present research would choose vocational college students as subjects and attempt to answer the following two questions：
2.1 Is it necessary to have a bridging course between College English and Maritime English at the end of the College English study （in the second term in Grade One）？
2.2 What is the teaching content of the bridging course？ How can teachers identify the teaching content？ Is the teaching effective in enhancing maritime majors’ efficiency and effectiveness in studying both College English and Maritime English？
3. Subjects
The subjects of this empirical research were 97 maritime majors， who enrolled in the Navigation Department at Jiangsu Maritime Institute in China in 2011， from two different classes： one was the control class and the other was the experimental class. Those students just began their College English study and about one year later， they were going to study ESP， i.e. Maritime English.
4. Research Instruments
The study was conducted through both a qualitative approach and a quantitative approach.
5. Results And Discussions
As illustrated in the introduction， the purpose of the research was to discover the effect of the bridging course between College English and Maritime English for the maritime majors. In other words， the author tried to examine how effectively the teaching content of the bridging course would improve students’ English studying effectiveness and interest. Consequently， the research was designed to get the proposed hypotheses tested and to find some significant results， which might provide implications and inspiration for College English teaching in China. Research results will be presented in this chapter and discussion will follow each data analysis.
6. Conclusion
6.1 Research Findings
As for Question 1 “Is it necessary to have a bridging course between College English and Maritime English at the end of the College English study？”， this research has confirmed that such a bridging course is really needed， which is shown by the research data of the questionnaire， especially in the maritime majors’ future study and qualification of examination of ESP.
When it comes to Question 2 “What is the teaching content of the bridging course and how to identify it？ Is it effective in enhancing maritime major students’ efficiency and effectiveness in studying College English and Maritime English？”， both of these two questions have been showed by the research and data analysis. Based on the theory of EGP and ESP， Needs Analysis and the Comprehensible Input theory， the teaching content concerning the general background information of maritime has covered the following aspects： subject words， important grammar items and basic reading materials. Study of the bridging course is definitely instructive for maritime majors， which is proved true by the data analysis in the research. 6.2 Implications for College English Teaching
The study has confirmed that the course cohesion between College English and Maritime English does have a positive influence on students’ interest arousal， study efficiency improvement and knowledge preparation for study of Maritime English. The following pedagogical implications can be generated. So far there have been some articles about the cohesion between College English and ESP teaching， but the descriptions of and solutions to the problems and suggestions in these articles remain superficial. Fewer books and researchers have made a thorough analysis of maritime learner’s needs in English study. Compared with the previous papers concerning problems and reform in College English teaching， this thesis may shed light on the following aspects：
First， teachers can make use of the end of College English teaching and arrange the bridging course in order to arouse the students’ interest in the current English study. To some degree， the teaching reform in College English will generate learners’ motivation to study English more efficiently.
Second， this research may help people concerned recognize the importance of needs analysis and may also help English teachers discover the problems existing in College English teaching. Moreover， on the basis of needs analysis， the author has tried to give some suggestions about the bridging course between EGP and ESP teaching.
Third， the research has confirmed the students’ roles and the market needs， and the reform of College English teaching based on needs analysis will no doubt help the students more in the study of their disciplines and in their future career. This also makes College English teaching more practical and more meaningful.
Fourth， the results mainly depended on the subjects’ responses. Questionnaires are convenient for statistical analysis， yet the researcher also encountered a risk that students might not be honest in answering the questions. If possible， more research methods should be used. Quantitative and qualitative methods have their respective strengths and weaknesses， so both are necessary if researchers are to develop multifaceted insights.
Lastly， there might be variable interference in the study. The teaching experiment was affected by different factors， such as age， learning tasks， individual styles， and different cultural backgrounds. Although some variables like age and teaching content were carefully controlled in this study， factors of individual learning styles and the total level of the class were not controlled by the researcher. This might give rise to intervention and affect the findings of the study. So further study should consider more relevant factors.
References：
[1]Chambers， F. A re-evaluation of needs analysis in ESP[J]. ESP Journal，1980，1：25-33.
[2]Mackay， R.