Latifa Ika Sari, Abdurrachman Faridi, Dwi Rukmini, Januarius Mujiyanto
The globalization and internationalization in the Port and Shipping industry have made the ability to communicate using English in multilingual and multicultural settings as one of the must-have competencies for all employees. This study was aimed to identify social practices and the use of English in the Port and Shipping Management Community as part of need analysis. This study employed a qualitative descriptive research design by involving 88 alumni of a Maritime Polytechnic majoring in Port and Shipping Management. They were asked to describe their English-related duties in the workplace by using an open-ended questionnaire. A follow-up interview was conducted with 6 recently-graduated alumni, 4 alumni who have reached the managerial level, and 2 HRD managers. The results of this study show that in the Port and Shipping Management community, English is mostly used to communicate with clients or customers, both in spoken and written form. The communication is mostly conducted in a formal setting and the status role of the participants is usually hierarchic. Therefore, the use of formal language is dominant. This study has several implications for ESP teaching. It is important to improve students' communicative competence, to use authentic materials for teaching, and to address multimodality in the classroom to prepare students in handling real communication tasks in their future workplace. © 2021 Asian EFL Journal Press. All rights reserved.
Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES), Indonesia
