Enhancing ESP Maritime English Reading Comprehension Using Vocabulary Language Prediction

Abstract

As one of the maritime countries in the world, Indonesia attempts to provide the maritime education and training based on International Maritime Organization regulations. One of these is the ability in Maritime English skill especially reading comprehension to achieve better understanding when gaining information and performing the communication at sea. The lecturers in the maritime higher education seek the best strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension by mastering the vocabulary before the main reading activity. The students in the first semester from three departments, which are Electro Technical Officer, Nautical, and Technical Departements, the average score showed that the most students are in the low level. Then, after the Vocabulary Language Prediction (VLP) was applied, the average score indicated a significant improvement which was in the intermediate level. It affirms that by applying the VLP strategy, students can enhance their reading comprehension.

Keywords: maritime English; reading comprehension; vocabulary language prediction.