Investigating Language Needs of Port and Shipping Management Students: Lessons Learned from The Internship Program

Abstract

---Need analysis is one of the important processes in English language teaching. In vocational education, it is important to ensure that students have competences that match the demands and needs of the industries. This study is aimed to investigate the language needs of Port and Shipping Management students of Politeknik Ilmu Pelayaran Semarang, based on their experience during the internship program. An open-ended questionnaire was used to survey the English-related-tasks that students have to perform, the difficulties that the students face when doing their tasks, and the language competence that the students want to improve based on their experience. 68 students participated in this research. All of them are eighth-semester students and had conducted internship program for twelve months. This study revealed that the four language skills: speaking, writing, listening, and reading are very important. Students have to make reports, engage in discussions, respond to clients or customers’ requests, handle documents, and reply letters. Students often find difficulties when doing their tasks due to limited grammar and vocabulary of formal language. They want to improve their communicative competence so that they can communicate fluently and accurately.