In the global maritime industry, ineffective and ambiguous communication often is a contributing cause of shipping accidents. Unnecessary risk may also be created by communication in day-to-day routine conversations between ships and shore service operators (IALA, 2017). Routine maritime communication between shore service operators and ship crews significantly deviates from the standard protocol of communication, as shown in a coamprehensive data-based quantitative study recently conducted by Jurkovič (2022) who corroborated the findings of other authors in different geographical contexts (Dževerdanović-Pejović, 2013; Boström, 2020).

This which indicates a strong need for widely available relevant digital educational tools for maritime communication. Maritime education and training institutions and national maritime safety authorities, both have the role of partners in this project, are responsible for providing maritime communication education and training in which discourse use is integrated with specific roles and situations. Modern technologies allow the creation of speech-recognition chatbots for self-directed life-long learning. To date, no international project nor research study has addressed maritime communication from the point of view of shore service operators as a key communication agent that has a significant impact on navigational safety. In addition, so far no project has focused on the development of a combination of instructional videos and chatbots based on authentic routine communication data.

Another important finding made by Jurkovič (2022) is the need for harmonization between the documents that define the standard protocol of communication, and the need for a research-based revision of the Standard Marine Communication Phrases (IMO, 2001). The project will bring added value at European level because it will create synergies among two educational contexts that have developed from different educational traditions: that of the Scandinavian countries and that of southern and south-eastern European countries. Ultimately, the results of the project will be communicated to the international bodies competent for the maritime world globally and thus for the EU (IMO, IALA, ITU, IMLA, IMEC, EMSA), which will bring systemic added value to the results.

– Boström, M. (2020). Mind the Gap! A quantitative comparison between ship-to-ship communication and intended communication protocol. Safety Science, 123, 1–8.

– Dževerdanović-Pejović, M. (2013). Discourse of VHF communication at sea and the intercultural aspect. International Journal for Traffic and Transport Engineering, 3(4), 377–396.

– IALA. (2017). G1132 Guideline: VTS VHF voice communication. International Association of Lighthouse Authorities.

– IMO. (2001). Resolution A.91822: IMO standard marine communication phrases. International Maritime Organization.

– Jurkovič, V. (2022). Authentic Routine Ship-Shore Communication in the Northern Adriatic Sea Area – a corpus analysis of discourse features. English for Specific Purposes, 68, 47–59.

Univerza v Ljubljani is the oldest, largest, and internationally best-ranked university in Slovenia, being among the top 500 universities according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities Shanghai ranking (ARWU). It was founded in 1919 and encompasses 23 faculties, 3 art academies, and 3 associated members. In terms of the number of students, UL ranks among the largest HEI in Europe with more than 40,000 students. Study programmes at UL cover all ISCED areas in the first and second-cycle study programmes and lead the way in some new developments in technology and research. Since 2008, UL has been committed to respecting the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of 
Conduct for Recruitment of Researchers, which led to the award of the “HR Excellence in Research” in 2013. UL is very active in national and international R&D and educational programmes and creates almost half of the research results of Slovenia. In 2022, UL was involved in 639 ongoing European projects. Up to the end of 2022, UL was involved in 225 HORIZON 2020 and 88 HORIZON EUROPE projects, 168 ERASMUS+ KA2, KA3, Jean Monnet and Sport projects, and 114 projects of the European territorial cooperation programme. Membership: EUTOPIA, the Guild, CELSA, LERU-CE7, UNICA, Utrecht Network, European University Association (EUA), CEEPUS, Central European Exchange Program, CEI University network, SAR Scholars at Risk and Rector’s Conference Alpe Jadran.


The Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport (Fakulteta za pomorstvo in promet, UL FPP) of the University of Ljubljana is a higher education and training institution engaged in educational, scientific, and research work in the fields of maritime studies, transport and logistics. Currently, it employs around faculty staff, who are experts in navigation and marine engineering, and transport and logistics, and has modern hardware and software computer equipment and research laboratories. The faculty has navigation/engine room simulators for the education and training of seafarers, and simulators for real-time simulations of real-life transport and logistics situations. Therefore, it is a leading (and only) higher education institution in Slovenia that covers the field of maritime studies, logistics and transport. The study programmes and research provided by the Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport (UL FPP) cover the entire spectre of disciplines and activities of the project proposal. UL FPP has excellent connections with the Ministrstvo za infrastrukturo, Uprava republike Slovenije za pomorstvo (Slovenian Maritime Administration) and the Slovene maritime industry so that any innovative approaches, platforms and digital tools can be tested, evaluated, and piloted by involving different stakeholders. 


 

 

Dr Violeta JURKOVIČ is an Associate Professor in English for Specific Purposes, and has 25 years of experience in teaching languages for specific purposes. She has authored and co-authored papers on teaching methodology, and has been actively involved in the research of Maritime English. In 2022, she published her paper titled “Authentic Routine Ship Shore Communication in the Northern Adriatic Sea Area – a corpus analysis of discourse features” in English for Specific Purposes, one of the globally highest ranking journals for linguistics. In the last five years, she has been involved in several EU projects: LSP Teacher Training Summer School (2020-1-DE01-KA203-005687), LSP Teacher Education Online Course for Professional Development (2020-1-DE01-KA203-005687), Summer Logistics School (2017-1-SI01-KA202-035498), Sustain4VET (2021-1-HR01-KA220-VET-000025498), SmartSea (612198-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-KA), and Namirs: North Adriatic Maritime Incident Response System (funded by European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations. 

The main objective of the project is to enhance the safety of navigation, measured through statistically significant differences in maritime communication skills before and after the implementation of the digital pilot study among shore service operators and higher education students.

Other project objectives are:

– to develop learner-centered and needs-based teaching practices so that the digital educational content closely simulates the authentic situations that the users (will) need in their professional lives;

– to develop open-access digital educational tools relevant for the maritime industry and the broader society; 

– to develop open-access instructional videos and chatbots that will support continuous and self-directed learning, allow the interaction between the research and educational dimensions, and strengthen the links between education, research, innovation, and practical use;

– to promote the lifelong learning dimension of higher education;

– to support and develop new forms of interdisciplinary cooperation among higher education teachers from different disciplines involved in the project;

– to exploit the potential of digital technologies and develop the digital competencies of the target group users and of higher education teachers;

– to use the digital tools for the creation and analysis of language databases, and the creation of maritime communication simulation tasks;

– to develop a database that can be later utilized for the development of a wider maritime communication library to be used in AI-based speech recognition and communication management solutions;

– to be in line with the strategic priorities of the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) in that the project supports high-quality, inclusive, and accessible digital education, and presents digital opportunities for the education and training community, policymakers, academia, and researchers;

– to develop, deploy, and evaluate open-access digital educational tools expected to increase the capacity and readiness of the involved institutions to manage an effective shift toward digital education;

– to assess improvements in navigational safety as a result of the digital education pilot study;

– to provide research-based recommendations for a revision of the standard protocol of communication. 

Scroll to Top
Skip to content