14. starptautiskā konference 2012 - Latvijas Jūras akadēmija

Proceedings of 14th International conference „Maritime Transport and Infrastructure - 2012”REFRESHER COURSE FOR IMPROVING GRAMMAR SKILLSTO THE FACULTY CONDUCTING SUBJECTS IN ENGLISHLaimonis BraunsLatvian Maritime Academy, 5B Flotes st, LV-1016, Latvia, E-mail: info@latja.lvAbstractThe article discuses to the importance of the application correct grammar forms in case of conductingsubjects in English. There are different ways how to refresh grammar.One of the ways is to attend Refresher Courses in the International teaching Training Centre inBritain but the other one is arranging a seminar- type courses at the institution of higher learning as atype of distant learning tutorial. The faculty is provided with theoretical and practical grammarmaterials designed by prominent British linguists (in this case) by Michael Swan and CatherineWalters, Ronald Carter and McCarthy. Some methods and approaches are demonstrated in this study.IntroductionContent and Language Integrated Learning is “a dual – focused educational approach in whichan additional language is for the learning and teaching of both content and language.”(Online1) Forinstance Latvian Maritime Academy students learn Navigation, Maritime Law, Celestial Navigation,Ships Maintenance Planning, Ships Technical Management, Mathematics, GMDS, SeawayGeography, Port Management and other subjects in English. Italian students learn Science in French,Swedish students study Mathematics in Chinese. These combinations of languages and subjects arelimitless.The term “Content and Language Integrated Learning” was introduced in Europe in 1994.In the Latvian Maritime Academy separate Maritime subject teaching has been taking placesince the Academic year 2006/07. Since that time integrated learning has become an increasing reality.Due to the economic development of the logistics, the ports of Latvia in Riga, Ventspils andLiepaja have reached the cargo turnover up to 90 percent, the rail cargo 75percent, the majorproportion of oil and oil products have been transported via trunk pipeline systems, more than 9percent of Latvia’s employees have been engaged in the transportation and servicing of transit cargo.Ventspils port as for its geographical placement and technical operation and management in theinternational valuation have been rated as the seventh in the world. The port managers are going tocontribute to future planning to open the transit via ports of Latvia for China, Russia, Belarus,Kazakhstan and the Middle East countries.All that in total is an attractive incentive for the young people of Latvia and from abroad tostudy subjects in English either in the Port or Navigation and Engineering departments of the (LMA)Latvian Maritime Academy. Especially challenging is the EU’s Erasmus Action program that makesEurope’s educational opportunities more accessible to the rest of the world by granting scholarships toall European and non - European students. Good English knowledge encourages LMA students toapply for the Erasmus scholarship for studies abroad.The global seaborne trade has contributed the English language to becoming the lingua franca.Students’ desire of comprehension the content is motivating them to learn more, striving to reach theadvanced level of language.But we have to realize one aspect – the content of the subjects taught can be learned withminimal language but based on the application of faultless grammar forms.37