Social Network Attributes: The Implications of Working With Non-Native English Speakers for L2 Learners

In the maritime English context, one of the concerns is to improve and maintain the L2 English mastery of the seafarers to create a successful completion of work-related tasks in the ship. This paper aims to reveal to what extent living with non-native speakers in professional and personal domain enabling to contribute to the development or the detrimental effect of Indonesian seafarers’ English mastery based on their language subjective experience and its unique implications. The social networks become the explanatory framework. A descriptive narrative design was employed using a questionnaire and interviews as the instruments. The result shows that the social network is indeed crucial and valuable for the English shift performance. Adverse effects are noticed due to the arbitrary speaking behavior produced by the other non-native speakers. Having adequate opportunity to practice English in the ship is also identified as a circumstance of an improved English mastery. Thus, the risk patterns noticed highlight the importance of communication training for L2 language proficiency.