The year 2007 is the turning point for Maritime English training at Oshima College of Maritime Technology where new trials were planned and implemented in order to make Maritime English courses more communicative and practical. This change has been hoped by the Japanese shipping industry and National Institute for Sea Training (NIST). The former operates its fleet with multinational crew and expects Japanese seafarers to play a management role with effective communication skills while the latter introduced English as a communication language of its practical onboard training several years ago. This effort is supported and funded by the Education Ministry as a “Good Practice (GP) project” and consists of two main programs. One is the introduction of English communication to college training ship that gives basic onboard training to the college students during their shore-based study. The other is development of English language self-study modules by means of e-learning. The paper will present first year trials for communicative approach in maritime English training at the Oshima college, particularly “onboard training through English” and self-learning methods with multimedia technology. Effectiveness of the combination of different learning methods will be discussed. Practical learning experience will be proposed for improving English communication skills of the college students.