Developing criteria for a course in english for Aircraft technicians of the ethiopian air force
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1993-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop criteria for
course design in English for aircraft technicians of
Ethiopian Air Force. In the work of developing criteria, the
e xisting syllabus and materials were analyzed to see whether
t hey were relevant to the needs of the learners f or using
English in their academic studies and job performance.
For this study, questionnaires were designed and
distributed to 6 different groups: English teachers, academi c
and technical subj ect teachers, aircraft students, employers,
aircraft maintenance shop supervisors, and junior aircraft
t e chnicians.
Interviews were conducted with English teachers and
a irc raft students to crosscheck responses obtained through
ques tionnaires .
An analysis of maintenance manuals for aircraft engine
and airframe , and of technical subject handouts was made t o
find out the most frequent communicative functions and
notions students needed. An observation was also made on the
ma intenance work o f the technicians to see what a c tivities,
whi ch language skills, and c ommunicative functions were
actually used.
The basic criteria drawn up fron the findings are that
the syllabus should be topic-based while including subsyllabus
of functions and notions, skills, vocabulary and
s tructure; the content should d e rive both from general and
technica l English; the materials should cover all the four
language skills with emphasis placed in order of priority on
reading, listening, speaking and vlriting skills, and the
me thodology should adopt a v a riety of more recent and
s uitable techniques for l anguage learning, such as pair or
group work problem- s o l ving activities.
Description
Keywords
Aircraft technicians