Atkins, J.D.Menna, Abraham2018-07-092023-11-092018-07-092023-11-091993-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/7239The 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.enAircraft techniciansThesis