From the microphone to the classroom – ensuring that real-life communication is an integral part of teaching English to pilots and air traffic controllers

Abstract

Communication between Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers is very dynamic, context specific, and technically referential. It is reliant on a variety of communicative skills and includes such skills as understanding of operational knowledge and cultural awareness as well as being mindful and accommodating the needs of the other person. This paper will highlight the need for teachers to carefully consider and identify student’s reallife communicative needs in context when teaching English to pilots and Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs). It will focus on adopting a more inclusive approach to understanding and using the broad range of communicative skills that both sets of students need for effective and efficient communication, including but not restricted to, a more traditional language pedagogy. Taking a lead from both theory and practice in this domain, the presentation will offer tips and guidance to help teachers by integrating real-life and scripted examples of communication in the classroom based on that used in reallife operational communication. It will show how practitioners can develop a much greater critical awareness of their students’ real-life professional communication, which will ultimately help in curriculum planning, material development and classroom practice and offer learning to students that matches their real-life needs.