Teaching Aviation English through Content Language Integrated Learning: Air Traffic Controllers at Zenata Airport as a Case of the Point

Dr. Dib Mohammed, University of Mascara
Addou Sid Ahmed, University of Tlemcen

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to teach English to Air Traffic Controllers at the Airport of Zenata. To this effect CLIL Approach (Content Language Integrated Learning) is implemented an experiment being done with 9 students. The experimentation lasted 12 weeks and comprises 2 tests, a pre-test and a post-test. The pre- test was done during the first 4 weeks and concerned General English. The post- test, however, was made during the second and the third 4 weeks because it was the aim of the Airport administration. The result shows that the students in the pre- test appear to have a decrease of motivation and meagerness in expressing themselves while in the post-test they demonstrate that they have acquired a high confidence in using the language and that learning expressions and phrases and words increase their confidence in using the language. As a conclusion we suggest the implementation of CLIL approach in the teaching of English because it plays a significant role in exposing the language to the learners.

Key words: English, air traffic controllers, Airport of Zenata, CLIL approach.

Introduction

Teaching and learning are very complex fields; they are like Antarctica which is still under investigation and exploration. From the standpoint of didacticians, teaching is an ocean where several approaches travel in shoals and each approach jumps into the air to attract the attention of the busy teacher to implement it so as to bring satisfying results to the learners in terms of communication whether teaching a general or a specific language. However, learning how to communicate through a general language is a very long process because teaching a general language is somewhat like setting sails in uncharted waters; in other words, it takes a span of time to deal with all aspects: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics in details. All these aspects are taught to build communication and thread relationship with people around the globe. Yet in order to communicate, learners are concerned with a hasty business, i.e. they are not interested in dealing with all aspects of the language in details and wasting time in things they do not need. Doubtless the spur behind this work is the failure in using good English among students although they are taught several modules. The research questions of this survey are:

Is this failure due to the approaches of teaching?
Can students learn how to communicate without spending a long period of time?

These research questions are hypothesized as follows:

The use of CLIL approach can diminish the timing benchmark of learning.
CLIL approach can motivate students to learn

The purpose of this study is to implement CLIL Approach in the teaching for aviation English. To this effect pre- test and post –test have been applied to one group of air traffic controllers at the airport of Zenata. This survey contains a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part is dedicated to the status of English, grounds of teaching, aviation, communication, CLIL Approach, and the impact of CLIL Approach on learning, while the practical survey deals with experimentation, method, and data Analysis.

The status of English

Today, English is a language which is spoken by almost 1.5 billion people in the world. This estimated number is spread in the inner circle, outer circle, and expanding circle (GELDEREN,E.V.,2014).English occupies the second position after Chinese. This prominent position and continuous spread of it are due to its power;no barriers of race, colour, and creed could stop it from permeating every home and be used in every person’s daily life (BROUGHTON,G. BRUMFIT,C. PINCAS,A. WILDE,R.D., 1981).

So, English has become a global language because it is used within and without the English speaking world. Crystal, in this respect, said that the universality of a language depends on the widespread of its unique mission in both countries where it is used by a large number of speakers and beyond (MASTUDA,A. 2012 p.1).

English plays a prominent role in the world in communication and education. It is the language of international aviation; it is the main means of debate in the United Nations thus the propaganda used by Russia in the Far East is broadcast in English (BROUGHTON,G. BRUMFIT,C. PINCAS,A.  WILDE,R.D., 1981).Besides, it provides the opportunity to people around the world to solve problems of communication wherever they are. In other words, it is a lingua franca which remains ubiquitous although other languages are used for communication.

In terms of education, English has also penetrated in the foreign teaching programmes of many countries. In Japan, for instance, English is taught in the middle school. In Hong Kong, the government promotes it as a democratic instrument for teaching because learning English can help in facing challenges in Asian pacific countries. Qatar and Turkey are no exception because they use English in their curricula. (MASTUDA,A. 2012 p.1).

Grounds of teaching

Teaching requires first and foremost establishing a relationship between the teacher and the learner in order to know the personality of the learner because this may help in both learning and teaching. Learners in the same classroom may have different types of personalities. The test done in 1962 by the mother –daughter team Katharine Cook Brigs and Isabel Brigs Myer (MBTI) revealed that there are sixteen types of personalities which were grouped by the American psychologist Dr. David Keirsey into four categories: guardians, artisans, rationalists, and idealists (FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, 2008 p.3).

So, to recognize the types of personality of the students may push to shift the mode of training because enjoyment or boredom of the students are the result of the teaching styles used by the teacher during his course. That is, if the teaching style goes on a par with the mode of apprenticeship of the learner, then the absorption of information tend to reach a high percentage (FAA,2008).In other words, students are stimulated and motivated to learn. So, motivation is the turbine engine of learning. It can be defined as any external or internal drive that stimulates a person to do something. According to Henry .A. Murray, needs are of two kinds; primary and secondary. Primary are biological such as food, while secondary are psychological as independence. And the interaction between these needs can lead to a different type of personality. Along the same line, Abraham Maslow, the famous psychologist, argues that human motivation is due to the importance of some needs which are satisfied in order, and that a need satisfaction is a continuous conduct that fixes upon people’s regularly activities (FAA, 2008), and that motivation goes beyond physiological needs to the psychological needs such as safety, security, self esteem, and self actualization. So, to know the needs of the learners can help in teaching. Douglas Brown, in this vein, argues that in order to stimulate learners to concentrate on a listening activity, for instance, teachers should make appeal to the very strong quality which is germane to the personal interest and aim of the learner a part of internal motivating technique (BROWN, D.H.,2007 p.270).

In addition to the favourable conditions that are necessary for learning, cognitive processes and mental activities are also considered for learning process (BASTURKMEN,H.2006 p.97).

Aviation

Aviation industry plays a significant role in transporting people as well as cargo. This can contribute tremendously in establishing a world connectivity and mobility (DILLINGER,A.2014 p.4) and bringing a lot of profits to communities. A huge number of aircrafts (7000 commercial airlines and 72000 pilots) were operating in the United States of America since 2012, let alone the number of the aero planes of the rest of the world which is gradually rising (DILLINGER, A.2014 ).

It is undoubtedly true that the aviation industry is making the sky teeming with very gigantic jets. Perhaps the purpose is getting the key of the sky, but it will certainly cause turmoil because contrary to all other activities where the language used for practicing a task is clear, air traffic control witnesses confusing situations due to miscommunication that can result in catastrophes. In order to assure security and avoid any misunderstanding, English was recommended as the first operative language on the ground of aeronautics that goes in accordance with the international standards which requires a comprehensible language for the knowledge of phraseology. Thus using one language between the pilots and air traffic controllers is communicating several concerns such as: control, security and skills. As for political and historical issues, they are frequently discussed (DILLINGER, A.2014).

Aviation is a domain of English for Specific Purpose (ESP).It is viewed as an intensive labour for both teachers and learners. This is mainly due to its specific vocabulary, i.e., technical words and phraseology. The onset of ESP teaching is the analysis and description of the language system. Hopper (1987) argues that language systems are defined as a set of abstract structures present for all speakers and hearers, that is, a prerequisite for the use of language (BASTURKMEN,H.2006 p.35).The system includes grammatical structure, and vocabulary.

According to Hedge (2000) grammar was the focal point of many teachers in their teaching and that second language has dealt with the main structure of sentence like verb tense, conditional clauses, and noun phrases in addition to specific vocabulary which can by no means be excluded from ESP (BASTURKMEN,H.2006), and are also used for communication between specialists in the field of ESP, therefore are necessary for transmitting messages.

Communication

Communication is to transmit a message to another person and it can be done through several means; to write messages on stones, wood, wax, clay or use a sign as the deaf mutes do, or wave a flag in a mountain or employ a mirror or produce spoken words which is the most useful means (CONNOR,O.J.,D., 1973).

Communication also means sending ideas or feelings to another person or a group of people. Its reaches success when the sender and the receiver have the same ideas. It consists of three things; sender, symbols and receiver. The three elements are fundamental in any communication. The sender is considered the source of communication because he is the first to start communication and first to give information. The three elements are also complementary because each one counts on the others. (Federal Aviation Administration (FAA,2008).

The sender is the core of communication and in order to make a very effective communication, he should rely upon three things; competency to choose appropriate words and eloquent speech that seem clear to the listener, positive attitude with regard to the listener, and the use of new information (Federal Aviation Administration (FAA,2008). Clampitt 2005 said:”we actively construct meaning within a unique vortex, that includes the words used, the context of the utterances and the people involved” (DIXON.T.,  O’HARA,M.,). In other words, communication moves from one element to another in a circular way.

Communication skills do not come out of a vacuum. To attain this goal a whole chemistry of ingredients is needed such as experience, for instance, which comes from getting in scratch with others via talking in different subjects or learning in schools and institutions throughout some approaches. In what follows one teaching approach that is thought to have fruitful results in acquiring knowledge and language is presented.

CLIL Approach

CLIL is the abbreviation of Content Language Integrated Learning. It is an approach that implements the second language to foreign language learners for the purpose of practicing content (ZAROBE,Y.R.,  JIMINEZ CATALAN, M..M.,2009). Its use started in Europe in recent years in various language learning contexts. It is an approach where content learning and language development are combined. It is viewed as a means which links the subject intended to be taught to the second language and that the involvement of the content subject and the language used as a medium is almost equal. According to European commission of Languages CLIL Approach has three objectives:

It broadens the students’ knowledge about the subject
It develops the students capacities in the foreign language
It quenches the students’ thirst for knowledge by giving them an intercultural view about the subject and motivates them to do research in the same subject and makes them ready to know other cultures (MARINEZ AGUDO,J.D.,2012).

Impact of CLIL Approach on learning

CLIL has been the concern of many researchers where research has been conducted on the learning outcomes. It has revealed that the teaching through CLIL stream uses a high rate of hours compared to non-CLIL trend, the CLIL group is different from non-CLIL group in terms of motivation, talent and selection, i.e., students are self-selected, the language competency is always measured quantitatively, in most studies there is a matching of cohort, and finally aviation studies cannot be thought for the general education (GARAU,M.J., NOGUERA J. S.,2015 p.52).

As far as incomes of CLIL are concerned, researches held in Spain, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, and Netherland have revealed that CLIL approach has shown a positive result in terms of knowledge and motivation.

Practical survey

This experiment consists of 9 Air Traffic Controllers at the airport of Zenata, where two tests have been made; a pre-test and post-test. The pre-test contains 12 courses taken from the New Cambridge English Course and encompass the following titles: May I introduce may self? Who is who? My mornings usually start fairly late, How People live, There’s a strange light in the sky, things are changing, People are different, Things are different, Stuff for cleaning windows, A true story, I was getting ready to come home, and I haven’t got anything to wear. These courses aim to teach students exchange their personal information, describe people, talk about routines and habits, compare people and things, and commenting through simple present and present continuous tenses, and telling stories, and talking about the past through simple past and past continuous tenses.

As for the post test, it involves 10 courses about aviation under the following titles: Runway Incursion, Lost, Technology, Animals, Gravity, Health, Fire, Meteorology, Landings, and Fuel, taken from Aviation English for ICAQ Compliance book. The aim of these courses is not only to teach the phraseology of aeronautics but also to teach plain English and communication between air traffic controllers and pilots in non-routine situations. The time benchmark devoted to this training is 120 hours divided into 12 weeks; 4 weeks with the ratio of 10 hours per week are dedicated to pre-test training and 8 weeks with the scale of 10 hours per week are allotted to post-test training. In terms of organization, the classroom is made as follows: 9 students are sitting in U shape where each student has in front of him a student’s book which is, of course, different from the teacher’s book which contains solutions for all exercises. The participants of this survey are 9 students; 8 boys and 1 girl. Five of them are from Tlemcen, two from Ain Temouchent, one from Bechar, and one from Ainsafra. They are all graduated from University, they are self selected and talented, and they intend to pass level 4 in the aeronautic field. Figure 1 displays the number of the students, location, age, and gender. The role of the teacher in both tests is to guide from the side and intervenes only in case of necessity.

Data Analysis

Pre-test regarding practical general English reveals the following:

In listening activity odd behaviour like yawning takes place. In speaking activity production of sentences with low intonation characterizes dialogues as well as the presence of a remarkable long silence between sentences when describing things, and finally in reading activity students make a lot of mistakes and there is almost a total absence of stress. All these elements can be taken as indicators of demotivation. In the post-test students are highly concentrated because topics meet their personal interests and goals in the four skills; reading, listening, speaking and writing. The students also succeed in using a plain language when they are asked to communicate because they have learned some phrases and techniques such as avoidance of using word by word in their talk and use clustering, redundancy and language economy such as elision, linking and phrases. They are also aware of the bad impact of using silence between sentences on language and instead, they make appeal to sound fillers to fill this gap, and finally implement some idioms or phraseology function. So, contrary to non- CLIL session where students did not show a lot of interest in learning the language because the appeal to the subject intended to learn did not match their objectives of learning, CLIL session, however, has brought several outcomes to the students which can be listed as follows:

The students were less motivated in non-CLIL session although activities were the same as in post-test.
CLIL session demonstrated that students were highly motivated.
CLIL Approach was beneficial because it stimulates students to learn content and language at the same time.
The number of hours in CLIL session is higher than in the non- CLIL session
The students were selected
Students were able to express themselves
CLIL Approach can diminish the timing benchmark of learning ,i.e., 120 hours are sufficient to learn how to communicate using a good English
Figure. 1

Figure. 2

Figure. 3

Conclusion

To conclude, this survey was about teaching Air Traffic Controllers using CLIL Approach. It dealt with the status of English, grounds of teaching, aviation, communication, CLIL Approach, and the impact of CLIL Approach on learning in the theoretical side, and an experimentation, method, and data Analysis in the practical part. The experimentation contained 9 air-traffic controllers at the air port of Zenata located in Tlemcen and lasted 3 months where two tests were applied. The method used was to teach air traffic controllers practical general English throughout 12 courses taken from the New Cambridge English Course and 8 courses about aviation selected from Aviation English For ICAQ Compliance book.

The result showed that:

The students were less motivated in non-CLIL session although activities were the same in post-test.
CLIL session demonstrated that students were highly motivated.
CLIL Approach is beneficial because it stimulates students to learn content and language at the same time.
The number of hours in CLIL session is higher than in the non- CLIL session
Students were able to express themselves
CLIL Approach can diminish the timing benchmark

On the light of these findings, we suggest the use of CLIL Approach in the teaching of ESP because it is a fruitful approach in the sense that it exposes language and content to the learners in the same time.

References

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