Multimodal production of second pair parts in air traffic control training

Abstract

Air traffic control (ATC) is a joint multiactivity project in which controllers are engaged in activities carried out with an array of artifacts, involve a multitude of objects and actors, and amount to the management of multiple parallel tasks. In ATC training, this complex joint project is transformed into an object of pedagogy. With the help of 3-D simulators, the trainees are enabled to imitate ATC tasks in natural environments. Our analysis discerns the temporal and sequential organization of ATC training. We focus on the trainer's prompt–trainee's multimodal response adjacency pairs. Since the trainer's prompt is made relevant by the trainee's pending task accomplishment, this prompt projects the trainee's task accomplishment as a sequentially relevant (multimodal) next in the instructional sequences. The multimodal trainer–trainee interaction thus is embedded in the ATC task accomplishment. Our analysis discerns the temporal and sequential organization of the prompt–multimodal response adjacency pairs and their relationship to the larger work activities in progress. The analysis is based on videotaped data (12h) gathered during tower control simulator training. The article touches upon some central concerns of contemporary conversation analysis (CA) and ethnomethodological studies, i.e., multimodality, embodiment and materiality as key aspects of the participants’ sense-making processes.