Abstract
Aviation English and Corpus Linguistics have been put together and focused by some investigations especially those regarding Aeronautical English (the language used between pilots and air traffic controllers in international radiotelephony communications). However, English used in aviation maintenance, specifically in written documents, has not been as much researched. This paper briefly explains the main concepts considering Aviation English and pre- sents—based on previous researches—aircraft maintenance professionals’ needs and regulatory agencies’ requirements related to language proficiency. Afterwards, it summarizes information about the most important technical publications for aircraft maintenance and describes the compilation of the Corpus of documents related to aviation maintenance (CoDoRAM). At the end, some ways the corpus can be used to teach vocabulary and grammar in English are pointed out. Although corpus compilation and analysis have been proved to be valuable for research and instructional purposes, most of publications encompass English for academic purposes teaching context. For that reason, this is a way to inspire new projects related to English used in aviation maintenance and the use of corpora in English for specific purposes classes.
Highlights
English is officially the “language of the skies” considering it is the most globalized sector of industry and professionals of this area such as pilots, mechanics, engineers and air traffic controllers (ATCs) need but are demanded to use English to communicate in oral and written situations [1] [2] [3] [4]. it may seem English for aviation is a single package for the whole field, that is not the reality and even the use of some terms can be confusing
Aviation English is a broad term, but it is usually adopted to refer to the language used between pilots and air traffic controllers in international radiotelephony communications and this specific usage definitely does not encompass all the language varieties used by the different professionals of the area
Plain English is the use of the language “in radiotelephony communication that exceeds the use of standard Phraseology, when it is not sufficient, but that should mirror phraseology, keeping its characteristics and specificities” (p.14) without jeopardizing intelligibility, non-ambiguity and concision
Summary
English is officially the “language of the skies” considering it is the most globalized sector of industry and professionals of this area such as pilots, mechanics, engineers and air traffic controllers (ATCs) need but are demanded to use English to communicate in oral and written situations [1] [2] [3] [4]. Compiling a corpus for a specific purpose and using the results of its analysis in teaching environment is not a recent enterprise, the number of researches and the use of their outcomes in real scenarios in the field of aviation English is not satisfactory yet Some studies, as those presented in Bocorny [7] and Tosqui-Lucks [8], have proven the combination of corpus linguistics and aviation English is beneficial to understand language aspects and to help teachers and learners. It is presented how different types of analysis might point out solutions to challenges of understanding, choosing and teaching specific language aspects It is based on the experience of compiling a corpus considering maintainers’ needs, lacks and wants [9] and demands of regulatory agencies from The United States of America and Brazil. Brazilian instructions are a little more specific than FAA requirements, it is still a challenge for teachers to determine what will be covered during a course
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
