Background of this Study
Aviation industry has been developing for a long way since the first flight was
conducted by the Wright brothers on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina, U.S.A. There are now many different kinds of works involving involved in
this industry. For example, pilots, air traffic controllers, airport ground staffs and
aircraft technicians are the basic elements to this business. Since aviation is an
international business, it needs a general language to communicate with each other.
The 187 member nations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have
adopted the recommendation to use English as the aviation communicative language
(International Aviation Organization, 2003). However, this is not the final solution.
There exist many problems among those non-English speaking countries. Not all
employees in this field have a good command of the English ability language to
perform different tasks. Furthermore, they may have different local accents that
may make it are hard to be understood byto other colleagues from different
countries, or have English listening, writing, speaking and reading barriers to make it
difficult to know or misinterpretunderstand the original meaning easily (Dejkunjorn
2004).
Since English has firmly became become a common language of aviation
industry, working professionals such as aircraft technicians required a certain English
competencye to perform multitasking in their works. In other words, English plays
a contributing role in the aviation field no matter what kind of position.
Aviation English
Aircraft technicians use this kind of English mostly and directly to read technical
manual (TM) to follow the procedures and conduct aircraft maintenance and
inspection. They also use it to communicate with technical support (TS) from other
countries if there is are any difficulty difficulties or unclear parts of the maintenance
procedures. Besides that, they produce written technical entries and any
maintenance documentation entries, which can be easily understood by those with
whom they are normally required to communicate and verbally communicate with at
such a level as to prevent any misunderstandings when exercising the privileges of
their authorization (Philip, 2009). Overall, aviation English has its own jargon and
registers which makes it different from general English.
General English
Aircraft technicians use this kind of English as a fundamental ability to become
an employee in the aviation industry and communicate with other personnel such as
pilots and ground personnel etc. For example, many airlines use require a certain
score of standard on aof general English comprehensive test in Taiwan like the TOEIC
and the GEPT as a threshold in an employee recruitment. People who would like to
work in the aviation industry have to obtain a certain English level. Although
General English is not involved directly with the aircraft maintenance, but it plays an
important role as a means to communicate smoothly and successfully in the career
aspects. Some may have been working for so many years that their experience
makes them feel easy at ease with aviation English but still have some problems with
in general English. Some have difficulties with both and some have neither. Thus,
each of them needs to study English for different purposes. They need to study
English in a more precise and specific way that takes shorter time to keep up with
their objectives (Dejkunjorn, 2005). They need to study English for specific
purposes (ESP).
Statement of the Problem
Aircraft technicians need to obtain a certain level of English ability competency
in order to perform a plenty plethora of maintenance tasks. Previously, mechanics
needs needed to count on translated TM because they are lacked of English
proficiency. However, airlines owners have gradually relinquished translated
relinquish the translation versions of TM or and technical documentations into their
local languages for some a few reasons. For instance, it not only costs a great
amount of money to recruit some experts in the field to translate them, but it also
shows a slow process of translating time when the experts conduct the kind of job
because they have to translate a word by a word into an understandable aviation
English. Moreover, when there are some new versions or corrections in the
documents, some content needs to be translated again in order to let aircraft
technicians to have the latest procedure refer to the English original on to perform
the task . If there is no any new translation to for the new procedure, and the
technicians still use the old version, flight safety problems may occur. With respect
to the cost of translation and a slow process of translating timetranslation process,
the best and most efficient way to solve the problems is to increase improve the
English ability ability of aircraft technicians.
Comparing to the school ed to students who learn English as a prerequisite
course, English learning of an EFL adult is a totally distinct situation. When EFL
learners left leave from the pedagogical system and start to have a career in the
society, there are not much more chances for EFL learners to further their English
ability. Chang (1999) defined that when the EFL learners in Taiwan graduate d from
school, most of them have limitations to thein resources to pursue required EFL
proficiency in some cases. In addition, there are few previous studies focusing on
EFL adult learning and much less in English learning of in the workplace, it has its
needs and necessity to conduct a research particularly for them.
Purpose of the Study
The primary purpose of this study is to conduct a survey to understand the
English learning motivation for learning English, , the difficulties, and needs of the
technician in the aviation industry. In addition, it also determines what tasks are
performed by technicians at the Army Aviation Depot and the required English for
these tasks, and thereby better understanding their specific English language
requirements. In order to point out the English learning motivation and needs, the
research designed an inquiry involves an inquiry of several levels of maintenance
fields at AAD, including personnel from the aircraft general maintenance, avionics
and weapons to logistics and administration. Once the target AAD technicians are
were identified, a second round of survey questionnaires were administered,
following followed by semi-structured interviews with the technicians and
supplemented by on-site observations. With the analysis of the factors like English
learning motivation, difficulties, and needs that contribute to aircraft technicians in
the workplace, the researcher hope to find out and conclude what factors are
beneficial to aircraft technicians as EFL adult learners in the aviation industry of
Taiwan. The study focuses can be listed as follows.
(1) To point out English learning motivation, difficulties, and needs of aircraft
technicians.
(2) To investigate different background variables of aircraft technicians in English
learning motivation, difficulties, and needs.
(3) To outline specific English skills that help aircraft technicians effectively perform
in their maintenance tasks.
Research Questions
According to the above three purposes of the study, the research questions are
explored as follows.
(1) What are the English learning motivations, difficulties and English skill needs of
aircraft technicians?
(2) What are the differences in English learning motivation and difficulties in terms
of the demographic variables, such as genders, maintenance fields, ages, and
educations status among aircraft technicians in Taiwan?
(3) Which English skills do aircraft technicians need in Taiwan?