By Melanie Quillen
Vice President of Plane
English: www.planeenglish.com
ICAEA Board Member
After using inappropriate general English books in the aviation
language classroom for lack of market available aviation specific
English language learning material, my students were relieved,
motivated and enthusiastic when they were first introduced
to their new course books, Cleared for Takeoff by Liz Mariner.
Finally, there is a way to learn English necessary
for flight in one course made for pilots by pilots.
Students were continually motivated and stimulated by the
relevance and applicability to their flying. A myriad of collocations
and vocabulary mixed with information on how to actually use
language in every part of their training and flying prevailed
in this process. Listening/speaking exercises and role-plays
are abundant for practice and performance to instill these
skills so they can become second nature. The students love
the vibrant and clear photos. I appreciate the excellent binding
of high-grade paper as they withstood the constant handling
of over 60 course hours. Everyone recognized the cost/quality
ratio and found the cost relatively low in comparison to previous
purchases for any English course book.
The exercises are effective and never too difficult. Students
found these activities challenging especially the gap-fill
from listening exercises. The audio CDs are an excellent method
for increasing listening comprehension as each track is not
as rapid fire as live traffic but certainly always authentic
as listening to the frequencies of a training airport. As
more than one student noted, each track is introduced with
the track name and title of the exercise. The voices and situations
sound real and are never condescending or “fake”. They sound
like real transmissions in real situations; challenging and
interesting. I found that my students enjoyed listening on
their own outside of the classroom just for the authenticity
and feel of being in the traffic circuit. Students were also
assigned listening to tracks as part of pronunciation practice
by reproducing the transmissions at their computers in self-study
while I moved around the language computer lab and monitored.
Some of the exercises were drilled in chorus as well. This
proved most effective for numbers, call signs and the NATO
alphabet.
Role-playing was enjoyed by all students and even taken farther
for fun and learning. Those at higher language levels and
with more flying experience even added their own “twists”
to certain situations and were able to augment the language
and difficulty for each transmission. Most of the role-playing
activities were performed with the students sitting back-to-back
or using two-way radios and headsets connected to computers
to simulate non face-to-face dialogue. This latter helped
also in teaching proper radiotelephone procedure (distance
between the mouth and microphone as well as voice level) for
clearer communication when in the cockpit with actual headsets.
The topics also sparked many in-class discussions and aided
in guided group discussions leading to students putting their
new knowledge into practice. The meteorology and navigation
units were hits among the students, as they seem to be the
most enjoyed subjects amongst pilots. We used local airports
in comprehension exercises after these units and it gave me
many instances of monitored conversation and even helped some
students learn more as pilots as they shared their experience
and knowledge of airfields and airspace unknown to others.
The Meteorology units were also popular, as I had invited
an experienced pilot instructor who took the lesson into profound
descriptions of cloud types and heights. This was excellent
for guided group discussion for comprehension of the exercises.
The Unit Reviews helped me perform comprehension checks and
assisted in understanding weak and strong areas of each student.
From a non-pilot point-of-view, the Teacher’s Supplement helps
with answers and explanations for various situations one might
face by not being an aviator, this also is a plus when faced
with student pilots whose knowledge of flying in and outside
the traffic pattern is limited.
The only thing missing is
a focus on emergency calls. This aspect is not really covered
yet most important.
Some examples of relevant language teaching in an aviation
theme:
- Students learn to formulate questions by means of exercises
throughout almost all units. These accomplished through
role-play in specifics of aircraft, the traffic pattern,
speaking with the instructor (i.e. Unit 3, The Aircraft
“which aircraft has low wings?” and Unit 5, Let’s Go Flying
“what does “taking over’ mean?”)
- Present Continues by describing the movement
of aircraft positions in the traffic pattern (Unit 6, Introduction
to the Traffic Pattern).
- Teaching the use of present simple,
first conditional (so important in briefing situations)
and cause and effect are addressed in Unit 3, The Aircraft
by using the “Language Associated with Engine and Propeller
Controls”.
- Prepositions
are taught through Unit 5, Let’s Go Flying with respect
to the cockpit layout.
- Adjective order is taught in Unit 11,
VFR Navigation.
Being a language classroom and not a ground school lecture
hall I was able to use the books out of sequence to suit my
needs by teaching the language objectives in the order I chose.
Language and vocabulary were introduced as would be used in
both FAA and ICAO countries as well as many explanations of
various ways to refer to situations, parts of aircraft and
the airport itself to help teach students the many differences
they will find in language on the airways and in the real
world of aviation. Highly visible language notes help for
understanding of these differences.
The Teacher’s Supplement gives clear and organized ideas
for the use of Cleared for Takeoff in the classroom and simplifies
in addition to saving the teacher’s time. The lesson plans
are clear and effective as well as insightful as to targets
and objectives. Handouts are clear and easy to read. Answers
to the handouts and exercises are present as well as explanations
for those of us who are not pilots. The digital format is
extremely convenient and cost efficient leaving the teacher
to print or not as necessary as well as avoiding shipping
costs.
Students are tired of having to use and pay for English language
textbooks and audio modeled around topics and discussions
irrelevant to their needs, desires and interests. Seeing that
not all language is pertinent to pilots, teachers are not
happy to spend money and time omitting and adapting lessons
to produce photocopied or unprofessional looking handouts
and exercises in class. Cleared for Takeoff gives these pilots
and their teachers everything they need and want-a course
book made for them by one of them! One hundred percent of
the information in these books is useful and relevant to those
who need to speak English in the traffic pattern, on the airways
and in the cockpit bound in two colorful and easy to use manuals.
Teachers and students alike can appreciate the experience
of Captain Mariner as a Master Flight Instructor and language
teacher allowing them to benefit from her knowledge and enthusiasm.
By Melanie Quillen
Vice President of Plane
English
ICAEA Board Member
www.planeenglish.com |