Abstract:

The aim of the paper is to offer solutions for enhancing the effectiveness of teaching English to adult professionals. The author’s opinions stem from teaching military personnel in the Czech Republic. Most recommendations are based on the experience gained through designing and teaching Aviation English courses to Military Air Traffic Controllers (MATCos), and on the evaluation of data collected from the participants’ feedback over the last six years. The author argues that teaching English to adult professionals in intensive courses requires a blended approach to curriculum development, teaching methods, and forms of study.

After a short introduction of the course, the paper compares traditional and learner-centered curriculum development. The author suggests that an effective curriculum tailored to the needs of professionals should be an outcome of collaboration among an English language teacher, a subject specialist and learners themselves. However, a curriculum should never be considered invariable, and it has to become a subject of changes upon each reflection on a course run. The paper presents concrete examples of incorporating course participants’ inspiring ideas into the curriculum and content of the course.

The author also examines traditional and modern approaches and methods in teaching English. Over the past decades the communicative and learner-centered approaches have become the credo of English language educators and have overshadowed traditional methods. What are the consequences? The paper answers this question and argues that some traditional methods serve well to the purpose of mastering specialized English. It presents concrete examples of using traditional methods in teaching Aviation English which were introduced in the course at the request of the participants. On the other hand, the author welcomes the opportunities provided by abundant online educational materials and offers several ways of their development for teaching English for Specific Purposes.

In addition to that, the author is preoccupied with an efficient use of time when teaching intensive courses. Since the course for MATCos is scheduled for two weeks only, time is precious. Meeting the course objectives in such a short time requires effective planning. Due to high motivation, the course participants are willing to study before and after the course. The paper suggests particular activities which can be assigned prior to the course, and introduces an extensive e-learning support, including learner-generated materials, allowing further development within lifelong learning. The author intends to share the e-learning study support with conference participants interested in e-learning or Aviation English.

This extended abstract has attempted to provide a brief summary of the paper focusing on the implementation of well-proven traditional and innovative approaches to course design, teaching methods and forms of study. The findings presented in the paper have been supported by feedback from seventeen two-week course runs. The author believes that the outcomes of this case study are transferable to other fields of study as well.

Keywords:

Aviation English, curriculum development, English for Specific Purposes, feedback, traditional and innovative methods.