Abstract:

A learner of English for Specific Purposes may say words clearly, construct grammatically correct sentences and use specific terms, but still has a communication problem, if he or she doesn't follow the rules of pragmatics, that is doesn't present knowledge of speech acts and speech functions, and sociolinguistic competence.

The primary goal of the instructor of English for future aviation specialists is to teach them speaking, paying less attention to grammatical correctness of the statements. The development of pragmatic competency during English language acquisition is is very important as aviation safety depends on that.

There exist two specific subject and language educational zones in English for Civil Aviation: the first is Aviation English taught to air traffic controllers and cabin crews, whereas the second is English taught to future professionals of ground handling operations, namely, passenger services and aircraft handling services. While English for Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers is strictly regulated in grammar, vocabulary, sentence structures, English for other professionals of the aviation industry is more flexible, and pragmatics here is the key priority.

The objective of the paper is to determine the set of components of pragmatic competency for an aviation professional, to decide what the strategies for achieving pragmatic competency are and how teaching and learning materials can be designed, finally, how to assess pragmatics awareness and pragmatic skills of students in placement tests and in progress tests.

Keywords:

English for Specific Purposes, pragmatic competency, Aviation English.