Between July 9 -15 2018 two of our language instructors, Piotr Czerwiński and Mateusz Fleszar, took part in a five-day classroom training course for aviation English instructors, materials writers and syllabus designers and a two-day introductory course in aviation, flight and air traffic control in Plymouth, UK. The courses were delivered by Latitude – Aviation English Services. The organisation provides tailored instructor training, aviation familiarisation and rater and test developer training courses of varying duration to airlines, ANSPs, regulators, ATOs, universities and language training organisations, such as Qatar Airways or Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority.
Latitude’s aviation familiarisation course was designed to introduce and develop the aviation operational knowledge to engage credibly and effectively with learners of aviation English. It covered a range of routine and non-routine situations, illustrated the crew coordination procedures and language use in and outside of ICAO phraseology, and looked at common threats to safety. It also included a guided flight on an Embraer 170/190 jet simulator at Flybe Training Academy, which illustrated many of the items covered in real time with hands-on experience of flying a glass cockpit modern airliner. The course was taught by Latitude’s Captain Dennis Gliddon.
Classroom training began with theoretical workshops designed to introduce the foundation knowledge required to teach English for aviation purposes. Training then moved on to practical workshops in which participants designed and developed their own aviation English teaching materials and delivered lessons under peer and instructor observation. This part of the training was delivered by Henry Emery, a reknown author and aviation English expert.
We are convinced that the training will contribute to further improvement of aviation English training at our university.
