On Application Of Interactive Teaching Theory To Aviation English Classroom For Air Traffic Controllers

As a typical kind of English for special purpose (ESP), Aviation English includesall kinds of professional English connected with the aviation industry. ATC English,as the core of Aviation English, is an occupational language for air traffic controllersand pilots，including ATC phraseology and General English.In view of the features of ATC English and the nature of the profession,tremendous efforts have been made to explore the effective ATC English teachingmethod. One effort is to apply interactive teaching theory to ATC English class.Among domestic interactive teaching researches, the research specific to ATC Englishinteractive teaching is rare. Therefore, the author aims to make a systematical study ofATC English teaching from the interactive teaching theory.The core of interactive teaching theory is that everything that happens in theclassroom simulates live social interaction. Interactive activities are adopted as themain form of the interactive teaching theory. Based on the interactive teaching theory,the author adopts the quantitative and qualitative methods to find out that most of theATC English classroom interactions seem superficial and unorganized, and that thecontent and design of interactive activities are done with little analysis of the learners’need and interest. The author also concludes some possible factors influencing thelearners’ performance in interactive teaching process. In order to meet the impendingneeds of the domestic ATC English teachers and the learners, the author proposessome strategies of applying effective interactive teaching in ATC English classroom,such as analyzing the target needs, attending to the learners’ English level and ATCPhraseology level and designing varied and appropriate interactive activities, etc.This present study has great significance in solving the existent problems ininteractive teaching of ATC English classroom. The exploration of some effectivestrategies for implementing classroom interaction has also contributed to interactiveteaching of ESP classroom.