The Effect of Content-based Materials on Teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to Air Traffic Controllers

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of content-based materials on teaching ESP to air traffic controllers. To perform this study, the participants who are working in air traffic control tower were selected and took part in the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) and 21 of them whose scores were between 30 and 39 were assigned into two homogeneous groups at the pre-intermediate level. Then, both groups were given a pre-test of reading comprehension of ESP materials before treatment to determine how well the participants knew the contents. During a fourteen-session course, both groups covered seven topics selected by the researcher. The experimental group received teaching according to content-based materials while the control group received traditional teaching by using the method of presentation-practice and production (PPP). Finally, at the end of the course, they took a post-test and after an interval of two weeks, the participants were given a delayed post-test. The findings revealed that the aviation English knowledge of both groups improved. However, Independent Samples t-test showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups. The students of the experimental group who used designed contents outperformed the control one. In general, the results showed that content based materials for teaching ESP significantly improve the performance of the air traffic controllers. Implications of the study suggest that the content-based activities can develop the learners who participate in ESL reading courses.

Keywords:

content-based materials , ESP , air traffic controllers