Seminar Nasional Industri Bahasa 2017 Prosiding SNIB 2017

Politeknik Negeri Malang ISSN: 2541-5654

THE FUNDAMENTAL NEED OF AVIATION TERMINOLOGY FOR AVIATION STUDENTS TO BE

INTEGRATED IN OTHER ENGLISH SKILLS NEEDED TO SUPPORT THEIR JOB

Widyarini Susilo Putri

Universitas Merdeka Malang
widyarini@unmer.ac.id

Dwita Laksmita Rachmawati

Universitas Merdeka Pasuruan
dwita_laksmita@ymail.com

Abstract

The study is intended to elaborate the importance of aviation terminology

toward Indonesian aviation students’ English skill. This paper is focused on the
significance of learning the said terminology to be applied in the aviation industry
especially for Ground Staff, GSE (Ground Support Equipment), and Avsec (Aviation
Security) for their future respective career. This paper analyzes the aviation students’
needs to support their English skills due to the high demand of it in aviation industry.
The objective of this study was to figure out the materials needed in terms of
terminology or vocabulary usage and also the order of other English skills needed the
most by them after conducting vocabulary materials.
The aims of this study were also to analyze and to find out what were the
students looked-for in learning vocabulary as it is the fundamental materials needed to
be able to use appropriate English for aviation, therefore it could function properly
and to be well applicable to their job. This study was conducted in one of private
aviation training center in Malang, East Java, Indonesia, and the subjects were 9
students varied from 3 Ground Staff students, 3 GSE students, and 3 Avsec students.
The instruments that were used for data collection were a questionnaire and focus-
group interview.

Keywords: English Aviation, Aviation Terminology.

1. Introduction According to Hutchinson and Waters

As an International language, English
is very important as the main
communication’s tool between people in
different countries. It plays a crucial role to
share some informations about science,
commercial activities between countries
around the world and when we are travelling
for a reason. Because English used by most
people worldwide, it is being looked as one of
the most important subject in curriculum. It
aims to provides the most effective and
efficient ways of learning and teaching
English.
(1987) different learners have different
interest and needs, that have an important
influence on their motivation to learn and the
effectiveness of their learning. These needs
support the development of courses in which
relevance to learner’s needs and interest.
As we know that aviation industry has
developed quickly because there are more
and more people try to find way to travel to
some different locations in the world. Based
on World Tourism Organization (WTO) in
1950 to 2011 there are growing number of
tourist from 21 million to 25 million and there
 Prosiding SNIB 2017
is prediction or 30 million more tourists
between current date and 2030 who
travelling by air each year (World Tourism
Organization, 2012). Countries need to
provide fastest way of travel for the travelling
population. This situation give benefit of
airlines and airports which provide the fastest
way of travel for population.
In addition to that, they need to
employ staff members like flight attendants,
pursers and other crew members that not
only have skill that relates with their field and
also second language skill, in this case is
English which Internationally accepted. It is
really crucial and necessary in order to build
an appropriate and accurate communication
between the pessangers and staff members.
But, the workers seem faced with many of
problems related to second language skill,
because many of them only focused with skill
that relates with their field. Thus, it is attract
the researchers’ interest to conduct a
research about the materials needed in terms
of terminology or vocabulary usage and also
the other English skills needed the most by
them after conducting vocabulary materials.
2. Theoretical Framework
2.1 Needs Analysis
Nunan (1998) states “Needs analysis
refers to procedures for gathering information
about learners and about communication
tasks for use in syllabus design”. It means that
needs analysis is the main step before the
teachers decide to design a course outline and
sources for students so it can meet with their
students’ need.
Needs analysis is very important for
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students.
ESP study program should be designed to help
the students mastering English that relates to
their job. This program is very important
because every students in any field need to
know how to use language in the according
context. To gain the linguistics needs, the
instructors have to find out the goals of the
students need to achieve in relations to the
researcher and academic life in order to asses
their needs relate to their purposes (Owolabi,
2012).
175
The setting of teaching and learning of ESP
should be prepared a program for every
single purpose. It’s because of the specific
needs of the students who differ based on the
purpose and course that have the benefit
relates to their job.
There are some researchers on needs
analysis in the ESP, Karimi-Sanavi (2014) study
about the present and future English
language needs of the students in Aviation
Training Program for ESP courses. The
methods used in this research were both
qualitative and quantitative. The instruments
of this study were a questionnaire, structures
interview and semi-structured interview. The
result of the study showed the needs and the
problems of the students.
Parohinog-Meeri (2015) conduct a
research about how to improve aviation
students’ English skills was supplemented
with qualitative and quantitative data through
interviews, survey questionnaire and focus-
group. The results confirmed that there is a
need for higher proficiency in English before
they can pursue a career in Aviation.
3. Methodology
3.1 Setting and Participants
For this research study, the
researchers use Angkasa Jaya Wisesa
(Training Aviation Center) which has 3
months-program called training of English for
Aviation students. There are 9 students varied
from 3 Ground Staff students (2 males and 1
female), 3 GSE students (3 males), and 3
Avsec students (2 males and 1 female). The
age range was between 18-21 years old.
3.2 Data Collection Instrument
This tsudy used descriptive statistics
research method. To conduct the study, the
data gathered through two instruments, the
needs assessment scale and focus group
interview were given to the participants. The
data for this study obtained from
International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO, 2010) language proficiency
requirements administered to the research
participants to collect the data about aviation
students’ needs to support their English skills
that is used by aviation’s student.
176 Widyarini S. Putri, Dwita L. Rachmawati, The Fundamental Need
The second intrument gathered from
the interview included three open-ended
questions measuring what students’ biggest
needs are in vocabulary learning process,
what can be the reasons for
misunderstanding in verbal communication of
aviation field and their suggestion on how to
make vocabulary learning in aviation. Nine
Angkasa Jaya Wisesa (Training Aviation
Center) students were interviewed on
October 10, 2017. The points of the
interviewe were what they needed in
vocabulary, and their reasons for this; and
what should be done to make vocabulary
learning process in aviation more qualified.
3.3 Data Collection Procedure
Before collecting the data, the ICAO
questionnaire translated into Indonesian
language in order to minimize the student’s
problem and also to avoid misinterpretation
in comprehending each item and response
scale.
The first, the researcher translated
the ICAO questionnaire into Indonesian
language by keeping as much as possible the
referential meaning of the words without
changing any content of them. After the
questionnaire had been translated, the
researcher conducted pilot test to 3 students
in order to identify and resolve any ambiguity
if there is any. Three volunteers were
involved in the pilot study on October 1st
before the main study.
The process of the pilot study was
almost the same as the main study. The
purpose of the pilot study was to field-test
the data collection instruments and the
implementation of the data collection
procedures. In the pilot study, each
participant completed the language learning
strategy questionnaires and the background
information questionnaire. The data from the
pilot study were not included in the data
analysis of the main study. Oxford (1990,
p.199) said “Piloted should be done in order
to see whether the questionnaire works or
not and also to avoid ambiguity”.
After the students have done to fill
the questionnaires, the researcher
interviewed each of the sampled students.
The interview questions were mainly
designed to ask how they dealt with their
need to vocabulary learning.
4. Result
4.1 The Research Process
First of all, the writers use general
English for Aviation. However, the result does
not come out well, therefore the writers feel
the need to do a research to find out the skills
and methods needed the most by them. The
reason behind the less satisfying result is
because most of them apparently do not
understand the basic terms of aviation hence
it becomes the main obstacle to them to learn
English for Aviation. Majority of the students
are incompetent in English to comprehend
the materials subjected to them, and it is
understandable since they are High school
graduates. Most of the students are implying
that they do forget the English they got when
they were in both of junior and high school,
the students are indicating that they were not
really mastering English well in those days. It
is however affecting their learning process to
be a part of professional Aviation staff.
The students failed to perform their
English training at first week of trial, they
cannot perform the proper English to be
applied in their job in which likely to be the
hindrance of their success if they cannot
figure out their problem well. Here is the
role’s of the tutor to teach them and also to
make them be more aware of their English
impediment. Besides questionnaire given to
them, the students conducted an open ending
conversation to unveil the predicaments
faced. The results from these questionnaires
and interview signifying that they do need the
basic vocabulary of aviation in order to be
able to step up for the main materials of their
required English skill such as speaking.
Speaking is highly needed for Ground Staff
since they personally will make direct
interaction with the passengers.
4.2 Learning Steps and Methods Needed
Methods proposed by the students is
visual medium, they stated that visualization
will ease their learning process since they can
picture the word well. Using visual medium is
way easier than directly visiting airport to
show them the real things they learned.
Prosiding SNIB 2017
Nevertheless studying by looking at real
object in airport is the most effective and
unbeatable methods to have greater impact
for their memories and yet this method is less
effective since it will be quite complicated to
do so. Never once the student insisted to
study in field, here is the airport, since
nowadays the visual can be easily accessed
through internet.
Once the students learn the word and
the picture, they will start to mimic the tutor’s
pronunciation to those vocabularies.
Repeating the tutor’s word is a must for them
in order to be able to articulate it well. At
least 3 times the tutor will guide the students
by repeating the words in which directly
followed by them.
The next step is they will memorize
those said vocabularies after repeating it
simultaneously. After they learn the words by
heart, the tutor will do regular exam that will
be held in every weekend. Four days straight
for vocabulary drill and every last day just
before the weekend they will do the exam
regarding this material. The drilling process of
vocabulary took around 16 days and 4 times
for exam.
The exam itself is divided into two
categories, first of all is written test and
another one is oral test. The function of
written test is to check their ability in writing
the word correctly, to put the vocabulary into
word so that they will do well in both areas.
The evaluation is actually emphasizing more in
oral test and yet written test is strongly
required too. To say the least that learning
orally is important is understatement, the
students need to voice out loud their
knowledge regarding to vocabulary matters
thus they will gain some more confident in
speaking English, in which it is not their first
language to start with. That is why
pronunciation sits in 2nd place for the most
needed English skill by the students. It refers
to phonology or difficulty in sound production
like /CHek/ which is the students mostly
pronounces it as /Cek/.
However, it is the vocabulary that
becomes the foundation of their confidence in
speaking. It relates to the difficulty in aviation
terminology and words with multiple
meanings such as “apron” which has several
177
meanings, both in daily life and aviation
terminology. That kind of word in which
confusing for it double meaning makes this
vocabulary learning become the most vital
one.
The third place is taken by Structure.
The students voice out their opinion that they
do not have enough audacity to talk freely
with English native speakers since they do not
know how to arrange the words to put in into
good sentence. Good grammar will help them
paving smoother way to good speaking. Most
common errors are in the word order, tenses
and parts of speech. Thus they propose to
learn structure early right after learning the
basic vocabulary and pronunciation.
Comprehension following structure in
4th place as the most needed English skill
according to the students. It refers to Refers
to accent that cause delayed interaction and
confusion. Most of the students claiming that
English speakers speak way to fast and kind of
using difficult accent to understand especially
when combine it with their local dialect.
Somehow it cannot be controlled, people was
born with different society as a result their
accent will follow suit.
The 5th and last place, are belong to
Fluency and Interaction. Regarding to the
Fluency, it refers to discourse markers or the
difficulty in understanding varied topics of
conversation. While for the last rank is filled
by interaction in which it is related to the
students pose with difficulty because of their
attitude or lack of confidence to start a
conversation with English speakers.
5. Conclusion
As has been noted that the students
need the basic English in which it is
vocabulary. Mastering the important of
vocabularies especially the aviation
terminology, with pronunciation come along
right after vocabulary. Good pronunciation
will help them to enhance their confidence. It
is needed since it will cut their worry off. The
anxiety lays on the student is they afraid that
the English speaker will not be able to
understand their words articulation well.
However structure following right after those
two, it will boost the students’ confident to
the next level. Nonetheless comprehension,
178 Widyarini S. Putri, Dwita L. Rachmawati, The Fundamental Need

fluency, and interaction are following after

those 3 preceding them according to the
questionnaire and open ended interview held.
Henceforth the students using the most
effective way to mastery their English after
the research was conducted. It is greatly
affecting their English skills more efficiently
than before.

REFERENCES
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ICAO (2010) Manual on the Implementation
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Karimi, P., & Sanavi, R. (2014). Analyzing
English Language Learning Needs
among Students in Aviation Training
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Koparan, N. (2015). Needs Analysis Research
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What are the Basic Needs Regarding
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