Abstract

Effective ESP programs require relevant materials, knowledgeable instructors, and teamwork with subject matter professionals. This report provides an example of one process used by a teacher–researcher to increase and expand each of these aspects. The process of data collection and data analysis, as described here, results in greater knowledge on the part of an instructor and leads to the development of enhanced course materials. The study was conducted for an ESP program in a Civil Aviation School in Turkey where students were in training to become pilots and air traffic controllers. Primary data included tape-recorded communication between pilots and air traffic controllers, observation in the airport tower, and questionnaires and interviews with Turkish pilots and air traffic controllers. The results, which comprised a basis for materials writers, indicate that even in such a restricted and globally monitored language as Airspeak, local variations exist in the use of greetings, the pronunciation of numbers, and the extended use of Turkish.

Abstract

This article considers how strangers who use public transportation initiate conversations and how disruptions of the transportation system affect interactions among strangers. How conversations are initiated has rarely been discussed in the literature because the majority of research takes the initiation of talk for granted. Building on Goffman, the article tests two hypotheses that explain how strangers initiate conversations. The first hypothesis states that travelers rely on interactional rituals if they have to talk with others because of a rule against opening talk with strangers, a rule that can be relaxed if travelers are faced with disruptive events. The second hypothesis states that a conversation can be initiated without introductory remarks if a traveler’s focus of attention is discernible to another traveler, irrespective of the circumstances travelers find themselves in. I argue that the latter hypothesis better explains how strangers initiate conversations and discuss how this finding may be generalized.