IV Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2012

It is no secret that Russia is one of the greatest arms trader in the world and military aircraft export comprises the important segment of the world market. Nowadays military aircraft maintenance personnel working with aircraft manufactured in Russia have to learn Russian which is supposed to be one of the most difficult languages in the world to understand technical documentation or make costly translations. It was investigated that to learn basic Russian a person needs 700 hours of intensive study. This fact evidently increases the expenses of the arms-recipient country and contributes to the loss of Russian military aircraft competitiveness.

Technical documentation written in Russian may lead to confusion and correct understanding of technical documentation is of vital importance, since instructions and descriptions are given about how technical products are used, maintained and repaired. Technical documentation should always be clear and unambiguous. Incorrect documentation may cause not only expansive time and financial expenses but also human injuries or even death.

Because of the constantly expanding arms and military equipment trade as well as increasing number of joint military production projects such as Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft more and more military technical documentation is both written in English by non-native English writers, and delivered to non-native English readers. However, English can be difficult to understand due to its many forms and complexity. English has over 700000 words. In order to improve comprehension and translatability of technical documentation, controlled languages are created.

The idea of controlled language engineering is not new. Examples include the language of radio communication, SEASPEAK, which is an international language designed in 1983 for the communication among ships and harbors, simplified English used since 1959 for radio and television news and many others. In the last few decades, the struggle to design reliable language systems has continued within specialist fields where mutual understanding is "mission critical". A good example is Air traffic control.

Natural language, which is multi-purpose and inexact, is not a good medium for such kind of communication. It is characterised by terminological imprecision, linguistic variety, polysemy and random abbreviation, elision and ellipsis.

One option is to use controlled languages, which are restricted subsets of natural languages, with a limited vocabulary and writing rules. Controlled languages are used to enhance the clarity, usability, and translatability of documents. This is achieved through increased terminological consistency and standardization, generally simplified sentence structure, and standardized document format. A general aim in controlled languages is to minimize the number of words and the complexity of sentences, but also an adherence to the principle of one-to-one association between word forms and concepts. This means that one concept can only be described by using one word. Controlled languages are particularly effective in maintenance manuals or operating instructions, where large quantities of complex documents are generated and where terminology is specific.

The use of a controlled language version of English increases the comprehensibility of documentation for people with poor English knowledge, as well as the translatability of documentation (Nyberg et al., 2003).

The most well known controlled language is Simplified Technical English (STE). STE was produced and developed in 1979 by the European Association of Aerospace Industries (AECMA) with the purpose of improving the comprehensibility of aircraft maintenance documentation. In 2004 AECMA merged with European Defense Industries Group (EDIG) and Association of the European Space Industry (EUROSPACE) to form Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Europe (ASD). As a result, AECMA Simplified English was renamed to ASD Simplified Technical English.

STE is used for: Tornado and Eurofighter aircraft, Chinook helicopter, Boeing and Airbus (commercial planes) Eurocopter in Germany (military and civil helicopters), Beriev Be-200, Rolls-Royce in North America (aircraft, industrial and marine engines) and many other companies. STE is a standardization of the English language used in technical documentations with the core concept of an easy, readable text. The purpose of the simplification is to eliminate comprehension problems for non-native English speakers. It was investigated that aircraft maintenance personnel with a limited knowledge of English should be able to work effectively to STE instructions after only 60 hours of study whereas the essential comprehension of documentation written in natural languages takes years of learning.

The rules and features of STE are explained in the ASD STE 100 - international specification for the preparation of maintenance documentation in a controlled language. The specification contains a vocabulary and a set of writing rules with both incorrect and correct examples. The guide was first published in 1986 and today it is used in aviation industries and other branches all over the world. The approved words are sufficient to express any technical sentence and are chosen because of their simplicity and ease of recognition. The principle behind the words is, like for other controlled languages, one word equals one meaning. An example is that "to fall" has the definition of "to move down by the force of gravity" and not "decrease".

The dictionary in the ASD STE 100 consists of a limited number (about 800) of approved words, their meanings along with an example of the correct use and parts of speech where the word can be used. In the dictionary there are also unapproved words, and for each of them a suggestion of an approved word is given by the dictionary, together with an example of the correct use.

In addition to the approved words in the dictionary, the writer is allowed to use words in a specific company dictionary. This dictionary is a collection of words that can be classified as technical names or technical verbs. Technical names are for example names of locations on the aircraft, such as: "cabin", "fuselage" or "wing". These words are only allowed to be used as nouns or adjectives. Technical verbs express a technical operation, for example manufacturing processes are only allowed to be used as verbs for example "drill" and "spray".

The numerous researches conducted in Europe showed that STE significantly improves the comprehensibility and the identification of content location of more complex documents for both native and non-native English speakers.

So, the use of STE has proved to be highly effective in aviation technical documentation comprehension and translation. To learn STE rules and vocabulary is much less time-consuming then to learn Russian. It may be suggested that the transition to STE in this sphere may noticeably increase the demand for Russian military aircraft in world arms market.

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