The Journey From Knowledge Evolution To Revolution

Technical Publication Trends

A recent article, published in Aerospace Week Intelligence Network, drew my attention as it focussed on the subject of my professional career … the production of technical publications.

Firstly, I shall reproduce excerpts that address specific content related to my personal experiences, i.e., Technical Author (FISTC), Publications Manager, and Teacher of English as a Foreign Language, before I follow with my own comments.

“Technical publications supporting the operations and maintenance of complex assets in the aerospace and defense industries play an instrumental role in operational enablement and mission achievement. These tech pubs represent the organization's institutional knowledge. As senior staff retire and take a wealth of knowledge with them, these organizations realize technical publications are critical to sustaining newer team members' productivity. Luckily, modern technologies are enabling new ways to utilize tech pubs in productive and innovative ways.”

“Historically, tech pubs have been used passively in the maintenance process. An issue or task arises, a work order is generated with the parts and tools required and the tech is assigned to complete the effort. The technician accesses the tech pub as a reference, either on paper or in the IETM. In other words, the information is passively pulled into the process, not proactively pushed.”

“As we move further into the fourth industrial revolution, assets are becoming more intelligent with innovations like IoT, AI, big data analytics, remote diagnostics and other emerging technologies. Proactive delivery of technical knowledge is possible as the assets themselves can now communicate intelligently with digitalized content. For example, our customers have embedded our technology into asset platforms so the diagnostics data in the tech pub can work with the onboard monitoring systems to identify emerging issues. There is a lot more to this topic than I can cover here, so I suggest checking out my white paper that explains how technical content can assist in predictive and Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+).”

“On top of the labor shortage, 80% of operational, maintenance and support personnel in the global aerospace and defense industry are non-native English speakers, but all aviation industry technical documentation is in English. Did you know it takes up to two years to train non-native English speakers to build competence in Simplified Technical English or STE?”

“As a result, I had several of my defense manufacturing clients look at advances in Machine Translation to deliver dual language technical publications within their Foreign Military Sales or FMS programs. FMS product support is another example because email, live chat and document translation are now vital when exchanging information between FMS customers and their Factory Support Representatives.”

By Bob Hogg, Director A&D Market Strategy - SDL

As a non-academic student of linguistics, I wince at the intent of the language usage prescribed above.  I assume that we have all used our iPhone to translate “Hello” to “Ni hao” or asked “Siri” for “Tomorrow’s weather”, but please, not to replace and adjust microscopic tolerances of a gas-turbine engine, etc. !

Why ?  Because the terms A.I., S.T.E. and Machine Translation imply the eventual removal of human technical language academics.  Professionals who remember hundreds of instances when near-fatal (and fatal) accidents occurred that resulted from poorly-written user guides or maintenance manuals.  For example, the Airbus that had insufficient fuel, or the Challenger that activated reverse-thrust instead of flaps.  Imagine yourself as the captain in a cockpit when emergency lamps are flashing and a robot is screaming “PULL UP. PULL UP” at you.  There are hundreds (thousands) of these examples … and they continue.  Personally, I remember working with Chinese technicians (in China) on G.E. gas-turbines, who worked diligently … as best that they were able … but ….

Are you surprised by my wincing at the thought ?

Education 15 - Modern Language Future Study

Donald Trump’s aggressive isolationism is likely to have chaotic effects on modern languages departments in the US.  It is tempting to presume that student numbers will fall, but the Trump era is just as likely to draw undergraduate students into the study of foreign languages and cultures.  Either way, U.S. modern language departments in 2017 are in stronger health than popular media narratives would have you believe.  

It is often insinuated that modern languages are a drag on the solvency and adaptability of the public university.  But this is simply not true.  At some U.S. institutions, modern languages programmes may rank in the top 20 per cent of revenue-generating units campus-wide.  Nationwide, there was a 6.7 per cent dip in foreign languages enrolment between 2009 and 2013  – a decline that outstripped the overall fall in student numbers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.  Yet ambitious recruitment efforts at first-year student orientation events and large general education “feeder” courses have enabled us to buck the trend and continue to coax upwards enrolment of majors in French, German, Russian, Italian, Chinese and Japanese.  And this is without the large private-sector subventions often required in other disciplines.

Those disciplines across campus – medicine, business, manufacturing, agriculture – may address language and culture instrumentally, as a necessary component of “getting to yes” or “closing the deal”, but they rarely have space in their curricula to enquire about the complexity of multilingualism and translation in any sustained fashion.  Modern languages curricula by some, in contrast, offer courses grounded in the lived complexity of societal multilingualism.  They apply linguistic, cultural, historical and literary approaches to questions relevant to engineering, business or even arid lands management.  A course on “German culture, science and technology”, for instance, shows how the specific traditions housed in the German language offer a meaningfully different set of operational principles and assumptions about things such as “security”, “risk”, “progress”, “growth” and “the economy”.  Students come away with a much stronger sense of how non-governmental organizations can better acknowledge the belief systems of their beneficiaries in their home languages;  how physicians and nurses can engage in nuanced conversations with seriously ill people that truly relieve suffering;  and how focus-group-tested political rhetoric is often designed to hide structural inequalities in society.

These 'outside-the-box' modern languages curricula are often best suited for dual-degree courses, and most professors urge undergraduates to concentrate on a language alongside another major.  But instead of just training them in how to “get ahead”, recent modern languages programmes show students how to notice when powerful interests are aiming to manipulate them with coercive language, imagery and marketing, and how to transform that moment of noticing into resources for creativity, justice and collaboration.

The major challenge of the next 10 years will be continuing to build this critically engaged, applied and outward-facing momentum in modern languages curricula.  Threats continue to hack away at our resources, and the Trump-occupied White House has removed all multilingual content from its website, reminding us that English-only is a powerfully resurgent delusion.

©️Times Higher Education
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There is much to discuss, I think.

Education 14 - Linguistics of Foreign Language Teaching

Teaching foreign languages may be considered by some as the prerogative of bilingual teachers.  This assumes (a) bilingualism, and (b) teacher training, but one important qualification is usually forgotten … linguistics.

     Bilingualism - Although a bilingual teacher should be able to teach reading and writing, listening and speaking must be the prerogative of the native language teacher.  This principle is also known for its importance with translators.

     Teacher Training - Knowledge of the subject is, of course, essential, but formal teacher training is crucial.  Registration at teaching colleges should center on graduates of major subjects, with concentration on teaching philosophies and practise.

Thus, from experience, one observes new teachers presenting themselves in front of classes with a teacher trainer hovering, necessarily, in the background.  Difficulties occur when a foreign language is the subject to be taught.  For example, a British teacher teaching English to British students would be a straight forward matter, but the same teacher teaching French to the same students will need additional qualifications and experience.  Equally, a Chinese teacher using English to teach Chinese to Bangladeshi students, a common example, will require even greater experience.

Linguistics, in these, and similar scenarios, is often ignored.  A common problem seen with learning a foreign language is accurate pronunciation in speaking and listening.  British students in London will have some difficulty if taught by a teacher from Edinburgh, and, obviously, Bangladeshi students will have even greater difficulty learning Chinese from a teacher using English as an implement (Even though English is an official language of the country).

Teachers of foreign languages are often unaware of linguistic principles and sometimes use their intuition towards success.  Others, usually, those without training, unfortunately, may develop unfair thoughts about their student's ability.  The answer is both interesting and simple, and therefore, enjoyable.

Linguistics teaches us that our speech varies enormously because of the distances that we live away from each other.  Over long periods of time, we create different words and phrases for the same thing.  Physically, our vocal cords adapt differently, such that one ethnic group is unable to make the ‘th’ sound, and another group will pronounce an ‘f’ as a ‘v’, etc.  Such detail includes those who may have many different words for one item, for example, the word ‘ice’ by the Inuit people, or the absence of the word ‘please' in the Chinese language. 

Such knowledge becomes enjoyable for most of us when it is realized that to overcome these problems we must study, not only the history and culture of the people, but the history and culture of the language.  In fact it is our duty to the students to diligently make this study.  Then, when you, next, face the student with an arm raised to ask the question, “Why are the words ‘meet’ and ‘meat’ spelt differently, but pronounced the same?” you could discuss Germanic origins, etc.  It is probable that listening to William Shakespeare would, then, be enjoyed.  

Education 1 - English as a Second Language

I started this blog writing about aerospace as the first subject of my profile’s list of interests.  Unfortunately, for me, I listed linguistics as the second subject, because although linguistics in its basic form has long been an interest of mine, I quickly discovered that it does not have a basic form and greatly exceeded my academic abilities.  I recently added Tom McArthur’s ‘The Oxford Companion to the English Language’ to my bookshelf and, if I dare to open it, I am lost within its wealth of knowledge for hours, just as I was with a earlier copy of Eric Partridge’s ‘Usage and Abusage’ (abusus non tollit usum) and numerous such works.

To find a topical language subject outside of academia, I decided to say something about English as a Second Language (ESL), without any attempt at prescriptivism ... and using less than 300 words.

Recently, I returned to Canada following many years teaching Business Studies to postgraduates in China, who were, hopefully, to be awarded scholarships to foreign universities.  Not surprisingly, it was necessary to include a heavy dose of ESL within each course.  I was presented with excellent students, and there was never any thought of using a stick, due to the attractive sight of the scholarship carrot.

Interestingly, the Chinese-produced exams were of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), and my protests were always met with the pervasive, “This is how we always do it” response.  I am sure that many expat teachers in China recognize this behaviour and often wonder why they had been presented with a little red book entitled ‘Foreign Experts Certificate’.

Equally, back in Canada, I had cause to visit some LINK ESL classes, and was astonished to discover that a major percentage of the teachers were immigrants from non-English speaking countries.  According to the authorities, they had all passed a TESL teaching exam ... the oral part being undertaken by their foreign peers, it seemed.  It was not surprising that many students could not understand the teachers.


I would welcome your views on this subject.