Thanks again, all of you,
I appreciate the responses. Today went well. I have dug broken parts out of the local training airport's trash bin
and took my findings with me to class (bits of brakes, a pedal with wires coming out of it, an odd piece of something metal that had five different colored wires coming out of it-looks a bit like my hair in the morning
)and a couple of other foreign and unknown articles). One student on the phone (in separate rooms-this to simulate the radio, non face to face situation) had to describe the pieces as though they were FOD. It went well. We studied physical characteristics like shapes, colors, surfaces (rough, greasy, matt, as well as; corrosive, inert and hollow. This followed by materials and substances.) before they had to do the exercise. The target language was formulating question forms asking for a description and actually describing something to someone who couldn't see the object. Happily, both groups were successful.
Then on to making complaints in a shop (non-aviation English subject) and later a discussion of how to "complain" on the radio. Intonation here is the key, always polite, but firm!
We also studied word order,
check valve versus
valve check;
air bleed and
bleed air.
I have still not been able to explain feathering the propeller properly, anyone care to help me here?Tomorrow; build an airfoil just by voice instructions (this is difficult because I also have the speaker on the opposite side of the room while the sound system is playing live radio traffic from various airports
). The theory is that in the cockpit the radio is almost always on and a pilot's attention must be on many things, multi-task.
Then lastly for tomorrow, build a balsam wood glider by listening to another students instruction. Let's see how it goes....
Best,
PE