Genre analysis of three page blocks of two aircraft maintenance manuals (AMMs)

In aircraft maintenance domain, written communication is the main medium to communicate, with the English language as the main language for all aircraft technical documentation. When performing aircraft maintenance activities, the Aircraft Maintenance Personnel (AMP) refer to various types of technical documentation to assist them with the inspection, operation and maintenance of the aircraft. In the first phase of data collection, twenty-three Malaysian AMP from the aviation industry were interviewed to discover the types of technical documentation that influence and complement their reading activities. The analysis revealed that there were three types of documents used by the AMP. Interestingly, even though there were numerous documents used by them, the interviews revealed that the AMM was the main reference for aircraft maintenance activities.
Geared by the findings of the semi-structured interviews, the second phase of data collection of this study attempted to analyse the genre of AMM, the most central part of the thesis. This second phase focused on move analysis of the three Page blocks of the AMM of two aircrafts. The moves and steps were designed and analysed following Lassen’s (1999) and Lago and Lloret’s (2012) framework. The framework showed that the first three moves corresponded to the three Page blocks and the steps illustrated how the text achieved the communicative purpose of each move. As for the language features, it was found that Move 1 (Orienting reader’s understanding towards the aircraft subsystem and its operation), was realised by the relational processes through the indicative declarative mood. This is parallel with the communicative purpose of this move, which is to inform. Move 2 (Anticipating and solving problems), on the other hand, was realised by the relational and material processes that were written in the indicative declarative and imperative moods to fulfil two main functions: to inform and to instruct. As for Move 3 (Outlining steps and procedures for maintenance exercises), it was realised mostly by the material process in the form of the imperative mood as its purpose is mainly to instruct. Hence, the language features for each move were determined by its communicative purpose.
The final analysis focused on the verb form tenses and modals to determine their relationships with the communicative purpose of three moves using the guidelines of the Simplified Technical English (STE) (ASD, 2013). The findings suggested that the simple present tense in the active verb form was the most dominant in the three moves. This corresponded with the guidelines given in the ASD-STE100 (ASD, 2013), which stated that the active voice should be used in the procedural writing, and as much as possible in the descriptive writing. On the other hand, the modal verbs may, can and must were mostly found across the three moves. These three modal verbs were used to signify logical probability and prediction.
The findings of this study are expected to contribute towards designing and teaching the ESP modules for aircraft maintenance students, the future AMP. Not only that, it is also expected that the findings would contribute towards designing the English Language Proficiency Test (ELPT) for the AMP.