Controlled English for International Technical Communication

This paper describes a project to develop and use intelligent software to automate the authoring of technical documents written in controlled English, such as Simplified English (SE). SE is a subset of English with a limited vocabulary and a set of writing rules; its use in aircraft maintenance manuals makes them so clearly written that translation is not needed. The paper also describes courseware for rapidly teaching controlled English to those with limited English language ability. Finally, it presents implications of using controlled English for international technical communication and language training, and describes how the computer techniques being developed in our laboratory will facilitate this process.