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Nobody seems to speak
English here today
Authenticity in the Context of
Aviation English
Dan Douglas
Iowa State University
CULI Seminar 8 November 2013 1
What is Authenticity?
• A property of the response language users
make to spoken and written texts
• They accept the text as a situationally
appropriate communication
• They respond to it in what they deem to be an
appropriate manner
2
Genuine / Authentic
• Pilot/Air Traffic Controller Communication: Both genuine
and authentic
• Actual airplane, control tower, radio transmission
• ATC: JWA 4124 radar service terminated, maintain
flight level 390, contact Peachtree Controller 125.5.
• Pilot: 125.5, JWA 4124
• But…take the genuine communication out of the context
and put it into a language test…
• No airplane, no tower, no radio
• Still genuine, but authenticity is lost
3
Contextual Features that
Promote Authenticity
• Setting: Physical and Temporal
• Participants: Personal and Social
• Purpose: Apart from psychometric
• Form/Content: Rhetorical and Topical
• Tone: Speaker/Writer Attitude
• Language: Channel, Modality, Dialect, Register
• Norms of Interaction: Behavioral Expectations
• Genre: Type of Text
4
Authenticity Exemplified in
Aviation English Assessment
In 2003 the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO)
a) stipulated the use of ICAO phraseology
specifically;
b) strengthened the provisions that English be
made available for international radiotelephony
communications; and
c) clarified that both phraseology and plain
language proficiency are required. 5
Phraseology and
Plain Language
• Phraseology: Standardized language forms
used in routine pilot/controller
communication • ATC: …Seven Tango Romeo traffic short final, cleared
to land, wind three three zero at one one.
• Pilot: Clear to land, Seven Tango Romeo.
6
Phraseology and
Plain Language • Plain Language: Departure from Phraseology,
usually in non-routine situations
• ATC: What is your present level?
• Pilot: 327
• ATC: [stuttering]…eh…maintain now that level
and report passing Zagreb
• Pilot: What level?
• ATC: At which you are now climbing,
because…eh…you have an aircraft in front of you
at…335 from left to right.
7
International Civil Aviation Organization
Language Proficiency Requirements: ICAO
Document 9835 (2004)
• …radiotelephony communications shall be
conducted either in the language of the
station on the ground or in English, and…
English shall be made available when pilots
are unable to use the language of the station
on the ground.
• ICAO also set standards for the required
level of proficiency in English.
8
ICAO Document 9835
• The ICAO language proficiency requirements apply to
native and non-native speakers alike.
• The burden of improving radiotelephony communications
should be shared by native and non-native speakers.
• Pilots and controllers should be aware of the natural
hazards of cross-cultural communication.
• Native and other expert users of English should refrain
from the use of idioms, colloquialisms, and other jargon in
radiotelephony communications and should modulate their
rate of delivery.
• Native speakers must ensure that their variety of English is
comprehensible to the international aeronautical
community. 9
However…
ICAO Doc 9835 again… • “English for specific purposes (ESP) is an approach to
language teaching that focusses programme content on
subjects, topics, and issues of direct interest to learners.
ESP training is driven by what learners need to do in
English and focusses principally on those features of the
language which are required to undertake a particular
task.” Sec. 4.4.2
• This focus on ESP immediately puts the ball in the non-
native English speakers’ court…and the subsequent
guidelines for training and assessment certainly assume a
focus on non-native learners of English
10
ICAO Rating Scale
Again, the focus is on non-native speakers of
English… 11
Why (particularly) American Pilots
tend not to use Prescribed
Phraseology The Chuck Yeager Syndrome…
• Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager
(born 1923, West Virginia)
• He was the first pilot to travel faster
than sound (1947).
• Thought to be the embodiment of
“The Right Stuff” among other
pilots…
• He has a unique speaking style…
12
Aviation English
• Yeager in The Right Stuff
• Beeman’s: a brand of chewing gum…
• Partial Transcript
• ATC: Aircraft on ramp – did you file a flight
plan?
• ATC: Aircraft on ramp – did you file a flight
plan?
• Yeager: Yeah, I’m just takin’ her up to wring
her out here a little bit…any objections?
• ATC: That’s Yeager! 13
The Problem with the Chuck
Yeager Syndrome…
• Who doesn’t want to be like Chuck Yeager?
• English native-speaker pilots and ATCOs, and
particularly American pilots and ATCOs, often
prefer to use plain English over Prescribed
Phraseology…and colloquial plain English at that
• This is compounded by a lack of intercultural
sensitivity and an unwillingness to accommodate
English L2 speakers
• The frequent result is miscommunication…
14
Nobody seems to speak English here
today… ATC: 981 – have they cleared you into the ramp?
Pilot: Roger – ramp…to the ramp, 981
ATC: OK, they have cleared you into the ramp?
ATC: 981 – Ground
ATC: 981 – Kennedy Ground
Pilot: 981 – go ahead
ATC: Have you been cleared into the ramp?
Pilot: OK, cleared to the ramp
ATC: No! That was a question – have the ramp people cleared you into the gate?
Pilot: Roger, to the gate, 981
ATC: I’ll try it again – it’s a question – hold your position - this is a question -
interrogative - have you been cleared into your gate?
Pilot: OK, we’ll hold here
ATC: OK, how about the question? - have they cleared you into the gate?
Pilot: Roger
Pilot 2: Ground, good afternoon […]
ATC: […] 406 – what’s your gate assignment?
Pilot 2: Gate number 2
ATC: OK, hold short 2 to right, call the ramp, ask them in very simple English if you can
get to your gate now or not – that’s all I want to know
Pilot 2: Roger, wilco
ATC: Ask them if anybody at that terminal can get to their ramp besides Air France,
please, because they don’t seem to be – nobody seems to speak English here
today… 15
ATC Communication Problems
• When faced with non-comprehension, ATC
• Talks louder
• Diction is more deliberate
• Standardized Phraseology not used
• Uses inappropriate vocabulary
• Uses intonation rather than syntax for question
16
AVIATION ENGLISH
PRACTITIONERS ARE
BEGINNING TO REALIZE
THE PROBLEM AND
DISCUSS SOLUTIONS…
17
International Civil Aviation English
Association (ICAEA) Forum 2013 Cross-Cultural Awareness and Aviation
English Training, Paris, 18-19 April
• Gareth Lloyd Evans, Emirates Airlines • Research shows how the pilot professional culture tends to dominate.
The unknown to some extent is the impact of ATC professional
culture over national culture.
• The industry wants reliable communications but also wants the
operators (Pilots/ATC) to be resilient and recover from a
communication error when it occurs. Culture impacts on both
reliability and resilience.
• Historically training has focussed on improving reliability but has
been fairly ‘mechanical’ and so quite blind to cultural issues. Many
airlines have the benefit of a multicultural workforce where day to
day communication can unreliable and so encourages culturally aware
resilient behaviours.
18
Aviation English Testing
Nevertheless
• ICAO tests only NNSs of English
• Ignores several factors identified by Kim 2012
Kim, H. 2012. Exploring the construct of aviation communication: a critique of the
ICAO language proficiency policy. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of
Melbourne.
19
Kim 2012
• A native English speaker bias in the current ICAO
policy
• Policy ignores issues of aviation experience and
expertise
• A lack of professional knowledge by either pilot
or air traffic controller was responsible for
unnecessarily extended and potentially ambiguous
communication
• A lack of adherence to standard conventions also
impeded communication
20
Kim 2012
• Responsibility for misunderstanding is shared: the
appropriate use of accommodation strategies by
both native and non-native English speaking
interlocutors is critical to achieve…precise and
efficient communication
• Conclusion: • The view of language proficiency underlying the ICAO policy is
biased and hence the basis for decisions regarding the
communicative readiness of aviation personnel is inappropriate.
• Kim calls for a reconceptualisation of the construct of
radiotelephony communication in the interests of improved policy
formation, test development and training
21
Kim & Elder 2009
The ICAO language testing policy…focuses
only on language proficiency, with the
implication that the onus rests only on the
non-native English speaking pilots and
controllers to “lift their game’’. p. 15
Kim, H. and Elder, C. 2009. Understanding aviation English as a lingua
franca: Perceptions of korean aviation personnel. Australian Review of
Applied Linguistics, 32.3: 23.1-23.17.
22
What does all this have to do
with Authenticity?
• Interactional Competence
• Within context of English as a Lingua
Franca
• Features of Authenticity
• Participants: including English L1
speakers
• Tone: Speakers’ attitudes
• Norms of Interaction: Behavioral
expectations
23
What to do about it?
• Since English…is generally the language
used and
• …since the participants in the exchange are
by no means all native speakers
• …it is more helpful to think of aviation
English as a lingua franca than as a
restricted specific purpose code. p. 14
McNamara, T. 2012. At last: Assessment and English as a lingua franca.
Plenary talk at 5th International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca, 24
May, Istanbul.
24
Kim & Elder 2009
• Recommend a test of English as a Lingua
Franca (ELF)
• For both NNSs and NSs
25
Aviation English as ELF
• The term lingua franca is usually taken to mean
“any lingual medium of communication between
people of different mother tongues, for whom it is
a second language” Seidlhofer, B. 2004. Research perspectives on teaching English as a lingua franca.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics24: 209-239.
26
Jenkins 2000 • …no justification for doggedly persisting in referring to an
item as ‘an error’ if the vast majority of the world’s L2
English speakers produce and understand it.
• …it is for L1 speakers to move their own receptive goal
posts and adjust their own expectations as far as
international…uses of English are concerned. . . .
• The perhaps unpalatable truth for NSs is that if they wish
to participate in international communication in the 21st
Century, they too will have to learn [ELF]. pp. 160, 227 [emphasis added]
Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language:
New models, new norms, new goals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
27
Kim & Elder 2009
Characterizing English as a lingua franca in
radiotelephony implies that what is
critical is not so much mastery of the
English language...but also interactional
competence whereby users’ responsibilities
for communication are shared across
participants. p. 14 (emphasis added)
28
Estival & Molesworth 2009 • …communication problems within General
Aviation cannot be solely attributed to
language proficiency levels of EL2 pilots
• ...the results suggest that all pilots
experience, and contribute to,
communication problems… pp. 13-14
Estival, D. & Molesworth, B. 2009. A study of EL2 pilots’ radio
communication in the general aviation environment. Australian Review of
Applied Linguistics 24.3: 241-24.16.
29
Cookson 2009
• …vital to ensure that non-native speakers
have a suitable level of English proficiency
• …undoubtedly also value in language
awareness training for native speakers
• strategies for dealing with non-native speakers
whose pronunciation is heavily influenced by
their L1. pp. 12-13
Cookson, S. 2009. Airline accidents involving linguistic factors. Australian
Review of Applied Linguistics 24.3: 22.1-22.14.
30
Merritt & Maurino 2004
Cross-cultural issues in aviation can only be
resolved with joint effort. This is not
something that “they” (the other cultures)
have to fix – there is a role for people on
both sides of the interface, for members of
the dominant model as well as people
outside the dominant model. p. 172
Merritt, A. & Maurino, D. (2004). Cross-cultural Factors in Aviation Safety. In
Advances in Human Performance and Cognitive Engineering Research, Volume 4, pp.
147–181. Elsevier Ltd. 31
ICAO Guidelines again… • Native and highly proficient speakers can, for example,
focus on
• keeping their intonation neutral and calm…
• take particular care to be explicit, rather than indirect, in their
communications…
• train themselves away from the use of jargon, slang, and idiomatic
expressions…
• ask for readbacks and confirmation that their messages have been
understood…
• attend more carefully to readbacks in cross-cultural
communication situations, taking greater care to avoid the pitfalls
of “expectancy”.
• Additionally, a slower rate of delivery seems to make speech more
comprehensible. Sec. 3.8.2
• We need, it seems to me, to get back to this emphasis on
interactional competence in training and assessment… 32
Interactional Competence
• Ability to tolerate and comprehend different
varieties of English (e.g., accents, syntax,
discourse styles, etc)
• Ability to negotiate meaning
• Ability to use (or adjust) phonological features
crucial for intelligibility
• Awareness of appropriate pragmatics
• Ability to accommodate
• Ability to notice and repair breakdowns in
communication
• McNamara, T. 2012. At last: Assessment and English as a lingua franca. Plenary talk at 5th
International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca, 24 May, Istanbul.
33
But also background
knowledge…
• Douglas 2000: Specific purpose language
ability results from an interaction between
specific purpose background knowledge
and language ability, by means of strategic
competence… (p. 40)
• This is backed up by research on pilots’
perceptions that experience can enhance
communication ability
34
Knoch 2013
• A study of Korean pilots evaluating recorded
speech samples from a semi-direct test of aviation
English and recorded live interviews
• Finding: • “…a speaker’s level of technical knowledge,
experience, and training level was most often
mentioned…and it can therefore be assumed that this
played an important role in their evaluation of the
effectiveness of the speech sample” (p. 12)
Knoch, Ute. (2013). Using subject specialists to validate an ESP rating scale: The case of the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rating scale. Submitted.
35
Yeager Again
I have flown in just about everything, with
all kinds of pilots in all parts of the world –
British, French, Pakistani, Iranian, Japanese,
Chinese – and there wasn’t a dime’s worth
of difference between any of them except
for one, unchanging certain fact: the best,
most skillful pilot has the most experience.
36
Knoch 2013
[The findings] of this study also show how
much importance the pilots put on the
speakers’ technical knowledge and
experience and just how difficult it was for
them to separate language ability from
aviation knowledge (p.12)
37
Knoch 2013
…in this specific context—namely aviation
English testing…it is possible that the
testing of language and technical knowledge
cannot and should not be separated (p. 12)
38
What would an ELF-enhanced
test of aviation English look like?
• Ability to tolerate and comprehend different
varieties of English
• Task: Listen to and demonstrate comprehension
of a variety of English accents, discourse styles
• Ability to negotiate meaning
• Task: In face-to-face interview, interlocutor
produces an intentionally ambiguous utterance
which must be negotiated by candidate
39
What would an ELF-enhanced
test of aviation English look like?
• Ability to use (or adjust) phonological
features crucial for intelligibility
• Task: Interlocutor indicates a failure to
comprehend candidate’s utterance, requesting a
recast
• Awareness of appropriate pragmatics
• Task: Discourse completion in aviation context
40
What would an ELF-enhanced
test of aviation English look like?
• Ability to accommodate
• Task: candidate uses simpler vocabulary or
syntax in response to interlocutor’s non-
comprehension
• Ability to notice and repair breakdowns in
communication
• Task: “say again” in response to imprecise
read-backs
41
What would an ELF-enhanced
test of aviation English look like?
• Background Knowledge
• A score could be given for technical knowledge
• Some tasks on the aviation English tests I’m
familiar with require technical knowledge…
• …which is ignored, I suspect
• Scoring rubric would require input from
experienced pilots and ATCOs
42
What we can do
• We have a professional/ethical
responsibility to
• Continue to study the phenomenon of aviation
radiotelephony and the role of both native and
non-native speakers of English in maintaining
communication, and
• To work through our professional organizations
to encourage ICAO to revise the guidelines for
aviation English assessment to adequately
reflect the realities of using English as a lingua
franca… 43
Conclusion
• Focus should not be so much on the
language forms, though these are, of course,
important, but rather on interactional
competence
• This will enhance authenticity – the
appropriacy of response – in the assessment
of aviation communication
44
