SAFE SPOKEN INTERACTION IN GROUND-TO-AIR COMMUNICATION

1. SAFE SPOKEN INTERACTION IN GROUND-TO-AIR COMMUNICATION The Fifth World Congress “Aviation in the 21st century “ Kyiv, September 26, 2012 Dr. Prof. Olena Petrashchuk, Aviation English Department, IAN, NAU

2. Content • Needs for safety • Language proficiency requirements in aviation • Nature of spoken interaction • Needs for quality • Aviation EL Test qualities • Conclusion

3. 30000 FLIGHTS PER DAY The complexity of European airspace demands effective communication between pilot and controller in English

4. FUNDAMENTAL AVIATION LANGUAGE ISSUES Three critical areas of English competency required for safe communications: • Air Traffic Control phraseology • English for specific purposes (emergency) • English for general purposes (aviation context)

5. ICAO language proficiency requirements: main docs • Manual on implementation of ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements – Doc 9835: List of non-standard emergency situations Holistic and analytic scales of EL proficiency levels • ICAO SARPs: Annex 1 - Aviation Staff Certification (Personnel Licensing) Annex 10 - Aeronautical Communication (Aeronautical Telecommunications) Annex 11 - Air Traffic Services • ICAO Doc 4444: “Air Navigation Service Regulations – Airspace and Air Traffic Management”

6. Air Traffic Controllers/Pilots have to take an English Language Test before licence renewal process

7. Speaking is oral communication and is dependent on others. The utterances or speech acts are manipulations of language for the purpose of arriving at ‘mutual understanding’ between those who communicate. In aviation – between a pilot and a controller. Spoken Interaction

8. Speech behaviour ‘Cooperative principle’(Grice) A speaker should: • make their contribution as informative as required; • make their contribution true; • make their contribution relevant; • avoid obscurity and ambiguity; • be brief and orderly (Harmer). Speech behaviour based on the cooperative principle can provide reciprocity of communication and, therefore, mutual understanding.

9. Spoken Interaction Spoken interaction • producing and negotiating language; • S&L simultaneously in producing and processing spoken interactions (Schmitt); • speech meaning by both interlocutors ‘in joint constructions’ (Davidson, Fulcher). Spoken interaction • through prism of behaviours and strategies; • at the discourse level, speech behaviour is coordinated • adherence to turn-taking rules (Levelt).

10. ‘Speaking model’ Before speaking speakers make choices about the language they use based on: • what they want to say; • what medium they are operating in; • how texts are typically constructed in such situations; • what grammar they can use • what words and expressions they can find to express their meanings (Harmer)

11. Measurability of oral speech sample asan oral test quality • It is clear that speaking is a complex phenomenon which is not easy to assess and to measure the level of its development. • The speaking ability is viewed as a complex mechanism which can be characterized in terms of cognitive processes, language knowledge, social interaction, communication strategies, etc. • When deciding on the test design to assess the speaking ability one should take into account these characteristics in order to make the test valid and reliable. • Test setting, contingent, stakes and aims should be under consideration. • In case of oral test measurability of an oral speech sample should be considered as a key test quality to obtain reliable test results. Measurability of an oral speech sample is specifically getting an issue in case of language testing for specific (e.g., licensing) purposes.

12. Need for quality -Standards for selection and/or development of language tests should be identified when a high stake proficiency test is recommended as a tool to assess language competence in a specific field. -In aviation a high-stake proficiency test is required to be used for assessment of ELP of pilots/controllers against ICAO scale. (ICAO Doc.9835, Circ.318) -The purpose of an EL test in aviation is licensure for pilots and controllers -Language test results in aviation have a great impact in both professional and social areas. -‘...in the absence of any independent international oversight, the aviation community must prepare itself to be able to assess the suitability of what is on offer’. (J.Mell)

13. Aviation EL Test qualities (J.Mell) • items are chosen to resemble real-world tasks • overall scores are holistic: YES/NO • stakes: very high • a “blunt” instrument but must be highly robust: - proven validity - proven reliability - security

14. Three sets of characteristics (L.Bachman, A.Palmer) 1/ Characteristics of the language use task and situation and characteristics of the test task and situation. 2/ Language use in real life and language test performance. 3/ Characteristics of the language user and characteristics of the test taker.

15. What is test usefulness? “Test usefulness, consisting of several qualities (reliability, construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness, impact, practicality), is an overriding consideration for quality control throughout the process of designing, developing, and using a particular language test” (L. Bachman, A. Palmer)

16. Test qualities in aviation (Doc 9835) • Reliability is defined as consistency of measurement. In aviation context in addition to test tasks reliability, intra- and inter- reliability of raters is a key issue. • Validitydeals with meaningfulness and appropriateness of the interpretations that one makes on the basis of test scores. The term ‘construct validity’ can be used to refer to the extent to which a given test score could be interpreted as an indicator of the ability (construct) which is measured. In aviation context the construct should be identified with a reference to ICAO documents. • Practicality pertains primarily to the ways in which the test is implemented in a given situation. It may be defined as the balance between the resources that will be required in the design, development and use of the test and the resources that will be available for these activities.

17. Construct validity in aviation context To ensure construct validity of the language test for pilots/controllers the test (test tasks) is to: • provide a representative range of intelligible international accents as input for comprehension; • provide a professionally relevant format for candidates to display comprehension; • elicit an adequate continuous speech sample to test fluency/pronunciation; • provide a voice-only setting for “diadic” interactions; • provide examples of routine and unexpected events in a work-related context; • encourage creative use of basic grammatical structures; • allow a candidate to demonstrate ability to paraphrase; • allow a candidate to change between rehearsed/formulaic speech and spontaneous interaction; • simulate unexpected events to create opportunities for a candidate to use strategies for clarification.

18. L1 vs L2 speaking model The following should be taken into account: • L2 speakers typically have incomplete knowledge because they don’t have the same number of words and rules as L1 speakers; • L2 speakers speak with more errors and slips and are more hesitant and less automatic then the L1 speaking; • speech of L2 speakers often reflects traces of L1 which is more developed then L2 [6].

19. Six principles of language testing philosophy (by L. Bachman, A.Palmer) • Relate language testing to language teaching and language use. • Design your tests so as to encourage and enable tests takers to perform at their highest level of ability. • Build considerations of fairness into test design. • Humanize the testing process. • Demand accountability for test use. Hold yourself, as well as any others who use your test, accountable for the way your test is used. • Recognize that decisions based on test scores are fraught with dilemmas, and that there are no universal answers to these.

20. Сonclusion • Language test for aviation should have highest possible reliability, construct validity and be practical for specific testing situation in aviation. • The test qualities should be considered with respect to specific test tasks and not solely in terms of abstract theories and statistical formulae. These qualities should be considered from the very beginning of the test planning and development process, and rather than relying solely on ex post facto analyses. • To ensure quality language testing for aviation is standardisation of the test results. It can be reached by extensive trial, provision of comparable conditions of test administration, examiner training/auditing based on speech samples, paired/multiple rating, provision of test security and rater/interlocutor qualifications.

21. THANK YOU! E-mail: aamm@nau.edu.ua Tel.: +38 044 497 4115 Fax: +38 044 457 7868

22. ICAO LP analytic scale: • Proficiency Levels L1 – pre-elementary L 2 – elementary L3 – pre-operational L4 – operational L 5 – extended L 6 - expert • Language profiles: Pronunciation Structure Vocabulary Fluency Comprehension Interaction

23. Scoring (section 2.9., ICAO manual) • Candidates are awarded a band score most appropriate to performance in each language profile mentioned above • Candidates must demonstrate proficiency level 4 in all language profiles • Rating – Lowest band score

24. INTERLOCUTION STRATEGIES: impact on a candidate’s behaviour A candidate’s behaviour can be affected by other participants’ behaviour. Matching/mismatching of interviewer and candidate behaviour by regarding: • level of turn taking, • level of rapport, • verbal/nonverbal interaction, • native/nonnative language participant, • interview format and organization.

25. COMMUNICATION/INTERLOCUTION STRATEGIES: As described by Littlewood these communications strategies are as follows: 1/ to avoid communicating; 2/ to adjust the message; 3/ to use paraphrase; 4/ to use approximation; 5/ to create new words; 6/ to switch to the native language; 7/ to use non-linguistic resources; 8/ to seek help.