Air traffic control (ATC) voice communication is built upon a readback-hearback loop: Controllers send messages to pilots who listen and then recite back their contents. Successful communication requires participants to conduct and understand ATC radiotelephony in the same language. Since inadequate language proficiency was involved in some aviation accidents, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is requiring its contracting states to ensure that ATC personnel and flight crews are proficient communicators of the English language when operating in airspace where the English language is required. Within the U.S., data are lacking concerning the prevalence of ATC communication problems attributable to the production and comprehension of English. This report presents communication problems involving readback errors, breakdowns in communication, and requests for repetition by commercial airline pilots. An analysis was performed on 50 hrs of air-ground transmissions provided by five ARTCCs. Each controller transmission was paired with its readback. Each readback was scored for accuracy. The ICAO Language Proficiency Rating Scale guided encoding English language proficiency. Aircraft call signs were used to classify transmissions by aircraft registry (U.S., Foreign) and language (English, Other), forming three groups: Foreign-English, Foreign-Other, and U.S.-English. Communications were analyzed from 832 aircraft (74% U.S., 26% Foreign) for 4,816 pilot transmissions (78% English, 22% Other). Of these aircraft transactions, 23% contained one or more communication problems. MANOVA and ANOVA revealed that when English was the primary language or pilots flew U.S. aircraft, there were fewer communication problems, less time was spent on frequency, and fewer messages were transmitted than when pilots flew foreign aircraft or the primary language was not English.
Pilot English Language Proficiency and the Prevalence of Communication Problems at Five U.S. Air Route Traffic Control Centers
2008
37 pages
Report
No indication
English
Air Transportation , Navigation Systems , Common Carrier & Satellite , English language , Voice communications , Proficiency , Air traffic control systems , Comprehension , Accuracy , Pilots , Commercial aviation , Atc communication , Communication problems , Communications , Atc(Air traffic control)
Language Proficiency 2 - Aviation English
Online Contents | 2006
|English language proficiency (ELP) licence endorsements
Emerald Group Publishing | 2008
Runway Safety Corner: English Language Proficiency
Online Contents | 2002
Language Proficiency - Motivating controllers to 'learn' English
Online Contents | 2008
|Online Contents | 2013