Citation

Kim H (2012). Melbourne, Australia: University of Melbourne, Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, xvi, 263 pages.

Abstract

In 2003, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted language proficiency requirements in the belief that insufficient English proficiency among non-native English speaking pilots and air traffic controllers was a key contributing factor in aircraft accidents and incidents. Therefore, as of 5th March 2008, pilots or air traffic controllers who do not show the minimum required level of English proficiency are barred from practising their profession. There has been strong resistance to this policy from incumbent Korean airline pilots and also from air traffic controllers within the Korean aeronautical society, most notably from those who have years of experience and whose foremost concern should be safety. This strong resistance has raised the question of whether there are factors that ICAO has ignored or not considered fully in their decision-making process. Thus, this thesis seeks a better understanding of the construct of pilot-controller communication from the perspective of a key group of stakeholders in order to evaluate the ICAO policy.


The context of this research is Korea, and the construct of radiotelephony communication is explored by drawing on insights from Korean airline pilots and air traffic controllers. Study One uses questionnaire and interview data to investigate 1) the Korean aviation personnel’s perception of the ICAO policy and its relevance to the requirements of radiotelephony communication, 2) their perception of the English test administered in Korea as a means of implementing this policy and 3) their opinions regarding the important qualities of radiotelephony communication. Study Two takes a closer look at the important qualities of radiotelephony communication as perceived by Korean aviation personnel by eliciting feedback from focus groups of air traffic controllers and individual pilots, respectively, on six recorded episodes of non-routine (i.e., problematic) radiotelephony discourse collected from the international airport in Korea. The evaluative commentary from these expert informants on instances of effective or ineffective communication in each episode is transcribed and analysed according to features of the participants’ language use and aspects of professional competence demonstrated by the participants.

Results reveal that Korean aviation personnel are critical of what they view as a native English speaker bias in the current ICAO policy which they believe ignores issues of aviation experience and expertise considered to be more important than English proficiency for aviation safety. They are also critical of the test developed and administered in Korea given a lack of clarity about test development procedures, absence of information on validity or reliability and the ‘face-saving’ decision by the Korean government to disclose the test forms prior to administration. The analysis of the expert informants’ feedback on samples of radiotelephony discourse suggest that a lack of professional knowledge by either pilot or air traffic controller was responsible for unnecessarily extended and potentially ambiguous communication as both parties attempted, and in some cases failed, to reach mutual understanding. Lack of adherence to standard conventions also impeded communication and the tendency of some pilots to give detailed information was not necessarily helpful given the pressures of the communication context. While intelligibility and limited vocabulary knowledge were sometimes an obstacle to understanding, the findings also suggest that responsibility for misunderstanding is shared and that the appropriate use of accommodation strategies by both native and non-native English speaking interlocutors is critical to achieve the plain English qualities of precise and efficient communication, as is also true in other lingua franca settings.

The thesis concludes that the view of language proficiency underlying the ICAO policy is biased and hence that the basis for decisions regarding the communicative readiness of aviation personnel is inappropriate. It calls for a reconceptualisation of the construct of radiotelephony communication in the interests of improved policy formation, test development and training.

© Copyright Hyejeong Kim, 2012