Training in the ‘English Proficient’ World

Teaching communication with multilingual learners requires diligence and attention to various cues.

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 12:36 PM ET

Verified

A male student pilot in flight training. [Credit: Strider]

Key Takeaways:

Non-native English-speaking pilots, even those FAA-certified as proficient, often struggle to communicate effectively with air traffic controllers due to accents and the specialized, often literal, nature of aviation English.
Misunderstandings are exacerbated by the need for mental translation, regional aviation jargon differences, and learners literally interpreting commands instead of aviation-specific meanings.
A breakthrough in communication occurred when the learner pilot adapted by mimicking the controller's cadence or adopting a distinct, recognizable accent, enabling mutual understanding and establishing effective two-way communication.

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“If there is an instructor on board, they better key up!”

These were the words of a somewhat frustrated tower controller who was trying to understand the request of the Japanese learner—the young man could speak English, but apparently it was so heavily accented (to the controller’s ears), I feared the request for touch and goes came across the radio sounding like something between Scooby Doo and the teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoons.