Developments in LSP Testing 30 Years On? The Case of Aviation English

Abstract

The proceedings of the first Language Testing Forum in 1980 were published in ELT Documents 111: Issues in Language Testing (Alderson & Hughes, 1981). Discussants at the 1980 Forum raised a number questions on Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) testing relating, notably, to test specificity, test content, the relationship between subject matter knowledge and language knowledge and predicting real-life language performance. The 2010 Language Testing Forum looked back at the last three decades in language testing to reflect on what developments, if any, have occurred. Following the 2010 Forum, this article addresses the questions raised in 1980 with reference to testing for a very specific purpose—the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Language Proficiency Requirements for pilots and air traffic controllers. In analysing the testing context—aeronautical radiotelephony communications—the author argues that, in spite of theoretical and methodological advances in LSP testing, these questions are still as relevant to testing LSP today as they were in the early 1980s.

Notes

1. ¹Until March 2003, language provisions were addressed through recommendations that English be made available whenever an aircraft station was unable to communicate in the language used by the station on the ground. It was also stipulated that air traffic controllers demonstrate knowledge of “the language or languages nationally designated for use in air-ground communications and ability to speak such language or languages without accent or impediment which would adversely affect radio communication” (ICAO, 2010, Section 1.3.1). ICAO acknowledges that there were no similar requirements for flight crew and that, in the absence of a clearly defined required proficiency level, harmonisation was difficult and assessment uneven.

2. ²“In Annex 10, Volume II, it is stipulated that radiotelephony communications shall be conducted either in the language of the station on the ground or in English, and that English shall be made available when pilots are unable to use the language of the station on the ground” (ICAO, 2010, Section 4.3.5). A problem often cited by pilots operating in international airspace is the use of English and local languages on the same air traffic control frequency. For example, a French-registered aircraft flown by a French-speaking crew is number one to land at Paris Charles de Gaulle and the crew are communicating with local control in French. Number two to land is a Chinese-registered aircraft flown by a Chinese-speaking crew communicating with the controller in English. Should a nonroutine event occur for the French aircraft and communications ensue in French, the Chinese crew would experience a loss of what is known as “situational awareness” (unless, of course, they can speak French). The same would apply to any other non-French-speaking crew on the same frequency.