=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2588/paper40
|storemode=property
|title=Communication in Civil Aviation: Linguistic Analysis for Educational Purposes
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2588/paper40.pdf
|volume=Vol-2588
|authors=Olena Kovtun,Nataliia Khaidari,Tetiana Harmash,Nataliia Melnyk,Sergiy Gnatyuk
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/cmigin/KovtunKHMG19
}}
==Communication in Civil Aviation: Linguistic Analysis for Educational Purposes==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2588/paper40.pdf
Communication in Civil Aviation: Linguistic Analysis
for Educational Purposes
Olena Kovtun [0000-0001-5216-6350], Nataliia Khaidari[0000-0001-7283-0159],
Tetiana Harmash [0000-0001-6691-4815], Nataliia Melnyk [0000-0001-7283-0159] and
Sergiy Gnatyuk [0000-0003-4992-0564]
National Aviation Univesity, Kyiv, Ukraine
olena_kovtun@nau.edu.ua
Abstract. Effective communication is a basic human requirement and in the
aviation environment an essential pre-requisite to safety. English is the
designated language of communication between air traffic controllers and pilots
of international flights. Deviations from the usage of standard phraseology and
lack of language proficiency had been identified as one of the causal factors in
safety occurrences. The research focuses on radiotelephony communication
(RTF) between pilots and air traffic controllers in the international controlled
airspace as well as face-to-face communication between pilots in the cockpit
and between pilots and aerodrome staff. Linguistic analysis of radiotelephony
allowed us to prove its discursive nature based on procedural, interactive, and
real-time attributes. The RTF discourse is defined as a closed, narrow-
professional, institutional and dynamic type. This discourse is intentional and
focused on safe operation of flight; conventional, limited by a set of stereotyped
phrases enshrined in regulatory documents and obligatory for radiotelephony
participants’ use, by strict regulation of radiotelephony procedures at all stages
of flight. Main speech functions realized in RTF discourse are informative and
regulatory. Analysis of linguistic and psycholinguistic features of RTF
discourse, nature and causes of RTF communication failures, and psycho-
physiological features of pilot in-flight activity (information overloading, high
tempo of work due to time limits, work in stressful conditions) allowed to
determine types of exercises for ab initio students to meet language
requirements of safe, clear and effective communication in Civil Aviation.
Keywords: Communication, radiotelephony, language proficiency.
Introduction
Development of modern science, engineering and technology leads to the emergence
of specialized areas of human activity that cause emergence of specialized areas of
communication. One of such specialized spheres is communication in Civil Aviation,
since “modern flight aviation system operates as a communication process
constructed, organized, regulated, and realized through human actions” [1].
Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) CMiGIN-2019: International Workshop on Conflict Management
in Global Information Networks.
In our studies, it was found that professional aviation communication
encompasses: 1) specific professional speech communication within the professional
community “air traffic controllers (ATCOs) – aircrew” while operating an aircraft
flight, and is implemented in the form of Radiotelephony of Civil Aviation (RTF);
2) communication of aircrew and air traffic control (ATC) personnel with ground
personnel in order to ensure the organization of the flight and its safety;
3) communication with passengers, which is carried out indirectly as aircrew
announcements or directly in certain flights, if there arise situations that require flight
crew intervention to ensure flight safety [2].
Air-to-ground communication (that is a radio exchange between ATC and aircrew)
is viewed as the key component of flight safety. At the dawn of aviation,
communication between pilots and ground services was not possible due to the lack of
radio communication means. However, low altitude piloting, low speeds and small
number of aircrafts minimized possibility of aircraft collision in flight or at airfields.
Nowadays air traffic on many routes is similar to traffic on big freeways, and to
ensure safety of its participants it is necessary to observe the rules of professional
communication, which is considered as a component of the professional reliability of
ATCOs and pilots. The “Air-Ground Communication Safety Study: Causes and
Recommendations”, made by Eurocontrol, indicates that 64% of all communication
problems have some air safety consequences [3].
The ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements apply to achieving and
maintaining proficiency in all languages used in radiotelephony communications.
However, English is the language most widely used by the global aviation
community, and the one language, which is obligatory to provide. Thus, improving
levels of spoken English is the aviation community’s main focus currently.
Most flights operated by Ukrainian airlines and served by Air Traffic Control in
airspace of Ukraine are international. Therefore, the radio exchange language for
Ukrainian pilots and air traffic controllers is English, that is, a foreign language that is
specially learned by these professionals to become their reliable and efficient
instrument of professional activities. Despite the long-standing interest of scientists in
the linguistic aspects of Aviation English and RTF phraseology [4; 5; 6; 7; 8], the
nature of communicative failures in “air-to-ground” radio exchange [9; 10; 11; 12],
Aviation English teaching [2; 13; 14], the problem of ensuring communicative
reliability of pilots remains unsolved. In this regard, we consider the purpose of the
article in exploring linguistic nature of the RTF discourse and on this basis defining a
typology of exercises for the radio exchange training of future Civil Aviation pilots.
Methods of the research
The following methods were applied in the research: descriptive method that was used
to describe communication in Civil Aviation as an institutional professional
discourse; abstract-logical method that allowed to synthesize theoretical material and
covered various techniques: analysis, comparison, hypothetical prediction and
analogy; cognitive, linguistic and psycholinguistic analysis of a selection of excerpts
from investigation documents of aviation accidents, a contributory factor of which
was communication failure in the radio exchange process, which were used to clarify
the nature of communicative failures in RTF discourse; observation of professional
and communicative activities of air ATCOs and pilots in the process of RTF
communication; modelling exercise typology for teaching RTF communication.
Socio-psychological and psychophysiological aspects of aircrew
professional activity
Effective vocational training should first and foremost take into account the specifics
of ab initio students' future professional and communicative needs. As the research is
aimed at improving aircrew language proficiency, sociopsychological and
psychophysiological analysis of pilots' professional activity was conducted [2], which
enabled us to draw conclusions on future pilots’ professional speech training:
– the pilot has a leading, integral role in the system “man – machine – environment”,
while the interaction between man and machine is based on the principle of active
participation of the person, who organizes the whole system and directs it to achieve a
definite, predetermined result, i.e. the principle of “active operator”;
– flight activity is one of the most complex and dynamic, the aircrew of modern
aircraft operates at the limits of human capabilities; flight activity as a profession
belongs to the category of “dangerous professions”;
– the course of pilot’s mental processes in flight is influenced by specific
characteristics of flight activity (unusual for a human conditions of lifting-off the
ground; rapid movement in space; high pace of activity; simultaneous performing of
multidirectional actions at certain stages of flight; risk of dangerous situations,
influence of specific physical factors on the body (acceleration, vibrations, etc.);
– modern aircrew manages not the physical object as such, but its information
model, so the circulation and processing of information are fundamental in aviation;
speed, accuracy and reliability of the whole system “man – machine” depends on the
accuracy and timeliness of information processing. Incompleteness, ambiguity,
uncertainty of information can not only make worse time and accuracy characteristics
of the pilot's activity, but also cause stress and action errors;
– features of the pilot’s activity (information overloading, high tempo of work due
to time limits, work in stressful conditions) are strengthened by the fact that a human
as a link of the complex system “aircraft – pilot –environment” has its limitations,
which lead to errors in the work and provoke emergencies;
– the feature of pilot’s “professional reliability” is the absence of communication
failures in his professional speech activity in the RTF discourse.
Linguistic features of aircrew communication in Civil Aviation
The specificity of the communication field makes particular requirements for the use
of lexical and grammatical means, sentence making and structuring the utterance. All
this is subordinated to the one goal – the highest possible meeting communicative
needs in this sphere of professional communication. Communication in aviation lays
down a number of requirements to the language used by aircrew in flight: the language
used employs a specific set of vocabulary, and functions; operational fficiency, rather
than linguistic correctness, is the ultimate criterion by which proficiency is evaluated;
communication is predominantly oral and most often with no visual contact [15].
Discursive nature of aircrew communication in Civil Aviation
Psycholinguistic analysis of radiotelephony allowed us to prove its discursive nature. In
defining the RTF discourse nature, we relied on Ye. Kubriakova’s research where
discourse is defined as “the form, the use of the language in real time (on-line), that
reflects a certain type of human social activity” [16]. In terms of a social context,
professional space acquires an important value, as it points out the environment in
which discursive activity takes place and allows defining RTF as a narrow-professional
type of discourse. The narrow-focused professional orientation of the RTF discourse
characterizes it as a closed type [5]. The dynamic nature of the RTF discourse is
associated with the components of dynamism – procedurality of activity that is related
to interaction and is expressed in real-time binding (on-line discourse). In this
connection, we view the RTF discourse not as the result of communication, but rather as
the speech behaviour itself.
Discourse "Radiotelephony of Civil Aviation"
As a closed, narrow-professional, institutional dynamic type, the RTF discourse is
characterized by a) the intentional character and focus on safe flight performance,
herewith all communication in the RTF discourse is reduced to provide this guideline;
b) communicators of the RTF discourse as representatives of a certain professional
space realize themselves in a limited set of role characteristics; c) communication
process “ATC – aircrew” is built on “circular model”, since one-way communication is
not provided in this type of the discourse (this feature distinguishes the interactive
character of communication and allows to refer RTF to discursive space); d) “status-
role” relations of RTF participants are mostly realized by means of binary opposition “a
message initiator” – “an executor / non-executor of the requested action”.
Realization of the RTF discourse by its communicators can be represented
schematically (see Fig. 1 and 2).
Fig. 1. Realization of the RTF discourse in the mode “Air Traffic Controllers – Aircrew”
As we see from Fig. 1, it is possible to distinguish two varieties of the RTF discourse
regarding the aircraft crew. The RTF discourse is external when realized in air-to-
ground communication (between a pilot and an air traffic controller). In case the RTF
discourse is used in communication among the aircrew members inside the aircraft, it
is defined as internal.
In some cases, the RTF discourse becomes three-membered.
Fig. 2. Realization of the RTF discourse in the mode
“Air Traffic Controllers – Aircrew 1 – Aircrew 2”
As we can see in fig. 2, for Aircrew 1 there are two sources of external information:
from Air Traffic Controllers and from another aircraft (Aircrew 2).
External information from ATC bodies is essential for the aircraft crew in the
standard flight course and absence of emergencies. The flight program and connected
with it aircrew activity depends on this information. Flight operation in standard
conditions is related to the implementation of the decision. In the case of a non-
standard situation, the role of cockpit communication in the process of gathering,
processing information and decision-making increases. Decision-making is the main
point of the aircrew activity under stress conditions.
Functional aspects of the RTF discourse
From the functional standpoint, the RTF discourse is viewed as hierarchically organized
speech acts, combined into a dialogic utterance. Specific features of dialogues in the
RTF discourse are their purposefulness and fast pace, which are connected with a limit
of time for communication. The longer the communication process lasts (considering
flight speeds), the less time it left to perform aircraft control operations, as a result,
some of the operations are either not performed or are performed with errors, which can
lead to aviation accidents. The RTF discourse (as a variety of oral colloquial speech) is
realized in accordance with the principle of economy. Consequently, the specific feature
of utterances in the RTF discourse is conciseness. The RTF dialogue does not foresee
the visual perception of the communicants, that is, it lacks the perception of facial
expressions and gestures. Possible radio interferences do not always allow perceiving
the intonation pattern of the utterance. The result of this is a special attention to the text
and to the word as its unit.
The main speech functions, implemented in the RTF discourse, are informative and
regulatory. The RTF discourse performs its informative function if information on the
aircraft condition and location, airfield condition, functioning of communication
facilities, emergencies, etc. is transmitted. The informative function is implemented in
such speech genres as request, controller’s information, clarification, confirmation,
etc. (e.g. Borispil Ground: WRC 7061, taxi with caution, taxiways are slippery. –
WRC 7061: Roger, WRC 7061). The regulatory function of the RTF is carried out
mainly by the air traffic controller and is manifested in the control of the aircraft crew
activities: setting the mode of flight, its heading, flight route for descending before
landing and climbing after take-off, at levelling aimed at preventing dangerous
approaches and collisions of aircraft and other obstacles. The main genres of speech
utterances that implement the regulatory function of the RTF discourse are
instructions, controller’s orders and recommendations (e.g.: Pilot: Borispil Ground,
WRC 7061, request taxi. – Controller: WRC 7061, taxi to holding point RWY 36R via
taxiways D4, B. – Pilot: Holding point RWY 36R via taxiways D4, B, WRC 7061).
In flight, the aircrew interacts with various ATC services. For instance, at the first
and final stages of the flight, the interaction “aerodrome control – aircraft” is carried
out. Communication covers the following topics: departure information and engine
starting procedures, push-back, taxi instructions, take-off procedures, airport traffic
circuit, final approach and landing, go around, after landing [17].
RTF discourse as a “language code”
The RTF discourse is based on lexical and terminological “boilerplates”, speech
clichés, the use of which is obligatory in accordance with the requirements of radio
communications. The rules and standard phraseology are intended to shorten the
duration, to regulate and enhance the reliability of the RTF communication in radio
networks and over terrestrial channels of connections of ATC bodies.
I. Prokhozhai notes that the RTF discourse is a “code language” since only
members of the aviation community understand the information it provides [5]. Under
the term “code language”, we mean a system of signs or combinations of signs with
certain meaning, presented to the recipient in an encoded form, and which need
immediate decoding in the process of radio exchange. Encoding of information in the
RTF discourse involves transforming information into a form that meets the
requirements of this type of discourse – non-ambiguity, conciseness and clarity of the
formulated thought. From this point of view, all the information in the RTF discourse
is precise. The decoding process is considered as a mental processing of information,
which results in the adequate activation of the sign encoded by the speaker.
The encoding of information in the RTF discourse is found at different levels of the
language system. phonetic / phonological (e.g.: a) replacement of the sound [θ] with
the sound [t]: [θri: – tri:] and [θauzend – tauzend]; b) complete replacement of the
sound [v] with the sound [f]: [faiv́ – faif], etc.); lexical (e.g.: a) RTF terminology:
flight level, ILS approach, wind shear; b) discursive lexical markers: affirm (yes),
break (a pause between parts of the message), negative (no), roger (understood),
wilco (understood, will be performed); c) terminologisation of literary language
words: start-up – in the RTF discourse – start of the engine, in literary language –
start of activity; backtrack – in the RTF discourse – to steer backwards, in literary
language – to break a promise, to refuse, etc.); grammatical (e.g.: a) discursive
syntactic markers: read back – repeat all or part of the message as it was received,
words twice – convey each word or group of words twice; b) elliptical structures (e.g.:
Pilot: Borispil Approach, request ILS approach Runway 36R); c) absence of
interrogative sentences (pilots and ATCOs use discursive formula to request
information: confirm – confirm if I understand correctly, advise – report, etc.).
Standard and non-standard phraseology of RTF communication
Of the many factors involved in the process of communication in Civil Aviation,
phraseology is perhaps the most important, because it enables aircrew and ATCOs to
communicate quickly and effectively despite differences in language and reduces the
opportunity for misunderstanding. Phraseology has evolved over time and has been
carefully developed to provide maximum clarity and brevity in communications while
ensuring that phrases are unambiguous. Standard phraseology reduces the risk that a
message will be misunderstood and aids the read-back/hear-back process so that any
error is quickly detected. Ambiguous or non-standard phraseology is a frequent causal
or contributory factor in aircraft accidents and incidents. International standards of
phraseology are laid down in ICAO Annex 10 [18] and in ICAO Doc 9432 – Manual
of Radiotelephony [17]. Failure to use standard phraseology can lead to
misunderstanding and breakdown of the communication process. Non-standard
phraseology, which is sometimes adopted unilaterally by national or local air traffic
services, can make a positive contribution to flight safety; however, this must be
balanced with the possibility of confusion for pilots or ATCOs not familiar with the
phraseology used.
Plain English in RTF communication
Although standardized ICAO phraseologies [19] have been developed to cover many
circumstances (essentially routine events, but also including some predictable
emergencies or non-routine events), no set of phraseologies can fully describe all
possible circumstances and responses. RTF users should be prepared to use plain
language when necessary following the principle of keeping phrases clear and
concise. Plain English proficiency is the ability to communicate in non-routine and
emergency situations during flight – for example, when a passenger suffers a medical
problem on board. It is crucial that pilots can convey these sorts of messages clearly
and effectively and that they are received and understood by air traffic control so the
appropriate actions can be taken. Therefore, plain English in aeronautical
communications needs to be clear, unambiguous, free of colloquialisms, slang and
idiomatic speech, and accessible to the international community of users [20].
Communicative failure in RTF communication
The main requirement for any communication is orientation towards mutual
understanding. Communication is considered successful if the recipient correctly
understands the speaker's intentions and responds appropriately. Communicative
failure in the RTF discourse is understood as a violation of the communication
process, which results in a mismatch of the content of the encoded message to the
content of the decoded message. Communicative failure in the process of radio
exchange can occur due to the influence of various factors [2; 5; 6]:
– factors of informative nature: complexity of information that leads to
misunderstanding; excessive brevity of information; vague information that logically
implies a repeated request from the addressee;
– psycholinguistic factors: a) inadequate anticipation of the situational model;
b) inadequate evaluation of the prototype communication situation;
– factors of professional nature: poor knowledge of ICAO phraseology (e.g.
misinterpretation of the phrase Go ahead as “Move forward” instead of “Continue”);
non-compliance with the established by ICAO communication rules and procedures;
unjustifiably high speed of an air traffic controller speech when issuing instructions
and clearances to aircraft pilots, etc.);
– psychophysiological factors: a) lack of attention; b) violation of the spatial
organization of perception and movement, manifested in the inability to quickly
differentiate right and left sides, parts of the world on a geographical map, etc.;
c) stress / affective state while recognizing the emergency of the situation;
– linguistic factors: existence of a bilingual environment in ATC; grammatical,
lexical and stylistic mistakes in the speech of communicators (e.g.: inadequate
replacement of lexemes ('zero' with 'o', 'say again' with 'repeat, please'; substitution
of grammatical structure (What's the heading? instead of Report heading)); unclear or
incorrect pronunciation of English words; strong accent of the speaker; inadequate
homophones decoding (e.g., numeral 'two' and preposition 'to' in the air traffic
controller’s instruction Climb to two five zero instead of Climb to flight level 250) etc.
– factors of technical nature: technical communication problems that cause
interference and poor broadcasting.
Language teaching for communication in Civil Aviation
ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements
The introduction of the ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements in 2003 and the
subsequent steps to assist their implementation have significantly altered the
environment in which Aviation English training is carried out. Previously, the training
was an optional and irregular activity on the periphery of professional training. Now,
Aviation English training is a subject driven by specific objectives: attaining and
maintaining the language proficiency defined as ICAO Operational Level 4 [21].
Basic principles of teaching English for communication in Civil Aviation
Experts in Aviation English training differentiate principles of language teaching for
aviation: appropriate content-based language training is a more efficient, motivating
and cost-effective form of Aviation English training; the content used for language
acquisition should be relevant to the population being trained; training should have a
communicative focus (communicative approach to language learning). The goal is
successful communication, rather than grammatical correctness. The training should use
learner-centered classrooms rather than teacher-centered; much student conversation
practice and relatively less teacher lecture; minimal error correction of errors which
do not affect comprehension, and; materials which attract learners’ attention.
It is generally accepted that the closer the content matter of a course is to the actual
situations, activities, functions and subjects encountered in the students’ professional
life, the more effective and motivating this courseware will be. Professional relevance
is a combination of two factors: content and function. Content may include subjects
such as approach, delays, bad weather conditions, sick passengers, a hydraulic failure
and runway incursions. No less relevant for aviation professionals are the specific
language functions required to deal with these situations, such as describing,
requesting, clarifying and confirming [14]. The key role in language teaching for
communication in Civil Aviation plays the system of exercises.
Modelling typology of exercises for teaching communication in Civil Aviation
In modelling the typology of exercises for the effective mastering of RTF
communication by ab initio students, we took into account psycholinguistic features
of the RTF discourse (real-time running, focus on safe flight operation, importance of
anticipation, information saturation and sense precision, etc.), psychophysiological
features of pilots activity in flight (information overload, forced high pace of work
due to time limits, stressful working conditions), dependence of pilots on
extralinguistic factors that affect quality of RTF communication (lack of current
information, poor communication quality), causes of communication failures.
Modelling of exercises of this type provides possibility of training on simulator,
which allows visualizing all controlled objects, setting them the desired characteristics
(speed, direction, etc.) and simultaneously developing necessary professional speech
skills. However, due to a number of organizational and technical reasons, Aviation
English teachers often have to prepare ab initio students for successful
communication in language classrooms using traditional and multimedia training
tools. The suggested typology of exercises will be effective under such conditions.
Type 1. Exercises for the formation of extra-curricular skills of operative memory
development (memorization and reproduction of word groups, text fragments, “snow
ball”, etc.). Work with such exercises is built on the principle of increasing
difficulties. Students are suggested to memorize and reproduce a series of words,
numbers, word combinations with numerals, geographical names, call signs,
headings, flight levels, meteorological conditions. The number of words can vary
(with tendency to increasing), although it is reasonable to follow the principle of
7 ± 2. Words can be selected by a theme or randomly. Exercises can be complicated
by the tasks of switching from one language code to another. This mode of
accomplishment corresponds to the mode of pilot’s work, when he perceives flight
information in English, but internally processes it in Ukrainian.
Type 2. Exercises for clear accent development, speech fluency (practice in
pronunciation of tongue twisters, reproduction of patterns in RTF communication,
etc.). Attention should be paid to speech speed, correct word stress, clarity of diction.
Type 3. Exercises for the development of skills to perceive information under
unfavourable conditions: (simultaneous listening and counting down, simultaneous
listening to two texts in different languages, perception of information in English, and
its processing in Ukrainian, etc.). Barriers in the material perception may vary.
Type 4. Exercises for the development of skills to perceive the RTF discourse
(listening to the RTF discourse samples and filling in missed words, determining the
basic data on the flight run, understanding of RTF messages in the context of
complicated reception conditions, detection of inaccuracies in RTF communication,
memorizing and reproduction of RTF samples, etc.). These exercises require entire
perception and complete (100%) understanding of the standard RTF phraseology.
Type 5. Exercises for the formation of skills to analyse perceived information in
the form of the RTF discourse. The exercises involve listening to RTF samples,
analysing and finding the communicative failures that became concomitant factors of
aviation accidents. Mastering skills in finding errors in the RTF discourse and their
analysis contributes to readiness of future pilots to strictly follow radio
communication procedures in their professional activities.
Type 6. Exercises for mastering skills to carry out RTF communication (listening
to ATC clearances and reading back, carrying out RTF communication on position
reporting / final approach and landing, etc.). Such exercises can be complicated by
incomplete information, which requires not only speech skills, but professional
intuition, analysis. Such exercises make educational activities closer to the
professional ones.
Type 7. Exercises for reflexive and evaluative skills formation in RTF
communication (case-study). To cope with these tasks students should apply skills
formed at the previous training stages. The inability to cope correctly and quickly with
the tasks (efficiency index is taken into account) shows a necessity of further work on
formation, adjustment or skills improvement to conduct RTF communication. Self-
reflection and evaluation become powerful factors of students’ motivation.
Types of the suggested exercises can vary depending on certain goals of a
particular stage of training. However, it is possible to distinguish some general
principles of work with each exercise:
1. Performance of each exercise should be based on the principle of activity and
students motivation to find the correct answer.
2. Control of exercises’ performance has to be subordinated to the international
requirements to communication in aviation, which in accordance with Doc 9835
“Manual on the Implementation of ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements” are as
follows: a) the language used should be clear, concise and unambiguous; b) the need
for the use of plain language should in no way be interpreted as permission to chat or
otherwise ignore the formal and informal protocols that govern the use of
standardized phraseology [21]. So, Aviation English teachers should control students'
practices in RTF communication and decide if they meet the ICAO requirements.
3. Exercises must be based on real RTF communication [22-25].
4. The composition of each exercise is determined by considering principles of
accessibility and gradual build-up of difficulties. The same type of exercise may vary
according to: the number of information elements (only altitude; altitude and heading;
altitude, heading and pressure, etc.); quality of communication (channel failure:
disturbances to the transmission of a sound-stream coming from garbling, background
noise, signal strength), individual features of air traffic controller’s speech), etc.
The practice of using such exercises demonstrates that the suggested approach to
their modelling allows facilitating of future pilots training, prepares them for the real
difficulties of professional communication in the RTF discourse [26-29].
Conclusion
Aviation is a fast developing branch of international transportation. Safety experts are
constantly seeking to identify means of improving safety in order to reduce accident
rates. With mechanical failures featuring less prominently in aircraft accidents, more
attention has been focused in recent years on human factors that contribute to
accidents. Communication is one human element that is receiving renewed attention.
The RTF discourse makes the core of communication in Civil Aviation. Linguistic
analysis of radiotelephony allowed us to prove its discursive nature based on
procedural, interactive, and real-time attributes. The RTF discourse is defined as a
closed, narrow-professional, institutional and dynamic type. This discourse is
intentional and focused on safe operation of flight. Main speech functions realized in
RTF discourse are informative and regulatory.
The RTF discourse is a “language code”, since information transmitted in it is
understandable only to the actors of aviation community. Non-compliance with norms
of this language code use, as well as a number of psycholinguistic, psycho-
physiological, and extra-linguistic factors lead to disruption of information coding /
decoding processes, cause communicative failures, become concomitant factors of
aviation accidents.
Language training in aviation has specific objectives; the content, criteria of
proficiency, conditions of use and professional and personal stakes distinguish the
instruction goals from the teaching of language for other areas of human activity.
Analysis of linguistic features of the RTF discourse, nature and causes of RTF
communication failures, and psycho-physiological features of pilot in-flight activity
allowed to determine types of exercises facilitating the process of future pilots
training to cope with real difficulties of professional communication in aviation.
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