Below is an extract of an audit done in France by or on behalf of the Ministry of Transports and the French DGAC, to assess the quality of training of pilots in France:
Etude de la formation aéronautique professionnelle des pilotes en France
Air France Consulting, Avico, BT Consulting & SI
Date: 25 janvier 2005
Page 96 / 98
En revanche, le manque d’implication de l’ensemble des acteurs de la formation
aéronautique française dans un cursus en langue anglaise constitue un écueil majeur pour
le développement des écoles (voire à terme pour leur survie). En effet, cette lacune bride
aussi largement l’attrait des écoles françaises pour les stagiaires étrangers que les
débouchés étrangers pour les stagiaires français.
On pourrait également noter que la faible maîtrise de la langue anglaise par certains pilotes suscite
des problèmes pour les compagnies aériennes françaises, tant sur le plan de l’exploitation qu’en
terme de sécurité des vols.
Une inversion de la tendance actuelle est ardue, car aussi bien les élèves pilotes que les écoles et
la tutelle partagent la responsabilité de ces lacunes :
• Nombre d’élèves pilotes n’ont pas un niveau d’anglais conversationnel à leur entrée dans les
écoles en phase avec les attentes de leurs futurs employeurs, qu’il soit étrangers ou français
Underlined (by me) in the quote is an interesting sentence, which roughly translates to: "It can also be noted that the weakness in mastering the English language by some pilots can generate problems for French airlines, be it on the aspects of flight operations, but also in terms of flight safety."
A few lines below: "Upon joining the training schools, numerous student pilots do not have the conversational level of English that is required by their future employers, be it French or foreign" (it's unclear if they talk about the future employers, as there seems to be some grammar mismatch.)
This report was published in 2005. It's not so long ago, but sure feels nothing has changed since... We can still keep our eyes closed and pretend that the issue is only a matter of pride because of the right to use French in France, but the strong underlying reason seems that many French pilots do not have the level required for conversational English, regardless of whatever ICAO ELP that can be shown on their licence. It has been an ever-existing problem in the French education system, that relies strongly on a maximum of theory and minimum practice. In other words, you can find in France some English language "experts", they will know all the irregular verbs and the grammar rules, but their actual level of conversational English will be below par.
As was mentioned on previous posts, but in different words: If the French had a high level of proficiency in the English language, it should not be an issue to use it.
Now I'll go down in flames....
