Aviation English

[austhai]

I am a qualified English teacher working at a large high school in Thailand.
I would like to teach Aviation English as my passion has always been the aviation industry... I hold an australian PPL.
I would like to either work for an orgnisation that tutors Aviation English or start courses of my own.
I have a close friend who is a retired 767 captain and he is interested in helping with the set up and content of the course.

What I need to know is where pilots who are not native English speakers learn aviation English ?
Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Baron rouge]

As an ex French air force pilot I can tell you air forces have specific courses with dedicated teachers and books.

[Lu Zuckerman]

Contact the following:

Air Transport Association (Publications Branch)
1709 New York Avenue N.W.
Washington, DC
20006
USA

They have published a technical glossary to standardize various technical terms. I believe they have also published and aviation English glossary / dictionary.

:cool:

[ratsarrse]

Sorry to distract from the thread, but how did English become the standard language for aviation? Hopefully this can be answered concisely...

[FLEXJET]

I have been teaching Aviation English for one full year in the French Air Force.
The majority of my students had little Aviation English knowledge before begining their training. They had several hours planned each week (I think it was 4) during their first phase of flight training as well as during initial ground training and later specific flight training (i.e. Transport or Fighter).

I thereafter qualified as a JAA CPL/IR ATPL and observed that my fellow students had about the same Av. Eng. skills but they were free to study Av. Eng. whenever they wanted, either during the ATPL Ground School, either beetween ATPL and CPL/IR flight training or even after!

Feel free to send me a private message and... good luck!

FLEXJET

[McD]

Ratsarsse - Here's at least a partial answer to your question (gleaned from an Embry-Riddle website (http://comm.db.erau.edu/media2/pr/prmathews.html) , but also found verbatim on other websites too) :

ICAO Annex 10 Aeronautical Telecommunications -
Air/ground communications should be conducted in the language normally used by the ground station. This will in most cases be the language of the nation responsible for the station. ICAO recommends that in cases where English is not the language of the ground station the English language should be available on request from any aircraft as a universal medium for radiotelephony communication."

The Annex was first published in 1951, I believe. Might have been a bit earlier, since ICAO had its beginnings in the 1940s.

As you can see, it doesn't dictate that English should be the one and only aviation language, it merely recommends that English be available as a universal medium. But, it seems to have evolved into the international aviation language out of necessity and use. Here's a quote from an Australian website (http://users.ssc.net.au/mcmillan/Miscommunications/Miscommunications_4.htm#HD2) :

Thus, while English is not mandated by ICAO, fifty years on this ambiguous situation has resulted in the de facto use of English as the international language of air traffic control. English became the lingua franca for international aviation simply on the basis of economic, geographic and cultural dominance.

[Lu Zuckerman]

ATA 100, which governs the preparation of commercial aviation technical manuals and technical drawings, requires the use of standardized aviation English. Aviation English requires that a word have a specific meaning and is not to be confused by a word that sounds the same. An example would be there, they’re and their although this example does not pertain to aviation English. The purpose is to standardize a meaning of a specific word and no matter where in the world that word is used it means the same thing. I stated above that the ATA produced a manual /glossary of technical terms which is called WATOG or, Airline Industry Standard World Airlines Technical Operations Glossary. I’m sorry to say Aviation English is based on American English.

:rolleyes: