Exploring the Features of Language Performance Indicative of Air Traffic Controllers’ Workplace Language Socialisation
Creators: name: Agius, William
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2024

description: The background of this research are the language proficiency requirements
 (LPRs) for air traffic controllers and pilots that were implemented in
 2011 by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The
 linguistically informed ICAO scale that shall be used in the assessment of
 test takers’ English language proficiency focusses on six areas of
 language use: pronunciation, vocabulary, structure, fluency,
 comprehension, and interaction. However, several studies (e.g., Kim
 &amp; Elder, 2015; Knoch, 2014; Prinzo &amp; Thompson, 2009)
 report on the challenges in operationalising the ICAO scale. The aim of
 this thesis, therefore, is to identify empirically the features of
 language performance that air traffic controllers and pilots value in
 their peers, that is, features they consider pertinent in the air traffic
 controller profession as measures of the extent of an air traffic
 controller’s workplace language socialisation. Methodologically, this
 thesis combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to achieve a broad
 perspective of the research context, verifying data through triangulation.
 It comprises three sequential studies. In the first study, air traffic
 controllers and pilots described the air traffic controller profession and
 the role of communication in an air traffic controller’s routine work. In
 the second study, new participants commented on the performance of test
 takers in recordings of the oral performance interview of a commercial
 test of English for air traffic controllers. Participants in these focus
 groups were domain insiders and linguistic laypersons. Their contributions
 defined an indigenous perspective of the air traffic controller
 profession. In the third study, a questionnaire with the features of
 language performance that derived from the focus groups was presented to a
 group of experienced assessors for a test of English for air traffic
 controllers. The assessors were asked to evaluate the relevance of the
 emergent features of language performance using a three-point Likert
 scale. The results emphasise domain insiders’ orientation to interactional
 and communicative competence, which are both under-represented in the
 current ICAO rating scale. Based on my results, a framework of
 aeronautical radiotelephony communication is proposed, alongside a set of
 three new assessment criteria – Handling of Interaction, Achievement of
 Objectives, and Repair Management – and two further assessment criteria –
 Articulation and Vocabulary – which add specificity to existing criteria
 in the ICAO scale.
 
 These new and expanded criteria have the potential to make testing to meet
 the ICAO LPRs more equitable for all test takers by focussing assessment
 on those features of performance that best indicate the extent of their
 workplace language socialisation within the TLU domain of aeronautical
 radiotelephony communication. My research contributes to the theory and
 practice of rating scale development and demonstrates the value of using
 domain insider informants.