Radiotelephony Communication Research Articles

Challenges and possibilities in compiling Aeronautical English corpora: The case of the Aerocorpus

Authentic materials are an important resource for teaching and assessment, especially when it comes to English for Specific Purposes. To this end, corpus linguistics has developed a supporting role as it provides a wide range of possibilities for extracting and exploring authentic data. With regard to Aeronautical English (AE), which refers to oral communications between pilots and air traffic controllers (ATCOs), corpora offer substantial benefits in the development of teaching and testing materials. However, putting together corpora in the context of AE faces challenges in availability, selection, compilation, and copyright issues as some countries limit access to radiotelephony communications due to their sensitive content. This paper reports the experience of compiling a collaborative corpus called “Aerocorpus” proposed during two webinars held for AE teachers and testers from all over the world. The compilation methodology aims to address the aforementioned challenges and offer alternative solutions. Despite existing limitations, we see considerable gains in using authentic materials and are looking into ways of protecting the “black box” containing sensitive information while continuing to compile the corpus, which currently features 38,135 words from 45 situations, and to make it available to a wider community of AE professionals.

A probabilistic model based on the peak-over-threshold approach for risk assessment of airport controllers' performance

Airport tower control plays an instrumental role in ensuring airport safety. However, obtaining objective, quantitative safety evaluations is challenging due to the unavailability of pertinent human operation data. This study introduces a probabilistic model that combines aircraft dynamics and the peak-over-threshold (POT) approach to assess the safety performance of airport controllers. We applied the POT approach to model reaction times extracted from a radiotelephony dataset via a voice event detection algorithm. The model couples the risks of tower control and aircraft operation to analyze the influence of human factors. Using data from radiotelephony communications and the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) database, we compared risk levels across scenarios. Our findings revealed heightened airport control risks under low demand (0.374) compared to typical conditions (0.197). Furthermore, the risks associated with coupling under low demand exceeded those under typical demand, with the final approach stage presenting the highest risk (4.929×10−7). Our model underscores the significance of human factors and the implications of mental disconnects between pilots and controllers for safety risks. Collectively, these consistent findings affirm the reliability of our probabilistic model as an evaluative tool for evaluating the safety performance of airport tower controllers. The results also illuminate the path toward quantitative real-time safety evaluations for airport controllers within the industry. We recommend that airport regulators focus on the performance of airport controllers, particularly during the final approach stage.

Text-to-Speech Application for Training of Aviation Radio Telephony Communication Operators

Text-to-Speech Application for Training of Aviation Radio Telephony Communication Operators

Implementing the ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements: The Localization of Aviation English Testing

Abstract There are still language-related safety issues in international aeronautical radiotelephony communications. This article revisits the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) language policy, a set of language proficiency requirements mainly reflected in the ICAO Rating Scale (Pronunciation, Structure, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension, and Interaction). Although the ICAO Rating Scale has been used globally to assess professional aviation speakers’ communicative language proficiency for two decades now, it remains unclear what role the six ICAO criteria have played in high-stakes aviation English tests. We thus conducted an independent study based on secondary data analysis. We applied the Winsteps Rasch Rating Scale Model to 358 Chinese pilots’ test scores on an aviation English test in China. The results suggest that the six criteria carried considerably different relative values in contribution to test outcomes and that Interaction was different from the other five criteria. This exploratory study provides an example of how the ICAO assessment criteria were used in a locally developed aviation English test; its findings can have implications for supporting and implementing a language policy for global harmonization.

The challenges of radiotelephony communication and effective training approaches: A study of Korean pilots and air traffic controllers

The utilisation of Aviation English is paramount in ensuring the safety and efficiency of the aviation industry, and it serves as a preventative measure against incidents and accidents related to communication. This study examines the challenges in radiotelephony communication faced by Korean pilots and air traffic controllers, who are English as a second language (L2) speakers. The study aims to identify the causes of communication difficulties and to explore effective English educational materials to mitigate these difficulties. The research employed a questionnaire to gather the perspectives of pilots and controllers, who are experts in the aviation industry, regarding the issues. The results indicate that communication difficulties are caused by a lack of English language proficiency, excessive use of plain language, rapid rate of speech, and accents that deviate from standard English. Moreover, the results suggest that practical training, using materials such as real transmission voice recordings and diverse vocabulary resources, can enhance speaking and listening comprehension skills in non-routine situations. This study provides valuable insights for the development of effective training programs and materials, which could help reduce communication difficulties and improve the safety and efficiency of aviation operations.

Assistant Based Speech Recognition Support for Air Traffic Controllers in a Multiple Remote Tower Environment

Assistant Based Speech Recognition (ABSR) systems for air traffic control radiotelephony communication have shown their potential to reduce air traffic controllers’ (ATCos) workload. Related research activities mainly focused on utterances for approach and en-route traffic. This is one of the first investigations of how ABSR could support ATCos in a tower environment. Ten ATCos from Lithuania and Austria participated in a human-in-the-loop simulation to validate ABSR support within a prototypic multiple remote tower controller working position. The ABSR supports ATCos by (1) highlighting recognized callsigns, (2) inputting recognized commands from ATCo utterances in electronic flight strips, (3) offering correction of ABSR output, (4) automatically accepting ABSR output, and (5) feeding the digital air traffic control system. This paper assesses human factors such as workload, situation awareness, and usability when ATCos are supported by ABSR. Those assessments result from a system with a relevant command recognition rate of 82.9% and a callsign recognition rate of 94.2%. Workload reductions and usability improvement with p-values below 0.25 are obtained for the case when the ABSR system is compared to the baseline situation without ABSR support. This motivates the technology to be brought to a higher technology readiness level, which is also confirmed by subjective feedback from questionnaires and objective measurement of workload reduction based on a performed secondary task.

Фонетическая система английского языка радиообмена в авиации

The research aim is to improve the methods and techniques for the formation of better pronunciation skills of pilots and air traffic controllers. So, it is necessary to analyze the theoretical bases of the English language phonetic system of aeronautical radiotelephony communications. These bases condition the formation and functioning of the mentioned system in the speech situations typical for aviation sphere when communicating by the means of radio. The scientific novelty lies in the first complete study of phonetic system elements of Aviation English used only in the spoken forms (phonation, pause, tempo, intonation and others). The study shows that these spoken forms interact in a special way and provide the strong speech perception among communicants both in conditions of both good and poor hearing. As a result, it is proved that the phonetic system of Aviation English in aeronautical radiotelephony communications contributes to its efficient use as the means of spoken communication in all air conditions.

Ernie-Gram BiGRU Attention: An Improved Multi-Intention Recognition Model for Air Traffic Control

In recent years, the emergence of large-scale pre-trained language models has made transfer learning possible in natural language processing, which overturns the traditional model architecture based on recurrent neural networks (RNN). In this study, we constructed a multi-intention recognition model, Ernie-Gram_Bidirectional Gate Recurrent Unit (BiGRU)_Attention (EBA), for air traffic control (ATC). Firstly, the Ernie-Gram pre-training model is used as the bottom layer of the overall architecture to implement the encoding of text information. The BiGRU module that follows is used for further feature extraction of the encoded information. Secondly, as keyword information is very important in Chinese radiotelephony communications, the attention layer after the BiGRU module is added to realize the extraction of keyword information. Finally, two fully connected layers (FC) are used for feature vector fusion and outputting intention classification vector, respectively. We experimentally compare the effects of two different tokenizer tools, the BERT tokenizer tool and Jieba tokenizer tool, on the final performance of the Bert model. The experimental results reveal that although the Jieba tokenizer tool has considered word information, the effect of the Jieba tokenizer tool is not as good as that of the BERT tokenizer tool. The final model’s accuracy is 98.2% in the intention recognition dataset of the ATC instructions, which is 2.7% higher than the Bert benchmark model and 0.7–3.1% higher than other improved models based on BERT.

The Performance of Brazilian Air Traffic Controllers in Radiotelephony Communications in English: the Controllers’ Perspective

Following the argument-based validity framework (M.E. Kane 2006, 2013), this paper aims at analyzing controllers’ perspectives of their performance in radiotelephony communications in English, utilizing data generated through the ongoing validation process of EPLIS, the Aviation English Proficiency Exam for Brazilian Air Traffic Controllers. This paper reports one phase of a broader multistage mixed-methods study and focuses on the consequences inference. Part of the data generated from a 65-item questionnaire answered by Brazilian Air Traffic Controllers who got proficiency Level 3 (considered non-operational) and Level 4 (considered by ICAO as the minimum level necessary to control aircraft using the English language) is analyzed. The questionnaire was divided into 3 parts: test-takers’ perceptions of the rating scale established by ICAO; test-takers’ perceptions of their proficiency while controlling aircraft in English; and problems they faced while controlling in English.

Investigating the Construct of a Listening Test to Assess Pilots’ Comprehension: a Step-by-Step Project for Test Developers

Pilots and air traffic controllers must demonstrate their ability to listen and speak the language used in radiotelephony communications demonstrated by completing a language test. In this context, it is crucial to assess both interactive listening, when listening occurs together with speaking, and listening in isolation, when there is no speaking or interaction. The purpose of assessing listening in isolation is to reduce the influence of skills that are not relevant to the construct, that is, to minimize construct irrelevant variance (S. Messick 1994). This article describes a project that can be followed by test developers to address the initial step in the development of a test to assess pilots’ listening in isolation: the construct definition. The project is framed within an interactionalist perspective wherein a test construct is defined based on a combination of the abilities that those taking the test should have and the tasks that they should be able to perform (L. Bachman 2007). It is also informed by the work of L. Bachman/ A. Palmer (2010) and the framework proposed by U. Knock/ S. Macqueen (2020) for the development of language assessments for professional purposes. The project outlined in this article may also be of interest to test developers who wish to investigate different constructs of aeronautical English tests, as well as those involved in the development of other types of language assessments for professional purposes.

The development, evaluation and application of an aviation radiotelephony specialised technical vocabulary list

International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standard phraseology is an integral element of aviation radiotelephony (two-way radio) communication between air traffic controllers and other aviation personnel. A key issue with standard phraseology in this context is uncertainty as to its role. This is important in the aviation setting as miscommunication can lead to accidents. This paper presents a corpus-based Tower Aviation Radiotelephony Technical Vocabulary List (TARTVL) that is derived from ICAO standard phraseology. The list includes: technical words e.g. taxiway, proper noun classifications e.g. aircraft type, number classifications e.g. headings, acronyms e.g. FOD (Foreign Object Debris) and multiword units e.g. lineup and wait. Evaluation of the list shows that it is a promising training tool. The article discusses how the TARTVL can be used by English for specific purposes (ESP) and content instructors to provide aviation radiotelephony language training for ab initio, first language and non-native English speaking aviation personnel. Such training could help reduce miscommunication in multilingual workplaces, thus enhancing safety in aviation.

Fatigue Detection of Air Traffic Controllers Based on Radiotelephony Communications and Self-Adaption Quantum Genetic Algorithm Optimization Ensemble Learning

Air traffic controller (ATC) fatigue has become a major cause of air traffic accidents. Speech-based fatigue-state detection is proposed in this paper. The speech signal is preprocessed to further extract the Mel frequency cepstrum coefficient (MFCC) from speech discourse. The machine learning method is used in fatigue detection. However, single machine learning fatigue detection methods often have low detection accuracy. To solve this problem, an ensemble learning method based on self-adaption quantum genetic algorithm (SQGA) heterogeneous learning methods is proposed. Pattern-level and feature-level resampling are used to increase the differences in the base learner’s training dataset. To enlarge the diversity of single learners, k-nearest neighbor (KNN), Bayesian network (BN), back propagation neural network (BPNN) and support vector machine (SVM) are adopted for the heterogeneous ensemble. On this basis, finally, the detection result is obtained by weighted summation. The weight of each base learner was determined by SQGA. The SQGA method combines the quantum genetic algorithm with the adaptive strategy. The adaptive strategy includes adaptive adjustment of the quantum rotation gate, adaptive generation of crossover probability and adaptive generation of mutation probability. The experiments on real civil aviation radio land–air communication show that the proposed method can obtain 98.5% detection accuracy, with a 1.2% false and 3.0% missing report rate, whereas the SVM only obtains 94.0% detection accuracy, with a 5.4% false and 9.0% missing report rate.

Теоретические основы грамматической системы английского языка радиообмена в авиации

The research aims to consider the particularities of the grammatical system of professional English for radiotelephony communication in aviation. The paper is novel in that it is the first to analyse the theoretical basis of the language grammatical system, which should ensure the unambiguity of speech perception and the possibility of rapid transmission of oral messages by means of radio communication in both standard and difficult speech situations. The research findings prove that the effective functioning of English for radiotelephony communication in aviation is achieved using a limited set of grammatical means and short syntactic constructions, which ensures an optimal ratio of the reliability and brevity requirements for this professional language.

A novel strategy for fine-grained semantic verification of civil aviation radiotelephony read-backs

During the flight of the aircraft, the pilot must repeat the instruction sent by the controller, and the controller must further confirm these read-backs, in this way to further ensure the safety of air transportation. However, fatigue, tension, negligence and other human factors may prevent the controller from realizing read-back errors in time, which is a huge hidden danger for the safety of civil aviation transportation. This paper proposes a novel strategy to implement fine-grained semantic verification of radiotelephony read-backs by introducing interaction layer and attention mechanism at the output of BiLSTM model. Compared with the traditional two-channel verification strategy, the interaction layer is added to obtain fine-grained semantic matching relation representation, rather than connecting the BiLSTM output vectors to obtain the overall semantic representation of the sentence. And by adding attention layer, the new strategy can capture the potential semantic relation between the read-backs and the instructions, which is applicable to non-standard diction and abbreviated read-backs in real radiotelephony communications. Extensive experiments are conducted and the results show that the proposed new strategy is more effective than the traditional method for read-backs checking, and the average test accuracy of the new strategy based on the Chinese ATC radiotelephony read-backs corpus can reach 93.03%.

A study on radiotelephony English test design

Radiotelephony English is taught in college for the learners whose future professions are mainly pilots and air traffic controllers. The present study is to analyse the radiotelephony English test design in a university to see the extent of which it evaluates learners’ communicative competence in aviation scope. Theoretical frameworks on communicative competence, modern test theory and ICAO language proficiency requirements for the learners of radiotelephony communication are presented. The study reveals that learners’ communicative competence which includes both radiotelephony and everyday communication skills are important components in radiotelephony test design. The study points out that the application of modern test theory in designing radiotelephony test in college is vital in meeting the validity and reliability of the test and the students’ individual needs in English language learning for future career needs to be reflected in the test design.

Service Quality and Efficiency-Oriented Training Design in Air Traffic Management

The main objective of the air traffic control (ATC) services is to ensure safe, efficient, and expeditious air traffic flow within an airspace or aerodrome according to international rules and regulations. Despite, the development of various automation systems to keep up with these objectives, air traffic control services still rely on radio-telephony (RT) communication which requires exchange of instructions and readbacks between air traffic controllers (ATCOs) and pilots. Although various studies indicate that the less number of instructions are correlated with less a workload and better quality of air traffic services, this is no always so, especially for the high traffic levels at which more instructions are required to maintain safe separation and efficient air traffic flow. Number of instructions can also differentiate depending on the characteristics of airspace and the type of air traffic control (area, approach or aerodrome). In order to obtain a broader insight regarding the quality of service including the air traffic and airspace characteristics, we need to include the effects of flight efficiency in the analysis. This study aims to explore correlation between the quality of service and flight efficiency based on real-time air traffic simulation experiments done on ATCO trainees in ATCOSIMA project. The experiments were carried out on two groups of trainees. The first group had only formal ATC training background while the second group went under an additional training focused on the flight efficiency and the service quality in addition to their formal training background. During the experiments, number of instructions per flight was collected as the indicator of quality of service while the total completion time of flights were collected as the indicator of the flight efficiency. The results of the analysis indicated that the number of instructions was decreased with the additional training but no significant change was observed in the flight completion time. A moderately significant correlation was also observed between the average number of instructions per aircraft and the completion time. In conclusion, a new training method focused on flight efficiency in addition to the formal training improve the quality of service and efficiency level of trainees. The findings of the study can provide important insights for the development of ATCO training and assessment. For the future work, the analysis can be expended for more efficiency indicators including effectiveness of trajectories and environmental impacts.

Дуализм лексической системы специального английского языка радиообмена в авиации

The research aims to analyze the features peculiar to the lexical system of special English for radiotelephony communication in aviation. The paper is novel in that it is the first to analyze the impact of the phenomena of language redundancy and language means economy on the formation and functioning of the lexical system of the radiotelephony communication language in aviation. The research findings prove that the balanced interaction of these two mechanisms determines and regulates the use of the specific lexical means that facilitate generation and perception of utterances even under difficult communication conditions in speech.

The Negotiation of Meaning in Aviation English as a Lingua Franca: A Corpus‐Informed Discursive Approach

AbstractThis study explores the pragmatics of aviation English (AE) as a lingua franca in radiotelephony (R/T) communications primarily between aviators and air traffic controllers worldwide. AE is a crosslinguistic register used by aviation professionals who do not necessarily share their first languages and cultures. Accordingly, mutual intelligibility is the ultimate goal, as in English as a lingua franca (ELF) featuring message‐oriented accommodation. Simultaneously, AE is a highly restricted and relatively stable register, as its use is mandated to maximize accuracy, conciseness, and clarity of communication—factors all contributing to air safety. While instruction and testing in AE have been investigated in applied linguistics, its pragmatics‐focused aspects are underexplored. In this qualitative corpus‐informed study, we first relied on a small corpus of R/T communications in nonroutine situations to identify 3 cases of communication difficulty and then, investigate in depth the discursive construction of meaning, especially in terms of the pragmatic strategies the interactants used on the radio. Drawing exclusively on ELF‐speaker exchanges from the corpus, we illustrate the process of the negotiation of meaning within the constraints of the given aviation contexts. The findings of this study reveal similarities and differences between AE in R/T communications and general ELF discourses described in the literature. We conclude by offering pedagogical implications for enhanced aeronautical training addressing pragmatic and interactional competence.

AUDIOVISUAL MATERIAL AS A MEANS OF FORMING AVIATION SUBJECT MATTER COMPETENCE OF AVIATION TRANSLATION STUDENTS

The paper researches the use of audiovisual material for formation of aviation subject matter competence of aviation translation students. The research involved a pedagogical experiment aimed at the verification of the hypothesis that systemic use of content-oriented audiovisual material accompanied by a specifically developed complex of training activities enhances students’ knowledge of the professionally relevant subject matter and skills in adequate use of aviation terminology and technical language, which visibly improves students’ professional competence as future translators in the aviation industry. The conducted experiment yielded positive results and confirmed the research hypothesis. As a result of the experimental teaching, the students showed better skills in using aviation terminology, abbreviations and concepts, higher lexicographic awareness, improved their ability to adequately use electronic and printed reference materials when translating aviation texts and to perform translation/interpreting in conformity with grammar, semantic and stylistic norms of radiotelephony communication and aviation standards. The experiment gave convincing evidence that audiovisual material combined with specially designed activities facilitates the formation of the aviation subject matter competence of aviation translation students, which is the basis for their successful professional performance. The audiovisual material and the training activities proved to be effective teaching tools in the framework of a content-oriented structure of aviation translation students’ aviation subject matter competence which was developed by the authors. Though the experimental teaching was done in the course on English-Ukrainian and Ukrainian-English aviation translation, the research results may surely be of relevance for other language pairs as well.

Face and (im)politeness in aviation English: The pragmatics of radiotelephony communications

Aviation English (AE) used for radiotelephony (R/T) communications is a highly restricted English mandated to maximize accuracy, conciseness, and clarity, thus contributing to air safety. While specific phraseology is commonly used with prescribed syntax and discourse organization, in non-routine situations, clear and concise “plain aviation English” is also employed, allowing negotiation of (im)politeness to emerge. While R/T communications have recently been investigated empirically in relation to its instruction and testing, pragmatic concerns have been under-researched. This study explores how (im)politeness is negotiated in R/T communications and how aviation specialists jointly fulfill their transactional and interactional needs. Three excerpts were selected from different repositories of aviation English, and discursive construction of face and (im)politeness were analyzed within each aviation context. Additionally, four pilots with a range of experience were interviewed for expert interpretation of the excerpts with their interpretation informing the researchers’. The findings revealed complex ways in which the interactants discursively engaged in facework in an attempt to fulfill their transactional and relational needs. The effectiveness of the relational language was driven by affordances and constraints within each local aviation context.