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gregd75

As you may know, all international pilots will have to complete an English exam by the end of next month. If they fail their careers will surely suffer...

I was wondering of anyone knows of any resources for teaching aviation English?

I have seen an English teacher training course, but its in the UK, and have found only one book focussing on aviation english, but it is due to be available 'in the beginning of 2008'

Looking at the IACO webpage is a great help, but if anyone has any ideas on how to help pilots practice ATC listening and speaking, specific airplane and airline language, I'd greatly appreciate it!

THANKS Very Happy

MELEE · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:47 pm Post subject:

You should post this in the general forum and I'd also suggest PMing the user name spiral78

TheLongWayHome · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi

I had to prepare some material for a class with pilots once. There is a lot of stuff on the internet - especially diagrams with labelled parts of planes and even conversations between pilots, vocabulary lists and such. We managed to get together quite a lot of resources but it does take some time to research it all. I would also recommend reading up about the subject yourself so as to be able to make (productive) small talk with them.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

I had a private class with a tarmac mechanic for United several years back. He brought in all of the material, which was already in English, to practice with. I learned quite a bit about avionics over the period.

Perhaps your student (is this a one-on-one class?) will have a fair bit of material to use?

lozwich · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1536

You could contact Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT, in Australia). They have an aviation English course and I've seen the course materials. I have a background in air traffic services and the materials looked good.

Here's a whacky idea (not that I've ever seen one of these programs Razz

) but online you can play Air Traffic Controller role playing games. I was going to join one years ago, but they wanted to see my license and I left it back in Oz. And maybe some of your more realistic flight simulator software could help too.

And they could watch Pushing Tin to find out about the extra-curricular side of things! Laughing

Last time I looked at the ICAO website they said they were getting together a list of preparation materials and so forth for the test. That was a few years ago, have they scrapped that idea?

Good luck!
Lozwich of the airwaves

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

Gregd75 wrote:

gregd75 · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:44 pm Post subject:

Yes Samantha, Before the end of March 2008, pilots of course could still speak English, however, the FAA have decided to require pilots to pass a specific English test. This is the new development.

All pilots have had over a year to prepare for the test, the problem is (and its not really a problem) that its not a written test, its an oral test. There are no old tests etc to see the types of questions asked.

Some pilots have said the exam is a more general conversation about family, life, plans etc, and others have commented that its much more based on ATC, airplane mechanics/parts and emergency procedures if something goes wrong (which to me, is the most logical thing I would expect the FAA to examine- if theres an engine failure, I would expect the FAA want to guarantee the pilot can communicate effectively and at a certain level to the appropriate people)

I have had a couple of pilots taking private classes with me, and I have asked them to bring in materials, Jepson charts and the likes. My question was really if there was anything a little more formal to use.

As the test has only just been introduced, I guess some pilots won't pass (hopefully not my students!) and I believe there could be a good market for schools fairly close to airports, with the flexibility to offer classes when the students are available.

I would like to take a training course, such as the one in melbourne, to certify myself, as then I may have a unique selling point for my school! I really think that as the years progress, the FAA will add requirements into this English exam and thus more pilots will have to study more English.

As an aside, its great to teach pilots! The stories they tell me about what they get up to usually fills half the classes anyway!

lozwich · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1536

I was listening to some of the stations on the links given in this thread on the general discussion forum. Made me all nostalgic... Confused

They were speaking Spanish on the Bogota channel, which was really difficult. It really gave me an insight into how it might be for a pilot (or ATC) who doesn't speak English as their first language. I had no trouble understanding the English ATC channels, even after all these years, but that Spanish one was really difficult, and my Spanish is pretty good, even if I say so myself..