ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements — Rated Speech Samples

Language Proficiency Rating

General Remarks

The test taker exemplifies speech characteristics of a fairly weak Level 3 speaker in all six language proficiency skills. His weaknesses in pronunciation, structure, vocabulary and fluency converge to obstruct his ability to communicate successfully.

Pronunciation

The staccato nature of the test taker's delivery, and his inconsistent and inappropriate rhythm and stress frequently interferes with ease of understanding:

• at the very beginning of the interaction (00:10 - 00:35)
• when climbing (00:55 - 01:25)
• when explaining to the passengers why they had to divert (01:50 - 02:25)
• when explaining what the company provided the passengers with (03:12 - 03:29)

Sounds are sometimes incorrect and difficult to understand. The test taker has difficulty pronouncing final consonants, either deleting them or adding a syllable:

• Uh, there, when uh climbing, there is uh traffic below uh but I uh *** contact so we request radar victor (vector) (00:54 - 01:08)

Structure

Basic grammatical structures are not well controlled and words tend to be juxtaposed without respecting parts of speech or using linking words:

• Such uh traffic is a descend, uh they were all below, so uh no probl- problem. (01:14 - 01:24)
• So now we uh flight uh to uh Chengdu (01:52 - 02:01)
• Uh, I told the passengers uh, we will divert to Guiyang uh due (to) weather (02:33 - 02:43)
• About uh, one hour ago uh, after, uh, we departure from Guiyang (03:29 - 03:41)
• Uh after this divert, we must uh write a a a report uh to our company why uh you uh divert uh, and what happen. (04:07 - 04:23)

and this sometimes interferes with meaning.

Vocabulary

The test taker possesses the very basic vocabulary he requires to discuss standard work-related situations:

• contact (01:03 - 01:04)
• report (04:12 - 04:13)

However, he is often struggling to find the appropriate words and is sometimes unable to adequately paraphrase to convey his meaning clearly:

• So we ... uh (02:01 - 02:25)
• I told the passengers ... people (02:33 - 02:56)

Fluency

Throughout the speech sample, the test taker's hesitations and searching for language is a major obstacle to effective communication. Speech is divided into short, unnatural bursts of groups of words:

• Our uh plane *** have a uh so we have uh a compression system uh ***. So we must emergency descend uh (00:10 - 00:39)
• Uh, one (when) we divert to Guiyang airport, uh our company uh gave out punjers (passengers) uh some food uh, and uh uh drink, drink water (03:10 - 03:28)

Many distracting ‘uh’ fillers are used:

• Uh, sometime uh, if the aircraft uh, some system, in prob- in uh, uh in some trouble (04:41 - 04:56)

His use of discourse markers is very limited, mostly limited to ‘so’:

• So we must uh emergency descend (00:35 - 00:38)

Comprehension

The test taker's comprehension is generally accurate on very concrete factual topics. There are occasions when the test taker repeats part of the question to check for understanding:

• Have to divert? Yes uh (01:36 - 01:38)
• The company? ... Pilot? (03:55 - 04:06)

But there are also times when he does not seem able to talk in more general terms, failing to detect changes in linguistic register when talking about what to do in the case of abnormal situations:

• Uh, one (when) we divert to Guiyang airport, uh our company uh gave out punjers (passengers) uh some food uh, and uh uh drink, drink water uh, about uh, one hour ago uh, after, uh, we departure from Guiyang (03:10 - 03:40)

and he continues to talk specifically about the incident where he had to divert.

The format of the test does not enable the test taker's ability to deal with various accents to be assessed.

Interactions

Responses are usually accurate and informative although delivery is slow. However, inadequacies in vocabulary, structure and fluency often combine to make interactions limited and the test taker's speech a disconnected succession of raw facts:

• Uh, there, when uh climbing, there is uh traffic below uh but I uh *** contact so we request radar victor (vector) (00:54 - 01:08)

Influence of the test format

The interlocutor explores a fairly wide range of language functions to measure the test taker's linguistic boundaries. His attitude is extremely supportive, paraphrasing his questions and modulating delivery to ensure comprehension. The nature of the test format means that the test taker's ability to cope successfully with different accents and registers or unexpected turns of events is not assessed.