ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements — Rated Speech Samples

Language Proficiency Rating

General Remarks

This test taker responds and interacts quite successfully to the interlocutor's questions. Although the Structure and Vocabulary he produces are formally just Level 4, his obvious limitations in both these areas lead to many breakdowns in his discourse and result in a rate of speech which is not acceptable. Furthermore, the test taker's pronunciation is often so affected by his native language as to seriously interfere with ease of understanding.

Pronunciation

The test taker's pronunciation and word stress frequently interfere with understanding:

• and nowadays I work in a raider roond (radar room) (00:18 - 00:23)
• and I have uh three ratings in airdrun (aerodrome) approach (00:24 - 00:32)
• The main funshon (function) or principle funshion (function) is (00:47 - 00:52)
• Uhm, we have uh, the bets (best) uh managing in my space (02:11 - 02:21)
• The, the mother (modern), the mother (modern) aircraft uh have uh, especial (special) equipment for RVSM (03:12 - 03:23)
• Uhm, there, there isun (there is/there isn't) a problem about that. (03:37 - 03:43)
• I studied uh, at about two jeers (years), one jeers (year) only uh, general course (04:06 - 04:16)
• perjeer (per year) uh, I have two or three (05:15 - 05:19)
• the principle uh topic or focus is uh the English language profency, profency (proficiency) (09:45 - 09:55)
• I sing (think) both are very important (11:54 - 11:59)
• the weather condition were in (weren’t) the best (15:04 - 15:09)

Structure

This test taker only just achieves a Level 4 in this skill. He produces a lot of language and his basic grammatical structures are usually controlled:

• and nowadays I work in a (00:18 - 00:21)
• The main funshon (function) or principle funshion is to separate all the aircraft in my space (00:47 - 00:56)
• When the pilots uh repeat uh the clearance or some day, or some data, the controllers uh must pay attention to this, because (08:38 - 08:59)

However, there are errors:

• I studied uh, at about 2 jeers (years), one jeers (year) only uh, general course (04:06 - 04:16)
• and I, and I had a problem when the, when the aircraft took off, and I look, and I looked him, in the radar display, he he made uh another instrumental (instrument) departure (06:27 - 06:53)
• uh maybe controllers uh, uh did uh a bad control (12:47 - 12:59)

though at times he does self correct and in context the errors do not interfere with meaning.

Vocabulary

The test taker's vocabulary is usually sufficient to communicate effectively on concrete topic:

• ratings (00:29 - 00:30)
• clearance (05:59 - 06:00)
• could cause a an incidents (incident) (09:00 - 09:03)
• fortunately (17:33 - 17:34)

However, he does make errors:

• maybe try to calc calculate the uh, the plafond (ceiling) of the cloud (15:36 - 15:45)
• to drive uh the aircraft (18:08 - 18:13)

and frequently seems to struggle to find the appropriate word, which prevents him from communicating effectively.

Fluency

The test taker produces good stretches of language but hesitations while processing language caused by inadequate vocabulary and grammar and sentence structures prevent effective communication, e.g. when talking about:

• functions as a controller (00:57 - 01:45)
• reduced vertical separation minima (02:03 - 02:37)
• the quality of the simulator (04:33 - 04:54)
• the picture of meteorological conditions (14:55 - 15:45)
• the story (16:59 - 19:14)

Comprehension

Comprehension is consistently accurate in nearly all contexts. For example, in his initial response to the question about reduced vertical separation minima:

• RVSM (02:02 - 02:08)

However, it is not possible to rate this test taker higher than a Level 4 because of the limitations of the test in respect of testing dialect and/or accent or registers, or being confronted with a linguistic or situational complication or an unexpected turn of events.

Interactions

Responses are usually immediate, appropriate and informative and he deals adequately with misunderstandings by checking:

• Excuse me, would you please uh repeat me the the questions? (02:47 - 02:52)

Influence of the test format

The interlocutor covers a wide range of appropriate topics and his questioning style elicits a wide range of language functions. However, the test format does not provide an opportunity to expose the test taker to a range of different accents and speech registers and so does not permit all the aspects of Comprehension on the ICAO Rating Scale to be assessed.