ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements — Rated Speech Samples

Language Proficiency Rating

General Remarks

The test taker generally demonstrates proficiency at ICAO Level 4. His rating for Interactions indicates an ability to deal effectively with speaker/listener interchange in a variety of situations.

Pronunciation

Pronunciation, stress, and rhythm are clearly influenced by the first language:

• I am also OJT instructor (00:18 - 00:22)
• people make ferslicence (first license) on tower within two years. (04:19 - 04:24)

Some vowels are not pronounced accurately:

• guests (gusts) of the wind (13:08 - 13:10)
• wind shur (shear) (13:10 - 13:12)
• captine (captain) (16:06 - 16:07)

However, these problems only sometimes interfere with ease of understanding.

The test taker makes good use of stress to highlight important information:

• They uh, they shouldn't do that, without, without uh permission from our our side. (12:10 - 12:18)

Structure

The test taker makes a number of patterned errors in the grammar of basic sentences. For example, articles are often missing and there are inappropriate uses of tense and verb form:

• Then, uh there is a radar course and uh, and uh you became air traffic controllers on on approach (01:02 - 01:11)
• As far as I know uh, um, some states uh doing in uh in the same way like in Poland, but some uh working uh together on tower and on approach (01:46 - 02:02)
• It may varied uh due operational seats, I could say. (03:32 - 03:38)

However, the test taker also shows an ability to use basic grammatical structures creatively and controls some complex sentence structures:

• It depends on uh, on the position you trying for. If you are trying for for about uh, for uh for instance, for uh air traffic controller assistance on tower, it probably will uh will take uh less time than uh and uh for uh air traffic controller assistance on uh, area control. (03:41 - 04:05)
• It can be... it may be... . (12:56 - 13:15)
• If, if it, if it appears during final approach uh we normally are informed but by the aircraft that was in that windshear. Then we have to inform other aircraft uh about this phenomenon. (13:22 - 13:40)

Overall, the test taker is able to communicate effectively and his errors rarely interfere with meaning.

Vocabulary

The test taker demonstrates a good range of work-related vocabulary and is rarely at a loss to find the words to describe the different aeronautical situations he is asked to talk about. He occasionally lacks vocabulary and attempts paraphrases.

Fluency

The test taker produces stretches of language at an appropriate tempo and always manages to express his ideas completely.

He uses discourse markers to relate his answers to the questions and to link the different parts of his longer utterances. Fillers are appropriate and add smoothness to his discourse:

• as far as I know (01:44 - 01:46)
• in my case (03:19 - 03:20)
• firstly, we have to make (06:59 - 07:02)
• as you said (09:41 - 09:43)

Comprehension

The test taker understands nearly all of the questions asked – including the details of the longer ones. Since the test includes only one interlocutor, who speaks slowly and clearly and is very cooperative, it is not possible to rate the sample higher than a Level 4.

Interactions

The test taker's responses are immediate, and he responds appropriately to the complex questions asked. When he is not sure of what the interviewer is asking for he indicates that he has not understood and answers tentatively referring back to what the interviewer has said:

• Say again, please. (02:15 - 02:16)
• Hmm, you mean uh what kind of safety we assure? (09:19 - 09:26)

The test taker also uses personal comments and laughter to establish a rapport with his interlocutor.

• Test taker: I'm not sure though, of that, but I think so. Interlocutor: Ha, ha, shouldn't you know? Test taker: I, I know DC-3, it's rather odd (old), DC-4, I don't remember. (17:57 - 18:11)

Influence of the test format

It is not possible to rate this test taker higher than a Level 4 in Comprehension because of the limitations of the test format which does not include variations in dialect and/or accent or registers, or being confronted with a linguistic or situational complication or an unexpected turn of events.