Pedagogical approaches to aviation phraseology and communication training in collegiate flight programs

Kitty Campbell Laird, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine what strategies, structures, and philosophies collegiate aviation programs in the United States use to provide aviation phraseology and communication training and explore the possible differences in pedagogical approaches when teaching aviation phraseology to native vs. non-native speakers of English. This work builds on literature (Day, 2004; Mathews, 2004; Philips, 1991; Prinzo & Britton, 1993; Ragan, 2002; and Verhaegen, 2001) which suggests that failure to use standardized aviation phraseology, improper pilot/air traffic controller communications procedures, and lack of English language proficiency threaten flight safety. This study explored aviation phraseology and communication instruction curriculum in use at accredited university aviation flight programs. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, administrative faculty from each of the sixteen Council on Aviation Accreditation (CAA) accredited flight programs completed an online survey. Faculty administrators from seventy-five percent of the accredited flight programs participated in a follow-up phase including two focus groups and one interview. Results of the data analysis found that international student population at CAA accredited flight programs was low and international student countries of origin were varied; therefore, aviation specific English courses were rare and indepth language training was primarily provided by the larger institutions. Few programs had structured ways of addressing aviation English proficiency due to the assumption that native speakers of English would have little difficulty in assimilating the abbreviated English language based lexicon into competent communicative speech. While aviation phraseology and communication instruction were disseminated throughout the curriculum, the expectation that instructors promoted usage of standardized aviation phraseology was perceived by respondents to be highest when training was delivered by ground school and flight instructors. A global perspective of aviation was not perceived to be a priority, primarily because of other curricular flight program training demands. A need for a global perspective in pedagogy was hard to demonstrate because programs did not statistically track the participation of alumni in international flight activities. While not generalizable to all flight training institutions, recommendations are discussed in terms of potential research applications for collegiate aviation programs.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Peters, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Curricula|Teaching|Higher education|Transportation

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