I started to learn to fly when I was about 14 in open cockpit wooden gliders flying thousands of short flights, then years later a Private Pilots licence in a Super Cub. I towed gliders, flew vintage aircraft, carried out pipeline surveys until finally I got a job as a first officer on the F50. It was a huge leap from single crew ops in a mainly non radio environment and uncrowded airspace.
I felt relatively at ease with flying the F-50 simulator even at max cross winds once I had mastered the FMS (Flight management system) which was completely new to me. Next came circuits training in the real thing. I seem to remember 3-5 quick circuits in drizzle and low cloud at Norwich. All went well. Finally, the big day flying with passengers, Amsterdam to Brussels, and suddenly my headset was filled with non stop RT! It was overwhelming and added to my workload enormously. Although aviation English is a subset of general English and most of the acronyms heard on the radio were familiar, the speed and contracted speech over the frequency presented me, a native speaker of English, with a significant challenge. Managing that language task, catching our callsign, absorbing the information and making readbacks whilst monitoring the aircraft pushed me to the limits of my operational capacity.
I admire all of you that take on a similar challenge in a second or even third language. Aviation English training for pilots is often difficult to arrange around duty rosters. Making progress can be slow-going. It is rare to find a course with an instructor who has a solid operational background and understands your language needs which can be frustrating.
Now I am trying to learn French and progress has been very slow for similar reasons. I live in France but work in English and have very few interactions in French. I joined a regular class but missed so many lessons due to work that at the end of the year the teacher suggested I repeat the class twice! Whilst it is frequently stated that second language acquisition as an adult is not as easy as it is for a child, it is not impossible and thousands acquire second or third languages every year. It takes motivation and practice but it can be done. So what works?
Personally, I note down new words that I have needed in conversation, drawing out the meaning with the native speaker. If I then create a few sample sentences and a drawing or link to a photo, I am much more likely to remember them. By using the vocabulary or structures a few times, I hope that they will go into my long term memory. Sometimes it doesn’t work and I come across weird pieces of paper in my own handwriting full of French I have completely forgotten.
Group classes or individual tuition? I have joined several classes and have always had conflicts with my work roster and a fixed weekly lesson. I enjoy the interactions and buzz of a real classroom but I have often found that the class lurches along addressing individual weakness and progress is slow unless groups are well matched. Or, they follow a pre-ordained lesson plan and generally I have made little progress for the time I have given to group classes. One class, for example, was basically a grammar lecture with the teacher doing all the talking. The group left after 3 hours of listening not really more proficient. One-to-one tuition is possibly the most expensive option but for me has been the most effective. A good tutor concentrates on my weaknesses and then I just have to practise. It also helped that when I was away flying there was the option to do some lessons online.
Listen to and watch as much media in English as you can. I leave the French radio on in the background when possible which really helps with my listening comprehension and pronunciation. This is not only passive learning; I also form questions in response to the presenters about the podcast or news. You could take this a step further and try listening to sites like liveatc.net which will be very hard at first but will expose you to numerous RT dialogues with standard and non standard phraseology.
I have flown for over 10,000 hours and received lots of professional instructional and continuous recurrent training. That's why I can land a Fokker 100 and why, in comparison, my French is so bad. Language acquisition takes time, motivation and repeated practice. Your aviation English proficiency is a challenge but like your first solo, cross wind landings, and a type rating, with support and effort you will succeed.
Good luck, or should I say, “bonne chance”.