Airlines

Understanding idiomatic vocabulary for ICAO L5 or L6

Understanding idiomatic vocabulary for ICAO L5 or L6

A short, interactive blog to explore the notion of idiomatic vocabulary and nuanced language, sometimes used by native speakers of English on the radio but also targeted by the aviation language proficiency descriptors of the ICAO rating scale at level 5 and level 6.

Pass your message - aviation English for pilots

Pass your message - aviation English for pilots

In our first video blog, Latitude's team discuss aviation English for pilots, presenting what we mean by 'Aviation English' in broad terms before introducing some of the work-related language use tasks that pilots perform and drilling down on aeronautical communications and the ICAO LPRs.

Back to work

Back to work

As we slowly emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and the aviation industry gears up for restart, this article examines one small but important safety concern - the issue of loss of language proficiency. We briefly explore the concept of ‘language attrition’ before examining some recent guidance on industry restart, and conclude with some advice for pilots, controllers and training managers returning to active duty.

Teaching aviation English to student pilots - Some challenges

Teaching aviation English to student pilots -                  Some challenges

Ab-initio flight training is showing some positive signs of recovery. The adequate supply of professional pilots will be one of the keys to rebuilding of a safe and sustainable airline industry over the next few years, and the need for appropriate aviation English training to equip students for success at flight school and their career beyond is as pressing as ever. This blog post explains what drives Latitude to publish aviation English training content to enable aspiring pilots to gain entry to the aviation industry, and sets out six challenges that we observe in this exciting area of English for specific purposes.

Squawking 7600: The absence of RT in tests of aviation English

Squawking 7600: The absence of RT in tests of aviation English

Radio communication between pilots and controllers features standard phraseology in the first instance and plain English when phraseology does not suffice. The two go together, hand-in-hand: safe and efficient radiotelephony relies on both. In this blog, we explain why it is so important for ICAO English tests to directly address radiotelephony communication, and we explore some of the reasons why radiotelephony is conspicuously absent in much aviation language testing today.