220 Chapter Ten
radiotelephony exchanges or interaction itself, but also include a
systematic account of the context and its relations to discursive structures.
Radiotelephony discourse: Language perspective
Aviation English is defined in various ways, for example as ‘a
combination of professional jargon and work-oriented uses of English’
(McGrath 2007) or ‘an established linguistic norm’ (Kukovec 2008) or
‘the element of the bi-lingual communication medium’ (McGrath 2007) or
‘the lingua franca to aviation’ (Ragan 1997).
Radiotelephony language communication is one of the content areas of
the aviation industry where the English language is a globally agreed
language for communication. Radiotelephony communication provides the
means by which pilots and ground personnel communicate with each
other. The information and instructions transmitted are of vital importance
in the safe and expeditious operation of aircraft and traffic control.
The language of radiotelephony exchanges is standard phraseology,
which is a precise number of words and clusters outlined in documents.
Phraseology is the specialised language used by pilots and controllers to
conduct what is intended to be unambiguous and effective radiotelephony
communications (i.e., flight operation safety): “The purpose of phraseologies
is to provide clear, concise, unambiguous language to communicate
messages of a routine nature” (ICAO 2010: 1.1.3).
When these communication-dependent situations are sufficiently
recurrent, linguistic norms can be created by institutions and authorities.
The aim of these linguistic norms is usually to create less ambiguous
communication thanks to simplified rules (at syntactic, lexical and
semantic levels for instance). The linguistic normalisation also enables the
various interlocutors to minimise their linguistic and cognitive efforts in
carrying out the task at hand thanks to their shared knowledge.
Phraseology is an example of such normalization (Kukovec 2008).
However, prompted by numerous cases of negative contribution of
language to aircraft crashes, ICAO has implemented new language
requirements which prescribe wider use of the English language in
radiotelephony communication. In March 2008 the plain English in
aviation context was recommended to be used in situations when
phraseology is not sufficient to achieve a communicative goal (ICAO
2010).
The linguistic difficulties related to the use of plain language are
acknowledged by the ICAO. “The features of plain language, [...], can be
far from plain and present a challenge to listening skills. They include the