224 Chapter Ten
using standard phraseology makes understanding difficult for pilots, as
well as the extra layer of difficulty caused by the accent and pronunciation
of some non-native English pilots, causing difficulties for both air traffic
controllers and other pilots (Estival and Molesworth 2012):
“The [mis]use it more colloquially to correct an incorrect readback as in
the example with ignoring ‘negative’ is a good illustration of the readiness
to hear what is expected – not confirm flight level (it was readbacked
incorrectly) but with standard phraseology ‘negative’ and repetition of
correct data. The misuse causes a pause due to cognitive dissonance of
processing expected (routine) utterance” (Estival and Molesworth 2012:
363 ).Studies of radiotelephony phonology (Monteiro 2012; Ragan 1997), its
lexical and/or structural aspects (Monteiro, 2012; Lopez et al., 2013;
Ragan 1997; Petrashchuk and Vasiukovich, 2015), and other aspects -
intelligibility, lack of language proficiency, language barriers (Monteiro
2012) have contributed to our understanding of radiotelephony
communications as a complex process.
The miscommunications reported, match categories under the
following linguistic aspects:
a/ sound aspect – call sign confusion, from the sound point of view,
difficulties related to the segmental properties of speech,
difficulties related to the prosodic features of speech, qualitative
information in speech, lack of familiarity with native or non-native
accent, homophony (phonetic-phonological ambiguity);
b/ lexical and structural aspects of the utterance – use of non-standard
phraseology, alphanumeric failures, ambiguity, transposition
(incorrect order of numbers and words), content imprecisions
(wrong data, confusing message, unsure reference), long and
complex messages; and
c/ general aspects – language barriers, English as an international
language, intelligibility, lack of language proficiency, lack of
awareness of language nuances (Monteiro 2012).Some miscommunications reported occur due to cultural, social-
cultural and discursive-interactional difficulties experiencing by non-
native English pilots (Monteiro 2012). Taking into consideration that
“cross-cultural contact is the norm rather than the exception” (ICAO,
2004: 2) in aviation today, it is obvious that cultural problems can emerge