228 Chapter Ten
modals, or interrogative forms, can be considered a far more personal or
subjective type of discourse. Pronouns can be seen as “subjectivity”
markers which insist on the presence of individual speakers despite the
norm that is imposed on them: a reminder that pilots and controllers are
humans and not machines” (Lopez et al. 2013: 13).
At the same time, operational expectations play an important role for
both pilots and air traffic controllers: ‘we hear what we expect to hear’
(Cushing 1994), irrespective of native language. In the theory of
communication, language miscommunication is defined as a mismatch
between the message intended by the speaker and the message processed
by the hearer, whether it is the result of errors in understanding or errors in
production. In radiotelephony discourse, cases of an air traffic controller
not understanding a pilot and a pilot not understanding an air traffic
controller occur when the message is less predictable from the context of
radiotelephony interaction. Then the unexpected or unusual requests from
a pilot may lead to the inability of a controller to anticipate due to
cognitive dissonance between the message received and the message
expected. According to Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory, humans
are sensitive to inconsistencies between actions and beliefs. We all
recognize, at some level, when we are acting in a way that is inconsistent
with our beliefs/attitudes/opinions. In effect, there is a built-in alarm that
goes off when we notice such an inconsistency, whether we like it or not
(Festinger 1957).
The aviation interlocutors recognize an inconsistency between what
they are doing to provide flight safety and their beliefs/opinions they are
doing it the right way. Reality shows a discrepancy realized linguistically
in the discourse. This is what happens in radiotelephony emergency
communication.
Cognitive dissonance requires immediate reduction. This might have a
compensatory nature, which is assumed to be a shift from phraseology into
natural English (as illustrated above) or a shift from non-native English
into a native language (lexically, syntactically, semantically, phonetically,
culturally, implicitly or explicitly) – also confirmed by research results
reported.
Unlike phraseology, plain English leaves some room for creativity.
According to the ICAO, natural language – and the creativity that it
implies, particularly when dealing with an unexpected turn of events – is
the best instrument for human interaction: “Linguistic research now makes
it clear that there is no form of speech more suitable for human
communication than natural language. [...] Human language is
characterized, in part, by its ability to create new meanings and to use