Your online solution to meeting ICAO English language proficiency requirements

An ICAO review of 28000 incident / accident reports has found that over 70% of the problems were caused by language.

ICAO standards now demand that all pilots flying internationally and all air traffic controllers providing services to international flights must have a minimum level of English.

This level of English is known as ICAO Operational Level 4. A full description of this level can be found here

The Challenge:
The busy and changing work patterns of pilots and controllers mean that traditional classroom-based courses are mostly impractical and ineffective. However, technology now offers exciting new opportunities for the way we live our lives, including the way we learn languages.

The Partnership:
Acknowledged as leaders in their respective fields of Aviation English training and Speech Recognition technology, Mayflower College and Carnegie Speech have combined their expertise to develop an online assessment and training solution which is quite simply without equal.

"Changing the way the world learns English"

Speech Recognition technology now means that a computer can assess your spoken English including your pronunciation, intonation and fluency.

The process begins with an assessment of the learner’s ability. This serves two purposes:

1)     to rate the learner’s speaking and listening skills according to the ICAO criteria in the required areas of pronunciation, structure, interactions, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

2)     to produce an individualised training programme which takes into consideration the learner’s present ability in each of the six ICAO descriptors (pronunciation, structure, interactions, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension).

In addition, the assessment will analyse the learner’s specific strengths and weaknesses in the areas of pronunciation and grammar and consequently produce training exercises which only focus on the learner’s particular problems in pronunciation and grammar.

For example, if in the assessment a learner demonstrates that s/he is able to  pronounce clearly “w” and “v” sounds then the training programme will not include exercises on the “w” and “v” sounds.  However, if the learner is struggling, for example, with “h” and “th” sounds then the training programme will include exercises on these areas of pronunciation.  

Time is money:
Research has shown that by tailor-making the training solution to the individual’s specific needs, progress is much quicker than with more traditional, generic training programmes.

This means financial savings not only for the individual pilot / controller but also for the pilot’s / controller’s employer.

Pricing:
Access to assessment and training programmes:

• 5 hours – US$50

• 100 hours – US$400

• 200 hours – US$700