Air China 981 - JFK Airport
This well known interaction between an Air China pilot and a New York JFK controller happened in 2006. The pilot’s English is problematic - his pronunciation is challenging. He also appears to confuse ‘MIKE ALPHA’ with ‘NOVEMBER’ which seems puzzling. The reason is Expectation Bias - the pilot wanted / expected to hear NOVEMBER as NOVEMBER is the closest entry point to access his parking spot at Gate #3. The controller seems very frustrated at his inability to communicate effectively with the pilot. Although his rate of speech is good he lacks the skills to manage the misunderstanding. Using words like ‘interrogative’ did not help. “They have cleared you into the ramp” is syntactically a statement. It is only possible to recognise this as a statement if there is rising intonation at the end (this is likely to be problematic for a non-native speaker). “Have you been cleared into the ramp?” This is the passive form of the present perfect tense and is considered to be a Complex Structure in ICAO 9835 Part IV Glossary of Basic and Complex Structure. The ICAO Descriptors state that “Level 4 speakers will not usually attempt complex structures, and when they do, quite a lot of errors would be expected resulting in less effective communication.” The controller is therefore not adjusting his use of grammar to accommodate the linguistic needs of this pilot.
RAMP CHART - JFK
Air China 981 - JFK Airport
This well known interaction between an Air China pilot and a New York JFK controller happened in 2006. The pilot’s English is problematic - his pronunciation is challenging. He also appears to confuse ‘MIKE ALPHA’ with ‘NOVEMBER’ which seems puzzling. The reason is Expectation Bias - the pilot wanted / expected to hear NOVEMBER as NOVEMBER is the closest entry point to access his parking spot at Gate #3. The controller seems very frustrated at his inability to communicate effectively with the pilot. Although his rate of speech is good he lacks the skills to manage the misunderstanding. Using words like ‘interrogative’ did not help. “They have cleared you into the ramp” is syntactically a statement. It is only possible to recognise this as a statement if there is rising intonation at the end (this is likely to be problematic for a non-native speaker). “Have you been cleared into the ramp?” This is the passive form of the present perfect tense and is considered to be a Complex Structure in ICAO 9835 Part IV Glossary of Basic and Complex Structure. The ICAO Descriptors state that “Level 4 speakers will not usually attempt complex