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- Title
Air Traffic Communication in a Second Language: Implications of Cognitive Factors for Training and Assessment.
- Authors
FARRIS, CANDACE; TROFIMOVICH, PAVEL; SEGALOWITZ, NORMAN; GATBONTON, ELIZABETH
- Abstract
This study investigated the effects of second language (L2) proficiency and task-induced cognitive workload on participants' speech production and retention of information in an environment designed to simulate the demands faced by pilots receiving instructions from air-traffic controllers. Three groups of 20 participants (one native-English-speaking group, two native-Mandarin-speaking groups of relatively high and low levels of English proficiency) played the role of pilots. Participants listened to, repeated, and responded to simulated air-traffic controller messages (in English) under conditions of low and high workload. In the high workload condition, participants performed a concurrent arithmetic task while repeating the messages. The dependent variables were message repetition accuracy and speech production (accentedness, comprehensibility, fluency, as perceived by 10 native-English-speaking raters). The native English speaker group repeated messages more accurately than both L2 groups, and the low-proficiency group repeated messages less accurately in the high workload condition than in the low workload condition. The native speaker and the low-proficiency groups were perceived as less fluent in the high than in the low workload condition, and only the low-proficiency group's speech was perceived as more accented in the high than in the low workload condition. Implications for language training and assessment for English for specific purposes are discussed.
- Subjects
SECOND language acquisition; SPEECH research; AIR traffic controllers; NATIVE language; LANGUAGE acquisition; PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
- Publication
TESOL Quarterly, 2008, Vol 42, Issue 3, p397
- ISSN
0039-8322
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/j.1545-7249.2008.tb00138.x