Use of Second Language and Aviation Safety 18
Needless to say, numerous attempts to avoid miscommunications have been
considered and practiced in the field. Many of those attempts are originally intended avoid
miscommunication among L1-English speakers. However, the role of the attempts often
becomes much more crucial when the communication involves the use of second language.
Some attempts are familiar even for ordinary passengers. For instance, when we are
instructed an emergency excavation procedure before an airplane takes off, we normally see a
printed instruction that is installed in the seat-back pocket. If we carefully looked at it, we will
notice that many of those instructions utilize universally recognizable illustrations and icons
instead of languages. This is especially important for airplanes operated internationally
because passengers whose native languages differ likely share the same seats over time.
Even when a verbal instruction is needed in case of an emergency, the use of a highly
simplified and universally comprehensible language is crucial. According to a veteran
Japanese flight attendant who has exclusively flown internationally, acknowledges that
because her flights could go all over the world, the flight attendants are trained to use a very
simplified language to instruct passengers the emergency evacuation procedures. For instance,
if passengers need to evacuate from a plane’s fuselage by the emergency slides, the attendants
must only shout “Jump, Jump.” This is not only important for passengers who may have a
variety of native languages, but also important for the multi-national flight attendants to
effectively communicate with each other (Izutsu, 1997).
Some basic linguistic attempts to avoid ATC miscommunication have been used for a
long time. The most simple, but famous example is the use of “niner” instead of saying “nine”
for the numeral 9. It should be pronounced “niner” to avoid confusion with “nein” that means
“no” in German. A native-German-speaking pilot might be confused if he or she heard “nine.”
Convention