AVIATION ENGLISH

Anglo-Continental’s TEAP (Test of English for Aviation Personnel) is widely used to assess plain English language speaking and listening proficiency in accordance with the ICAO Language Proficiency Rating Scale.

Our long established test is approved by the UK CAA for the testing of general aviation, commercial and helicopter pilots. The TEAP is therefore valid in all EASA member states, in addition to a number of other countries where it has also gained approval.

Anglo-Continental offers a range of Aviation English Tests designed for different aviation personnel profiles.  Candidates awarded an ICAO assessment of level 4 or above can apply for their licence to be endorsed by the relevant authority.

The test can also be used as an assessment tool to establish if further language training is required, either to maintain operational proficiency or to improve in specific areas.  Aviation personnel and/or their sponsors are then able to select a suitable training programme.

Candidates are expected to have some aviation experience, as the recorded prompts contain elements of standard and non-standard radiotelephony.

The TEAP, in line with ICAO’s directives, includes a listening and an oral component. It is designed to generate a sample of the candidate’s language skills which enables us to rate the candidate’s competence in all areas covered by the ICAO descriptors.

Depending on the testing environment, you may be offered the use of headphones for the listening components. The recordings for parts 2 and 3 use non-native speakers of at least level 4 proficiency, and they include an element of appropriate background noise in order to simulate an authentic aviation environment.

The test is conducted as an interview with one interlocutor and one candidate, and is divided into four parts. Please note that the times given for each part may vary.

No special training is needed for the TEAP, but we recommend that candidates should:

• know the format of the test
• be ready to listen to speakers with a variety of accents
• be ready to speak with confidence and clarity
• be ready to seek clarification if they do not understand any element of the test

The TEAP has a duration of approximately 30 minutes. This can be reduced by the interlocutor if they feel that the speech sample generated is sufficient for an accurate rating to be awarded, or extended, where appropriate (for higher level candidates).

TEAP candidates are photographed prior to their interview. All TEAP interviews are recorded for security and moderating purposes, and each candidate is assessed by at least two raters.

A report is issued by our aviation specialists providing the candidate’s ICAO level profile, in accordance with the ICAO Language Proficiency Rating Scale.  Areas requiring improvement are highlighted.  A certificate is awarded to candidates who achieve level 4 or above. Validity for Level 4 is currently 4 years; for Level 5 it is 6 years.

The test is delivered in four parts: Parts 2, 3 and 4 contain different tasks for commercial / PPL / helicopter pilots or controllers.

• Part 1   –  Interview
• Part 2   –  Short report
• Part 3   –  Listening comprehension
• Part 4   –  Long report and extension

Please see below for details of each part.  You can listen to an example of each part of a sample test by clicking on the link at the end of each part.  You can read notes on this sample candidate by downloading the file below:

This consists of an interview including an introduction with reference to the candidate’s aviation experience and the context in which he/she operates. The aim of this part is to allow the candidate to talk in general terms about their aviation experience. The interlocutor will offer them the opportunity to talk about common or particular aviation-related themes. The candidate is expected to be able to communicate clearly and reasonably accurately about these areas, with appropriate fluency and an intelligible accent.

After listening to a short recording of a non-standard situation, the candidate is required to give a short oral report. He/she is then asked to talk about this type of incident in general terms.

In this part, the interlocutor offers the candidate an opportunity to talk about a particular stage of aviation operations which will be broadly relevant to the candidate’s experience. The situations, vocabulary and functions in this part are drawn from ICAO doc 9835 Appendix B.

Comprehension is not explicitly assessed in this part of the TEAP, but the candidate is expected to declare if he or she does not understand the situation. In this case, or if he or she misunderstands, the interlocutor will clarify and then invite the candidate to talk about this type of situation. The candidate is expected to demonstrate that their vocabulary resource is sufficient to talk about this area of operations.

In this part, candidates are asked to listen to a maximum of three recordings, two based on radiotelephony and one in an informal style. There is no visual contact between the interlocutor and the candidate during this section. Prior to each recording, the candidate is asked to listen for specific details.  Each recording is played only once.  For the final stage of this part, visual contact is resumed, and the candidate is prompted to talk about one of the operational areas from the listening items.

Comprehension and interaction are both assessed in this part of the TEAP. There are two questions for each recording, and the candidate may take notes. To be assessed at operational level, a candidate should correctly answer at least half of the questions, as well as demonstrating good interaction by checking and/or clarifying tasks or questions, or by stating when they have not understood key elements.

As candidates at higher levels of proficiency may not need to deploy such strategies, Extended or Expert levels of comprehension may be indicated if the candidate provides greater detail in their answers.

If a weak candidate shows obvious difficulty in providing answers for the first two recordings in this part of the test, then the interlocutor may choose not to play the third recording; this is because it is only at Extended or Expert level that good comprehension of an informal style is expected.
To conclude this part, the candidate is invited to talk in general about one of the contexts in the recordings.  It is the candidate’s speaking ability, rather than his or her understanding or knowledge, which is assessed here.

The recording in this part has no background noise. After listening to a one-minute native-speaker monologue of an incident in aviation, during which they may make notes, the candidate is asked to give a detailed summary.  A discussion regarding the more general issues raised by the incident follows.The candidate is also invited to express their opinions within a discussion on an aviation-related topic.

The candidate has a dedicated opportunity for a “long turn” here, summarising and paraphrasing what they have heard. Below Extended level, candidates are not expected to provide a great amount of detail, but all operational level speakers should demonstrate an ability to manage their speech flow successfully, using appropriate markers and connectors.

Higher level candidates are expected to exert some authority in the direction of the discussion here. The interlocutor may choose to pick up on something that the candidate has said in order to test the extent of the candidate’s language resources and strategies.

Please contact us to book the test at a time convenient to you.

2019 Test fee per candidate: £ 133