General Office for Airspace Italian Air Force Air Staff General Office for Airspace and Meteorology (U. S. A. M.)

Language Proficiency Requirements Implementation workshop ITALIAN AIR FORCE Experience Sig. Generale (Comandante), scopo del presente briefing è quello di descrivere sinteticamente la genesi dell’Ufficio Generale Spazio Aereo e Meteorologia (USAM), fornire una panoramica circa la struttura ed i relativi compiti, le attività in itinere sia in ambito nazionale sia in quello internazionale e non ultimo delineare brevemente le prospettive riguardo i programmi più importanti seguiti dall’USAM nel settore del Traffico Aereo e della Meteorologia. L.T.C. Antonio GIELLA Roma, 03-05 March 2010

TEST BACKGROUND Test development began about 10 years ago, with a technical English language proficiency test for operative air traffic controllers to be sent to abroad; This test was further developed into the GPT, a proficiency test in General English for all operators in the Italian Air Force; In 2004, according to ICAO recommendations -Doc. 9853 and Circular 318, our Language Proficiency Team designed, developed and tested the first edition of the TPT, a proficiency test in Technical English for controllers in both Air Traffic and Air Defence sectors;

TEST BACKGROUND Operational tasks forced ITAF to be on time on ATCO Language testing according to European requirements, because ITAF is also responsible in providing ANS to civil traffic. ITAF TPT has been recognized by NSA and has been developed in order to meet the needs of “civilian” controllers too. The TPT is used by ENAV LTD (civil ANSP) to test their ATCO.

TEST DEVELOPMENT On the base of previous experience we decided that TPT would comprise two parts (Part 1 and Part 2); Part 1: LAB TEST, is a listening comprehension paper given in a multimedia laboratory, which evaluates the candidate’s proficiency in: comprehension, lexis and structure; Part 2: ORAL PROFICIENCY TEST, is an oral interaction paper with visual and non-visual tasks, which evaluates the candidate’s proficiency in: fluency, pronunciation and interaction.

EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION AND EXPERIENCE ITAF has implemented language training packages (CBT), that we have sent to our ATC Units and before starting TPT, test takers have to attend a short demonstration test in order to get familiar with the TPT. We have also implemented Technical English Language Courses, in order to improve and maintain language proficiency.

EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION AND EXPERIENCE for further information Mrs.Catherine ERRINGTON, as “Chief of Aviation English Language Team and experienced TPT test designer”, can give us a hand.