Exam overview

Part	Name	Test focus
Part I	Vocabulary review	Questions test your ability to use the professional terminology to handle routine or non-routine situations; paraphrase, negotiate for meaning (договориться о значении), find synonyms and say in other words or in a different way.
Part II	Grammar review	Questions test your ability to use grammar structures and patterns in aviation context.
Part III	Speaking	Questions test your ability to exchange personal and professional information, to express your own opinions and attitudes and find out about people’s opinions and attitudes.
Part IV	Listening	Questions test your ability to understand the main idea, the main points, details or specific information.
Part V	Video clips
Part VI	RTC	Questions test your ability to communicate with air traffic controllers in any situation: standard, abnormal or emergency.

Part I. Vocabulary review

Ability tested

Questions test your ability to use the professional terminology to handle routine or non-routine situations; paraphrase, negotiate for meaning, find synonyms and say in other words or in a different way.

Basic skills necessary

This section requires a strong professional and everyday vocabulary.

How to prepare for the Speaking section.

Step 1.

Look through the list of work-related topics you may meet during the exam (Appendix).

Step 2.

It is necessary to know the vocabulary minimum for each topic. Use aviation coursebooks¹ to enrich (обогощать)your vocabulary.

Also you should

• read professional magazines and journals

• read Internet articles related to your work

Step 3.

Write down key words and phrases for each topic.

 Exercise 1

A. Write a short story about yourself using the following key words and phrases:

As for my personality, hard-working, active, reliable, to rely on, to be keen on, to be fond of, to go in for, to be interested in, to be good at, to take smth.up, can’t stand, leisure/free time, to enjoy doing smth, keep fit, place to live, share interests, get on well, appreciate each other.

B. Write a short story about your job and career using the following key words and phrases:

to do smth. for living, job satisfaction, responsibilities and tasks, duties, to be responsible for, to be successful in, to build up career, to take into account, a large part of one’s job, ability, advantages and disadvantages, night shift, to graduate from, to work for, career moves, to make up one’s mind.

 Exercise 2.

Paul Brown is an air traffic controller. He is talking about his job. Listen to the tape and fill in the missing information.

• Advantages………………………………………………………………………………

• Disadvantages …………………………………………………………………………

• Qualities: highly responsible people, ………………………………………………

Step 4.

Look through the list of useful phrases you can use for effective communication. Mark the phrases you can use for the topic presentation.

Phrases list useful for effective communication

Giving opinion

• I feel/think that…

• In my opinion…

• I believe that…

• To my mind….(по-моему)

• It’s important to say…

• I suppose…

• I’m sure…

• I consider that …

• As for me…

• As far as I know ….

• My point of view is …

• The fact is that …

• In fact…

• It’s difficult for me to give my opinion about…

If you want to add something

• I must add…

• In addition…

• Not only… but…

• Moreover…

Asking for opinion

• What is your opinion of…?

• How do you feel about…?

• What do you think about…?

Use signal words to structure your ideas

• The reason is ….

• The cause was….

• For example...

• In fact….

• Really, it was….

• The most important thing….

• That is why…(that incident occurred / happened)

• In spite of… несмотря на

• However …

• Although… хотя

• Not only…..but also…

• On the contrary… наоборот

• On the one hand…on the other hand…

• To compare / to contrast… (two different things)… сопоставлять

• The main difference is…

If you agree with your partner

• I totally agree with you.

• I agree with you completely.

• I think you are right.

• Well, I agree with you on the whole, but…

If you disagree with your partner

• (I’m sorry, but) I don’t agree with you.

• I can’t accept your point of view.

• I respect your opinion, however…

• Well, personally I think that… лично

If you want to express certainty

• Yes. Definitely.

• Without a doubt.

• I’m quite sure…

Asking clarification and further explanation

• Sorry to interrupt you, but I didn’t quite catch what you said…

• To go back to what you were saying about…

• Did I understand you correctly that…?

• Can I get this clear? What does the word ‘issue’ mean?

• Can you explain it more clearly (in other words, in a different way?)

If you want to give examples

• Let me give you an example.

• To illustrate this point…

Generalizing

• In general…

• Generally speaking…

• All in all,…

Ignorance

• I’ve really no idea.

• I really couldn’t say.

• I haven’t a clue. Нить (рассуждений; ход мыслей; ключ (к разгадке)

Rephrasing a point

• Perhaps I’m not making myself clear.

• Let me put in another way.

• What I’m trying to say is…

Drawing attention to a point

• As you can see…

• As you have noticed…

Starting another point

• Now I’d like to talk about…

• Now I want to say a few words about…

• Next I’d like to concentrate on…

Summarizing

• To summarize…

• So, in short,…

• to sum up…резюмировать, суммировать

 Exercise 3

You should begin your answer by directly addressing the question the examiner has asked. How would you start your answer to the following questions? Use phrases from the “Phrases list useful for effective communication”. Write down your beginnings.

For example: according to my experience… to my mind… as far as I know … I’m quite sure….

Why did you take this decision?
Has something similar happened to you?
What are the advantages of…?
What is the normal procedure in the situation like this?
What, in your opinion, is the reason of this accident?
Do you agree with pilot’s actions in this situation?
Could you describe what happened?
Why do you think so? Could you give an example?
What did you learn from this experience?
Why do you think this situation occurred?

Exercise 4.

Sometimes you can be asked rather complicated questions. Look at the questions below. How would you ask for clarification?

• What do you think the pilot’s function is when it comes to air safety issuers?

…………………………………………………………………………………..

• Do you have any suggestions about communications between pilots and air traffic controllers could be improved?

…………………………………………………………………………………..

Step 5.

1. Try to recall English idioms and phrasal verbs you know.

 Exercise 5.

1. Match the idiom with its translation.

Carry (something) offвыполнить	рисковать головой
Savethedayспасти положение	знание дела, секреты производства
Insandoutsдетали, подробности; азы основы	чудом спастись
Know-how	удачно выйти из трудного положения
Riskone’sneckрисковать головой	на свой страх и риск
at (someone’s) own risk with	все тонкости (детали) дела
by the skin of one’s teeth	спасти положение

Keys: 1-d, 2-g, 3-f, 4-b, 5-a, 6-e, 7-c

2. Match phrasal verbs with appropriate explanations.

Level off (i)	stop moving
2. Carry out (f)	increase
3. Sort out (the problem)	intercept, capture
4. Hand over (to area controllers) (k)	be careful
5. Take over (flight operation) (l)	dress oneself in, cloth
6. Pull up (on taxiing)	conduct, fulfil
7. Pick up (an emergency signal, an aircraft)	solve, organize the details
8. Put on (oxygen masks)	postpone, delay
9. Put off (departure)	stop climbing, continue at a fixed level
10. Look out (opposite traffic)	seek
11. Look for	release aircraft to another ATC station
12. Turn up (approach lights)	control in a selected (manual) mode

Keys: 1-i, 2-f, 3-g, 4-k, 5-l, 6-a,7-c, 8-e, 9-h, 10-d, 11-j, 12-b

3. Use the idioms and phrasal verbs when you are writing (telling) about aviation incidents.

Step 6.

Make drafts for all work-related topics (Appendix).

 Exercise 6.

Read the student’s draft (answer) and pay attention to: 1) introductory words, 2) use of vocabulary

Examiner: What changes have occurred in flight operation (flight deck, making decision, air traffic management, communication)?

Student: Well, let me begin by saying, that aviation has reached a new stage. I believe that today pilots need to have not only aeronautical knowledge, airmanship skills, proficiency to operate modern aircraft but also the ability to adapt to all technical innovations. In my opinion highly automated aircraft have changed pilots’ roles and responsibilities.

As we can see, modern autopilots and electronic displays have reduced a pilot’s workload. Navigation has been reduced to calculator simplicity. Today’s technology requires administrative management and aeronautical decision making skills to provide safety and efficiency.

We have now highly automated aircraft with increased automation on the flight deck As far as I know glass cockpit and fly-by-wire technology is used in modern aircraft.

No doubt, technology and operations have changed. I see a lot of advantages in modernized ATC. Complex and reliable equipment, new and improved procedures are used for air traffic management To my mind the main benefits are provided by Global navigation satellite systems.

I must add that on the later designs of Airbus aircraft side stick replaced the control wheel. People have different opinions about this innovation, but as for me, I support it.

Modern electronic instruments, installed on the airplane, allow pilots to land in low and even zero visibility, in fact, the autopilot can do everything from land to taxi for parking. Aircraft design features provide back up systems that start to operate when the first system fails.

To cut a long story short I’d like to tell that the latest aviation technology and innovations mean the aircraft can fly further, burn less fuel, they are quieter to take off and land.

 Exercise 7.