AL/TESOL Presents Dr. Ana Lígia Barbosa de Carvalho e Silva

You're invited! AL/TESOL Presents Dr. Ana Lígia Barbosa de Carvalho e Silva:

Designing a prototype test task to assess aeronautical English communication for a group of military pilots from the Brazilian Air Force 

Dr. Ana Lígia Barbosa de Carvalho e Silva, São Paulo State University (Unesp) 

Tuesday, May 2nd 1:30-2:30pm

GHD 363

The assessment of the specific language used for radiotelephony communications between pilots and air traffic controllers, during international flights, is a topic of growing interest in the field of Language Assessment for Professional Purposes (LAPP) (Knoch & Macqueen, 2018). However, few studies have looked specifically at aeronautical English assessment in the military context (Bratslavska, 2020; Park, 2021; Silva, 2022; 2023). In this talk I will present an ongoing post-doctoral study which focuses on the design of a prototype aeronautical English test task, with the use of technology in flight simulators, for the Air Demonstration Team of the Brazilian Air Force, or “Esquadrilha da Fumaça” (EDA). The study will follow a qualitative exploratory and descriptive approach, according to Dörnyei (2007) and Lankshear & Knobel (2008). Data analysis will be guided by the tenets of an interpretive approach through which the researcher is allowed enough flexibility to tentatively identify themes and relations between them. Participants of this study are 5 flight simulator instructors (pilots and air traffic controllers) from the Brazilian Air Force Academy and 12 pilots from EDA. The social relevance of this project is related to safety in aeronautical communications, a topic of great importance as it directly impacts the lives of users of the international air system in an interconnected and global world.

[Bio]

Dr. Ana Lígia Barbosa de Carvalho e Silva is a post-Doctoral researcher at the Department of Linguistics Studies at the São Paulo State University (Unesp), Brazil. She holds an MA and a Doctoral degree in Applied Linguistics, with focus on language and education, a degree in English language teaching, a post-grad specialization in TESOL and the CELTA Certification from Cambridge University. She is co-chair of the Aviation Testing Special Interest Group (SIG) from the International Language Testing Association (ILTA) and she is a member of the following research groups: International Civil Aviation English Association (ICAEA), Aeronautical English Study Group (GEIA), Braz-TESOL (ESP and Assessment SIGs). Her main investigation interests include language assessment and testing for professional purposes, ESP, aeronautical English, language needs analysis and test design.