There are many pieces of flight deck research on general use of written English language
technical information and problem solving using technical documentation. Contributory
causes of aircraft accidents have been due to misunderstandings of crew alerts and procedural
divergence by English as-a-second language flight crewmembers (ESL). Research was
conducted to understand impact of written English language technical information on ESL
flight crewmembers’ performance. Two types of systems were evaluated, technical
documentation and crew alerting systems that contain technical information, with respect to
their impact on ESL flight crewmember performance. Preliminary analysis results indicated
written English language technical information can be confusing, difficult to read and
interpret, and leads to misunderstandings by ESL flight crewmembers during aircraft nonnormal
conditions. English as-a-second language flight crewmembers indicated they often
experience problems executing written English language technical procedures after outset of
crew alerts.
Conversely, experimental trials revealed ESL flight crewmembers did not experience many
cognitive performance issues with use of crew alerting systems and technical information
designed with an English language emphasis. English as-a second language flight
crewmembers’ English language proficiency, background knowledge, and use of use of
metacognitive strategies to read and comprehend written English language on crew alerting
and information systems, indicated they utilized written English technical information with
ease. Particularly, ESL flight crewmembers’ workload was low, they had fast response times
to system faults, and they experienced minimal procedural deviations. On the contrary, when
ESL flight crewmembers utilized written English language technical procedures translated
into their native language during non-normal conditions, they experienced several cognitive
performance challenges. English as-a second language flight crewmembers’ background
knowledge of written English language technical information translated into their native
language, use of metacognitive strategies to read and comprehend written English language
translated into their native language, indicated they experienced difficulties with reading and
comprehending translated technical information on information systems. Particularly, ESL
flight crewmembers were challenged cognitively when they responded to crew alerts through
execution of decision-making processes. They indicated translation of written English
language technical information into their native language was a pre-cursor to procedural
deviation, long response times to system issues, as well as high workload during
experimental trials.
It is recommended that further research focus on design and use of written English language
technical documentation by ESL flight crewmembers during non-normal conditions. It is also
recommended that if deemed practical by the aviation industry, further research should focus
on design, integration, and utilization of technical documentation in a language(s) other than
English, and measurement of ESL flight crewmembers performance on the flight deck.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CRANFIELD1/oai:dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk:1826/12078 |
| Date | 01 1900 |
| Creators | Sevillian, Dujuan Brandez |
| Contributors | Jarvis, Steve, Braithwaite, Graham R., Chen Li, Wen |
| Publisher | Cranfield University |
| Source Sets | CRANFIELD1 |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or dissertation, Doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | © Cranfield University, 2017. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright holder. |
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