Flight Research Associates- Aviation English Testing

Flight Research Associates, Inc.- Aviation English Testing

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has signed a cooperative agreement with Ordinate Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harcourt Assessment, Inc., to support improved English Proficiency in aviation worldwide. Specifically, the goal of the agreement is to create a fully automated English test to meet the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) English Standards.

The Versant Aviation English test has clear benefits over human scored tests. Automation allows for test administration anytime, anywhere and results to be available within minutes of test administration.

Harcourt recommends a three step process for Civil Aviation Authorities and Airlines to meet ICAO requirements. The Harcourt's Assess, Evaluate, and Test (AET) process employs the Versant Aviation English Solution to help Air Traffic Controllers and Pilots comply with ICAO Language Proficiency requirements reliably, conveniently, and cost effectively.

The Harcourt Process:


Activity	Benchmark English proficiency levels of pilots, ATC’s, and trainers reliably and accurately	User Versant tests periodically to monitor progress of pilots and ATC’s during training	Administer licensing test to trained candidates and become compliant
Solution	Versant for English with ICAO concordance	Versant for English with ICAO concordance	Versant Aviation English test
Availability	April 2007	April 2007	April 2007
Administration	Through a fixed land line phone, any time	Through a fixed land line phone, any time	Through a fixed land line phone, any time
Construct	General English items	General English items	General English + Aviation phraseology items
Score Availability	Available over the internet within minutes after taking the test	Available over the internet within minutes after taking the test	Available over the internet within minutes after taking the test
Score Reports	Overall score and sub-scores for general English; Concordance report with ICAO scoring level is included	Sub-scores from benchmarking may be used to emphasize training in most relevant areas	Overall score and sub-scores that directly report on ICAO score levels