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Pan Am International Flight Academy selects Carnegie Speech

June 13, 2012, Miami, Fla. - Pan Am International Flight Academy, a worldwide provider of training support for airlines and aviation professionals announced today a global agreement with Carnegie Speech to aid in the company’s Aviation English training.


June 13, 2012  By Carey Fredericks

 
 

Carnegie Speech’s patented language learning technology will now be used
at the Academy’s training centers in the United States and abroad, to
increase English proficiency within the aviation field.

 

Miscommunication between airline pilots and air traffic controllers who
do not share the same native language can, and have, caused fatal
accidents that could have been prevented. This is why the International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the agency responsible for
international air travel safety and development, issued new
recommendations to improve English-language training. Now, all pilots
flying internationally, and all air traffic controllers providing
services to international flights, must have a minimum level of spoken
Aviation English skills known as “Operational Level 4”.

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“In the multilingual field of aviation, misinterpretation of a word or
phrase can be a deadly link in the chain of events from takeoff to
landing,” said Gary LaGuardia, Director of English Training at Pan Am
Academy. “We believe Carnegie Speech delivers the best solution for
teaching our pilots not only to speak English, but to be understood and
communicate effectively, mitigating the risk of error due to language
barriers.”

 

To help students meet and surpass the ICAO requirements, Pam Am will integrate Carnegie Speech’s:

  

“NativeAccent” technology and “Climb Level 4 Aviation English” software
with their programs, creating an end-to-end English training solution.

 

• NativeAccent technology, developed by Carnegie Melon University, is
the only language learning technology that assess a student’s speech,
diagnoses their individual condition and then prescribes a specific
tutoring plan to address the diagnosis. This method enables a student
to improve spoken-English skills 100 percent after just 10 hours of use.

 

• Climb Level 4 software embeds the NativeAccent technology in a
comprehensive, aviation-specific software product that prepares aviation
professionals for ICAO Level 4 proficiency testing.

 

Both products feature patented “Pinpointing” technologies that take into
account a user’s first language, gender and proficiency to enable a
highly-granular analysis and real-time remediation of spoken-English
errors.

 

 “Because Carnegie Speech individually assess and tutors pilots at the
phoneme level to improve their word stress, grammar, fluency and
pronunciation, we are able to teach them not just to parrot words and
phrases, but to effectively communicate in the most intense,
non-scripted scenarios that pilots face throughout their careers,” said
Paul Musselman, CEO of Carnegie Speech. “This is the key to implementing
successful language learning and improving the safety and future of the
growing aviation industry.”

 
 

Pan Am is pleased to solidify this agreement and believes this
partnership will increase the company’s ability to meet the demands of
their expanding global operations.

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