Uses of the Diagnostic Rhyme Test (english Version) for Evaluating Multilingual Operability in Aviation Communications: an Exploratory Investigation

Diagnostic Rhyme Test (DRT) materials by native speakers of English (American), German and French were presented under undegraded and degraded conditions to English speaking listening crews of three national origins: American, German and French. The effects of the speaker’s native language, the listener’s native language and all permutations of the two on DRT scores were significant, depending on the speech feature involved, but the speaker's linguistic background was the major determinant of the types of error that occurred. The total number of errors was lowest for American speakers, regardless of the nationality of the listeners, and when the listeners were American, regardless of the nationality of the speakers. Errors with respect to voicing, sustention, sibilation and graveness occurred most often.