English for In-flight Service and Safety
This course is for airlines who want to improve the English language proficiency of their cabin crew
Proficiency in English is an essential skill for cabin crew. This course will help professional cabin crew develop language to communicate clearly and concisely in English with air travellers, colleagues and crew members. The course is built on the AEROSTA Framework and applies the language training techniques of our courses for pilots and ATCOs to courses for airport service providers.
The course has two modules:
- English for In-flight Service
- English for In-flight Safety
The modules can be taken together or independently.
The course is built on the AEROSTA Framework which ensures that in each unit learners have meaningful practice of a range of language skills relevant to an aviation career. The course is aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference and the topics on the course lead to proficiency in the AEROSTA Framework Service Language Test.
| Unit | Vocabulary | Structure | Communicative Functions |
| The course is divided into 20 units, each a relevant topic for cabin crew. | Each unit contains vocabulary (oral and written form) frequently used in that topic | Each unit contains a range of basic and complex structures, and activities to improve learners' grammatical accuracy of those structures in context. | Each unit contains role play exercises to practice using those structures in a meaningful in-flight service and safety context, to achieve a satisfactory outcome. |
Topics include:
Strong English communication skills are essential for all airline staff as they frequently have contact with the public.
- Strong English communication skills
- Customer service skills
- Cultural awareness and sensitivity when dealing with people
- Experience in handling difficult situations
- Confidence when speaking with other English speakers.
English for In-flight Service and Safety gives you the English language skills you need to become an effective flight attendant. You will know how to deal with routine and non-routine situations that could occur during flight. You will have greater awareness of differences between cultures, more sensitivity when dealing with customers and the ability to manage difficult situations in English.
Essential English for flight attendants:
- Practice talking about the roles and responsibilities for airline staff, eg pilots, flight attendants, ground staff, check-in clerks
- Learn to describe different aircraft, airports, tourist destinations and give directions
- Practice dealing with problems and difficulties that passengers may have during flight
- Expand your vocabulary to describe different kinds of food and drink, special dietary requirements
- Improve your ability to present and describe duty free sales items
- Develop essential customer service skills, diplomatic language and and the ability to deal with unruly passengers
- Understand what the pilots want you to do during emergencies and report unexpected events that can happen during flight
- Practice vocabulary for describing health problems, medicine and first aid
- Improve your pronunciation for passenger announcements
- Give advice to passengers about destinations around the world
Course availability
Assessment
At the end of the course, learners are assessed by the AEROSTA Framework Service Language Test, the international standard for determining English proficiency in aviation service roles.
The AEROSTA Framework Service Language Test is an accurate test of language proficiency for airline and airport customer service staff. The AEROSTA Framework Service Language Test measures the specific reading, listening, and oral proficiency skills required to successfully perform frontline duties in English. The test is concerned with determining genuine language proficiency through appropriate responses, regardless of whether a response is factually or grammatically correct.
General and Academic English tests such as TOEFL, IELTS and TOEIC are inappropriate for testing language proficiency of airline/airport customer service staff as they do not test important skills within the context of aviation service, so the results are less meaningful as a measure of language proficiency. They do not measure the skills that are required for interaction with colleagues and air passengers.
OPTIONAL EXTRA PRACTICE
For staff that require additional English language practice, they should consider attending optional weekend Supplementary Classes. We typically offer workshops for non-technical airline staff such as Customer Service Officers, Cabin Crew and Airport Security Officers on alternating Saturday and Sunday mornings 10-12pm. A two hour Supplementary Class costs $300HKD per person if more than 8 people attend, or $500HKD if less than 8 people attend.
TEACHING STAFF All teaching staff are certified by the Aviation English Organisation. All teachers have aviation and language teaching experience.
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