The Role of World English Homophones in Accidents, Incidents, and Incidence more

Sat, Apr 30, 13:00-Tue, May 31, 23:55 Asia/Seoul

This research investigates the influence of non-standard English homophones on airline safety. The English language has more than 6000 homophones and almost two thirds of the world’s 1.5 billion English speakers use English as a Second Language, thereby increasing the list of possible homophones tremendously. Contributions of similar words or word parts to disasters (Tenerife, 1997), accidents (Gimli Glider, 1983) and human suffering (Avianca Flight-052, 1990), and the effect of introducing homophones from non-standard Englishes on safety will be presented (e.g., Charkhi Dadri, 1996) together with examples of how homophones contribute to miscommunications, particularly in stressful emergency situations (e.g., Garuda Flight-152, 1997). Furthermore, examples of dangerous homophone conflicts (e.g., numbers ending in -teen and -ty) derived from aircraft investigations and voice recordings from Thai, Japanese, and Korean participants will be presented. Finally, implications for teaching English for academic and general education will also be discussed.