Date of Publication

7-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics

Subject Categories

Linguistics

College

Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education

Department/Unit

Dept of English and Applied Linguistics

Thesis Advisor

Shirley N. Dita

Defense Panel Chair

Aireen Barrios Arnuco

Defense Panel Member

Philip Adrianne A. Rentillo
Ariane M. Borlongan
Alejandro S. Bernardo
Eric V. Friginal

Abstract (English)

Since the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) designated English as the official language of aviation in 1951, Aviation English (AE) has played a critical role in global aviation safety and has gained scholarly attention. Despite this academic momentum, Filipino pilots and controllers—operating in an institutionalized second-language environment with a shared first language (e.g., Filipino)—remain underexplored. This dissertation argues that Philippine Aviation English (PhilAE) functions as a context-driven professional lingua franca shaped more by communicative context, procedural norms, and institutional practices than by speaker identity. This study employed three analytical phases. First, a corpus-based comparison was conducted between the Aviation Corpus of English–Philippines—a collection of transcribed spoken texts from LiveATC.net, representing Filipino Aeronautical Communication (FAC)—and the Radiotelephony Plain English Corpus, representing Non-Filipino Aeronautical Communication (NFAC). Dimension scores were generated using Nini’s (2019) MAT tool, which replicates Biber’s (1988) framework. Second, Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted to identify underlying linguistic patterns, yielding five latent linguistic dimensions that were compared across six operational domains. Third, linguistic features with extreme z-scores were identified to extract unique expressions, including non-standard lexical items through manual inspection. Results revealed statistically significant variation, particularly in Dimension 1. While both corpora demonstrated a shared reliance on informational discourse, FAC featured abbreviated, formulaic expressions, whereas NFAC exhibited greater syntactic elaboration. The General Linear Model, applied through Multivariate Analysis of Variance, confirmed a strong multivariate effect of operational domain on linguistic variation (Wilks’ Lambda = .081, F(130, 4641.34) = 23.73, p < .001), supporting the argument that linguistic features shift systematically as Filipino pilots and controllers perform different tasks across domains. Further analysis revealed distinctive linguistic markers, including frequently used non-standard items. In conclusion, PhilAE is a context-driven, regulated, and locally adapted professional lingua franca. These findings call for localized, corpus-based AE training and pedagogy aligned with the procedural and communicative realities of Filipino aviation professionals.

Abstract Format

html

Abstract (Filipino)

.

Abstract Format

html

Language

English

Format

Electronic

Keywords

Corpora (Linguistics); Aeronautics—Language; Air traffic control; Lingua franca

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