Hence the recent International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) policy places the onus on non-native users to bring
their English to an appropriate standard. The present paper argues that there is a need for a
broader perspective on this issue and supports this case with reference to two sources of data:
a) episodes of radiotelephony discourse recorded in two air traffic control centres in Korea exemplifying
non-routine, abnormal and emergency situations involving NS of English and NNS from
different language backgrounds, b) focus group and individual interviews with selected Korean
aviation personnel eliciting their interpretations of these episodes and of issues in aviation
English more generally. Findings suggest that responsibilities for communication problems in
aviation English are distributed across NS and NNS users, and may be partly due to the absence
of shared assumptions about efficient and appropriate communication practices in an environment
where English is a lingua franca (ELF). Implications are drawn for the communication training of
all aviation personnel, regardless of language background.