ESP Project Leader Profile: Michael Kay
Kevin Knight, Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan
Hello, ESPers worldwide!
The 63rd ESP Project Leader Profile features Michael Kay, President of the International Civil Aviation English Association (ICAEA). Michael was introduced to me by Jennifer Roberts (Past and current Chair of the TESOL ESPIS) who is also a leader in the field of Aviation English. Jennifer had made it possible for me to attend an ICAEA event in Tokyo, Japan in 2018 where I first heard Michael speak about the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) forecast for the aviation industry. Please see Michael’s bio below.
Michael Kay has been the president of the International Civil Aviation English Association (ICAEA) since 2013. ICAEA (www.icaea.aero) promotes sharing and development of Aviation English training, testing or policy setting among a range of stakeholders around the world. Our aim is to promote and enhance understanding of principles of best practice related to the use of English among aviation personnel for safety and efficiency. Michael has been involved in Aviation English training and testing since the mid-1990s, originally in Australia as a teacher, curriculum developer, test developer at RMIT University and subsequently working with international stakeholders implementing training and assessments for pilots and air traffic controllers. Michael is now based in Thailand, working with the Thai air navigation service provider (AEROTHAI) as the head of a small team of teachers. He is currently responsible for the design, development of curriculum content for an LMS-based training course for Thai air traffic controllers working across the country at AEROTHAI. In 2005, Michael completed a Masters in Applied Linguistics at the University of Melbourne, specializing and language testing. As the President of ICAEA, he currently works with a board of twelve like-minded individuals from around the world, offering annual international conferences and workshops, regular webinars and website support for those involved in aviation English training, assessment and teaching. ICAEA also works with the international aviation industry by providing guidance material and training aids for training and testing providers and civil aviation regulatory organizations.
In his responses to the interview prompts, Michael defines leadership in terms of providing ideas that moved the association forward. His narrative explains how such leadership resulted in the impressive accomplishment of Test Design Guidelines.
President of the International Civil Aviation English Association (ICAEA), Toulon, France
Define leadership in your words.
Leadership, to me, involves providing a means of allowing members of a team to feel inspired so they can contribute as individuals and also work collectively to serve a common purpose and achieve meaningful outcomes. Being the leader of and international association, the International Civil Aviation English Association (ICAEA), I work with many individuals from diverse backgrounds around the world, all of whom offer their expertise and time voluntarily. This requires cultivating a sense of a shared understanding of values and goals while also ensuring that everyone is provided with opportunities to share opinions and ideas. As someone who has moved to live in Thailand where the language and culture are completely different from my own, I believe that it is important to view people’s ideas and behavior from different perspectives and accommodate these views in how we reach our shared outcomes. I tend to see myself, as a leader, as putting forward ideas, goals and strategies to encourage discussion and motivate the team to feel their efforts and input are both meaningful and that in spite of any challenges, our collective energy, ideas and efforts are worthwhile. Leadership in this role is something that is not overt, rather providing a sense of support and guidance for the team, with individuals recognizing and having confidence that there is someone at the helm to steer our association, at the right pace and with realistic expectations.
Tell me an ESP project success story. Focus on your communication as a leader in the project. How did you communicate with stakeholders to make that project successful?
Over the last twenty years, ICAEA has been involved in supporting the implementation of a language testing policy developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in the early 2000s. This policy affects pilots and air traffic controllers globally. Although the policy is intended to be applied by all countries to achieve common standards, many aspects of the policy and accompanying support documents are open to interpretation. This has led to differences in language testing practices and therefore large variations in what tests assess and the results they report. In 2017, ICAEA took on a project to support standardization of testing practices by focusing on key criteria that should be reflected in test instrument design. The aim being that tests developed by different providers would have more common test instrument design features, leading to more aligned testing outcomes.
I took on a leadership role to guide a small team within ICAEA with language testing expertise to develop what we termed the Test Design Guidelines (TDGs). This involved establishing criteria that we identified could promote more unified approaches to aviation English test design by encouraging test developers and civil aviation authorities who approve tests to apply the criteria in the tests they develop and approve. However, we recognized those responsible for oversight of aviation English tests within civil authorities had limited assessment literacy. One challenge was to develop the TDGs so they would reflect both best practice and also be accessible to a range of stakeholders, including those with little or no background or familiarity with language testing principles. It was important for us that the TDGs could lead to real-world improvements in aviation English testing. Over the course of 2017 and 2018, the TDG team had several face-to-face meetings and many online meetings. We each had specific and overlapping roles to allow us to develop the TDG document. Eventually we established eight TDG criteria and produced an interactive document that was initially published on the ICAEA website - https://www.icaea.aero/projects/icao-lpr-tdg/ (this has now been simplified due to ICAO taking ownership of the document).
The next step in this project was to offer workshops that would increase awareness about the lack of standardized testing, the effects of inadequate standardization, and how the TDGs could provide a means to facilitate international harmonization. The TDG team developed a set of workshop materials in the form of a handbook that comprised practical activities for each of the eight TDG criteria (https://www.icaea.aero/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ICAEA-TDG-Workshop-Handbook.pdf).
A significant challenge lay in ensuring the target audience for the TDGs – each country’s civil aviation authority – could be reached and the concepts of the TDGs accepted and applied. ICAEA, on its own, had little access to this audience, and without their acceptance of the TDGs, the application and success of the TDGs would be limited. Through contacts at ICAO, I was able to gain their trust and confidence in ICAEA’s efforts with the TDG project. This led to ICAO offering joint support in contacting regulatory authorities via official ‘state letters’ and promoting four regional TDG workshops. In 2019, TDG workshops were delivered in Luxembourg (for western European states), Tbilisi (for Eastern Europe), Buenos Aires (for South America) and Bangkok (for Asia Pacific) (https://www.icaea.aero/projects/icao-lpr-tdg-old/workshops/). ICAO’s involvement meant the regulatory officials were invited by ICAO to attend the TDG workshops. This was our first success with the project: we had reached our target audience and were able to deliver four successful workshops and provide tools to support regulators in selecting and approving aviation English test providers.
Further workshops were planned, however, the COVID pandemic put plans on hold. In the interim, as the leader of ICAEA, I discussed the idea of ICAO taking on the ownership of the TDGs, with ICAEA redeveloping the content online so the text could made available as an official ICAO document. With ICAO now recognizing ICAEA’s intentions and aims of the project, the TDG team set about writing a guidance handbook. This work was completed after consultation with ICAO. The TDG project culminated in the publication of ICAO Doc 10197 in May 2024.
Although there is still a lot of work ahead to encourage the TDGs to be applied and to promote improvements in aviation English testing outcomes, I feel the TDGs represent one of ICAEA’s most successful projects – both in terms of serving a purpose in line with our mission, but also for the ICAEA board, allowing us to appreciate that our efforts and contributions can be meaningful.
When I used NVivo to create a word cloud (based on frequency of word groups/generalizations) of Michael’s definition of leadership, the following figure appeared.
I then created a word cloud of his narrative.
These two figures nicely summarized the contents of his two responses; i.e., 1) providing ideas to individuals which moved the association, and 2) ICAEA activities to create the Test Design Guidelines and ICAO support to disseminate the TDGs.
Do you have any questions or comments for Michael? Please feel free to contact him directly.
All the best,
Kevin
PS – The profiles (1 to 55) have been published together in a book English for Specific Purposes Project Leader Profiles: The Leadership Communication of 55 ESP Project Leaders (which can be downloaded for free in the PDF version). The profiles 51 to 62 are accessible in past issues of ESP News. For insights into what inspired me to write the profiles in a certain way, see also Creating Leadership “Ways of Being” in L2 Learners for International Business Careers and Social Good.
References
Knight, K. (2022). English for specific purposes project leader profiles: The leadership communication of 55 ESP project leaders. Hong Kong: Candlin & Mynard.
Knight, K. (2024). Creating leadership “ways of being” in L2 learners for international business careers and social good. Hong Kong: Candlin & Mynard.
Kevin Knight (PhD in linguistics, MBA, MPIA) is Professor in the Department of International Communication of Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba, Japan. His research interests include leadership conceptualization and development, ESP, and professional communication. He is series editor of Leadership in Language Education. (See https://www.candlinandmynard.com/leadership.html.)