If you are an air traffic control student or controller preparing for an ICAO English assessment, identify the test you will actually take before collecting practice questions. ICAO Level 4 is a language proficiency rating, not a single worldwide examination. CATC and ELPAC, for example, publish different test descriptions. Your licensing authority or training organisation must tell you which result it accepts.

This guide offers original ATCBase exercises for listening, speaking and interaction. They are not official questions, rated speech samples or operational instructions. No practice session, including one with AI, can award an ICAO level.

Start with the test provider and the six language criteria

Check the provider's current candidate information and sample materials. CATC describes six parts, including work-related discussion, non-routine situations, picture description and listening tasks. ELPAC publishes a separate ATC test description with listening and speaking papers; its sample-test page is the place to explore its own format. Do not assume CATC's tasks or timings apply to ELPAC, or vice versa.

Across providers, the ICAO language criteria are pronunciation, structure, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and interactions. ICAO explains that the assessment should provide varied opportunities to use plain language in aviation work-related contexts. It is not a test of technical procedures or a licence to replace standard phraseology on frequency. See the ICAO Personnel Licensing FAQ.

Find the communication failure before choosing a drill

Record a short answer about a familiar work-related topic, then ask a partner an unplanned follow-up question. Listen back for a specific problem:

  • Did you misunderstand the question, or did you understand it but struggle to answer?
  • Did you present a possibility as a confirmed fact?
  • When a word was missing, could you explain the idea in another way?
  • Did the conversation continue after a request for clarification?

Choose one problem to practise next. A longer vocabulary list will not automatically fix difficulty understanding a new question or managing an exchange. If you need a formal rating or diagnosis, use the applicable approved assessment process rather than assigning yourself a level from a recording.

A short listening exercise

The following message is an ATCBase-created language exercise, not a transmission template or official test item:

> We noticed an unusual smell in the cabin. We have not identified the source yet.

After listening, state in English what is confirmed and what remains unknown. The smell has been reported; its source has not been identified. Do not change that into “there is a fire” or guess a cause. Then ask a partner to change one detail and see whether your summary still reflects the new information.

Use actual audio as well as text. Try speakers whose accents are intelligible but unfamiliar to you, and compare what you thought you heard with the recording. Do not present material from a provider's published sample as your own or assume it will recur in a live test.

Speaking and interaction exercises

Describe a work-related image by separating observation from interpretation: “I can see a vehicle near the aircraft. I cannot tell whether it is moving.” Have a partner ask, “What else would you need to know?” The goal is to express limits accurately, not to invent operational conclusions from a photograph.

For interaction, practise a three-turn exchange. Partner A gives an incomplete explanation; partner B identifies the missing detail; partner A supplies it; partner B summarises the updated understanding. Rotate roles and topics. This helps reveal whether you can respond to information that was not in a memorised answer.

These are communication exercises, not instructions for real-world ATC decisions. In live radiotelephony, applicable procedures and standard phraseology take priority. The ICAO FAQ explains that standard phraseology is used where specified and plain language is used when it cannot serve the intended transmission.

A repeatable 20-minute practice round

This schedule is an ATCBase suggestion, not an ICAO requirement or a promised time to reach Level 4:

1. Listen for five minutes and separate confirmed from uncertain information. 2. Speak for five minutes about an unfamiliar aviation-related image or topic. 3. Interact for five minutes with follow-up and clarification questions. 4. Review one error affecting meaning, then retry for five minutes with new wording.

Keep a dated note of the communication problem you worked on and whether it appeared again in a different scenario. Progress means transferring a skill to new material, not memorising one response. ATCBase's ICAO English practice may give you more opportunities to speak and listen, but automated feedback may be wrong and is not a licensing result.

Before test day

Read your provider's current candidate instructions for booking, identification, format and published samples. If the instructions conflict with an older blog or video, ask the test centre which version applies. For Thai candidates considering CATC, start with our CATC test and registration guide; for ELPAC ATC, see the ELPAC guide. Neither guide replaces confirmation from the organisation that will accept your result.

Sources and editorial scope

Sources checked 11 October 2026. The exercises and 20-minute schedule are ATCBase-created and have not been validated as test-preparation outcomes. This article was not reviewed by an ICAO examiner or licensing authority.