As important as having a clear pronunciation, is having a good vocabulary.
Many candidates ask us what to do in order to improve a foreign language skill.
Use all your senses! Get involved in the language. If you can't travel where the language is spoken, then immerse yourself for a few weeks/months in a daily routine of coupling up with the foreign language you that want to improve.
"Like any sport, you will get better at it if you push yourself everyday more and more towards the goal of improving, of making the best of it."
Your English language skills will be assessed in the following areas:
Pronunciation
Structure
Vocabulary
Fluency
Comprehension
Interaction
Vocabulary
the group of words used by or known to a particular people or group of persons.
a list or collection of the words or phrases of a language, technical or specific field (aviation, in our case), usually arranged in alphabetical order and defined.
the culturally evolved words of a language.
The importance of vocabulary:
An extensive vocabulary aids oral expression and communication
Reading can help increase a learner’s vocabulary range and therefore is a very useful activity for those who need to increase their range of spoken vocabulary.
A candidate should not only demonstrate a good range of vocabulary, but should be able to discuss work and aviation related topics relatively easily. She/He should also be able to paraphrase where he is unable to find a particular word.
Range and accuracy
The inability to find words is something all speakers encounter at some point. Using the wrong vocabulary when communicating can of course offer some very funny exchanges, but in an operational aviation environment lack of vocabulary and the inability to convey the correct message can have serious, often fatal consequences.
Read & Listen "aviation"!
Read a lot! Be curious about words you haven't seen before, we are in a great advantage with others, we can read aviation and enjoy what we read. There are a lot of books you can buy nowadays that will not only help you improve your aviation skills but also your aviation vocabulary.
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, I used to travel twice a year to the USA and my joy in those trips was to visit a Barnes and Noble store and buy books, lots of them... Rod Machado, ASA, Jeppesen, to name a few. I also bought a couple of books online back when online shopping was still very new.
When I converted to JAA (now EASA), the book "Ace the Technical Pilot Interview" from Gary V. Bristow helped me a lot to keep my knowledge up to date when I was operating as a cabin crew for Emirates Airlines. Instead of having to carry all 14 books, I was revising the most important subjects in only one book, and guess what?! That is a vast amount of vocabulary.
Don't stop there, nowadays there are loads of youtube bloggers, CFIs, FIs and Examiners with great video and audio post channels that will not only feed you with great knowledge in aviation, but also will improve your vocabulary database!
Keep it up!