English is the preferred language for communication in the aviation industry. Pilots and air traffic controllers of different nationalities and proficiency levels interact with each other using a specialized form of English termed aviation English that comprises of aviation phraseology and "plain English". Here, miscommunication could have disastrous consequences. This paper presents the findings of a study that explored instances of miscommunication in the interaction between pilots and

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... lers. Miscommunication is defined as a lack of understanding (or misunderstanding), non-understanding or misinterpretation of messages in communication. The corpus consists of 30 hours of actual pilot-controller audio communication collected from the Malaysian airspace. Data were collected from three different frequencies (Alpha, Bravo and Charlie) representing different phases of the flight. They were analysed qualitatively using conversation analysis techniques. The study found that miscommunication in pilot-controller communication is due mainly to two main factors, procedural deviation and problematic instruction or request. The paper concludes by suggesting that pilots and controllers should adhere to standard phraseology and avoid code-switching from aviation phraseology to plain English except when it is inadequate for the situation. It also suggests that proper radio discipline should be maintained. 200 and Douglas (2014) have found that even amongst native speakers, pilot-controller communication is challenging. Early research studies in aviation discourse were largely carried out in the native speaker (NS) setting (e.g. Cushing 1994 &1995 Barshi 1997 , Morrow et al.1993, Burki-Cohen 1995a. Some of these studies focused on the effects of variables like human and task on pilot-controller communication (e.g. Prinzo et al. quite a number of these studies are devoted to issues related to the development of an English test for aviation (e.g. Alderson 2009) as well as development of materials for aviation English (e.g. Er & Kirkgoz 2018, Paramasivan 2013). Until today, there are not many research studies done in the NNS setting. Furthermore, there is a lack of aviation studies that examined routine communication between pilots and air traffic controllers. As mentioned earlier, studies using authentic aviation conversation in this setting tend to examine conversations that led to incidents. Studying miscommunications that occurred in routine conversation could provide insights on the challenges and difficulties faced by pilots and air traffic controllers in this setting that might be different from NS. This gap prompted the researchers of this study to embark on an investigation of miscommunications in routine pilot-controller discourse in a NNS setting. This paper will focus on the factors that lead to the breakdown. AVIATION ENGLISH Aviation English is a registered language that is only used in the aviation circle. The language makes sense only if one understands the context in which it is spoken. In other words, aviation English is context dependent. In pilot-controller communication, pilots and air controllers should maintain professionalism at all times during the transmission. They should always remain calm and keep their emotions at bay even during an emergency situation (Barshi 1997) . According to Mitsutomi and O'Brien (2003) , aviation language consists of three main categories: English for Specific Language (ESP), English for General Purpose (EGP) and Air Traffic Control Phraseology (Figure 1) . ESP, in an aviation context, refers to English used to talk about aviation-specific topics and vocabulary. The use of English in both the ESP and EGP contexts is not tied to any prescribed code but users can use any words, phrases and structures to convey their message. Aviation phraseology is used in routine communication between pilot and controller and it consists of prescribed and coded language that needs to be adhered to at all times. All parties involved in the communication generally know what to expect and follow the standard protocol.