STANDARDIZATION OF HIGHLY AUDIBLE PHRASEOLOGY 



237 



voice communications, especially designed 

 for training military personnel, have been 

 demonstrated to produce important and 

 stable improvements in the general efficiency 

 of telephone talkers and listeners (15, p. 6; 

 16, 17; 23, pp. 23^0). 



A training program, nevertheless, is not 

 in itself an adequate substitute for the selec- 

 tion of telephone talkers on the basis of 

 proficiency tests. For while all talkers, even 

 the poorest, improve with training, the talk- 

 ers and listeners who were better prior to 

 training tend to maintain their superiority 

 after training as well (5, pp. 5-6; 10, IC-60, 

 p. 12; 15, p. 17). The optimal program 

 will combine the selection of telephone talk- 

 ers for their native ability with a course of 

 training to ensure that these abilities are 

 developed to the maximum. 



Existing Submarine Talker-Training Pro- 

 gram. In 1944, NDRC personnel assisted 

 the Submarine Service in setting up training 

 courses in voice communications at New 

 London, Portsmouth, San Diego, Hunter's 

 Point, Pearl Harbor, and Midway. In its 

 complete form, the course was given in three 

 parts (24): 



1. A basic course (5 hours) given in a 

 special training room equipped with the var- 

 ious types of submarine communications 

 equipment, as well as with facihties for in- 

 troducing ambient submarine noise and for 

 recording the voice drills conducted over 

 sound-powered telephone circuits. In this 

 course, all hands were taught general skills 

 in the use of equipment, the art of making 

 oneself intelligible over noise, and the ob- 

 servance of correct voice procedures and 

 circuit discipline. 



2. An intermediate course, proceeding as 

 part of the specialized training of torpedo- 

 men, diesel engineers, sonar and radar oper- 

 ators, and other groups in the advanced 

 division of the Submarine School. The ob- 

 ject was to develop the use of correct voice 

 procedures, phraseology, and enunciation as 

 part of the routine operation of equipment. 



3. An advanced course in telephone 



talking as an integral part of combat-team 

 training, administered after a crew had been 

 assigned to its ship.^ 



The changing circumstances of peace-time 

 training will no doubt impose necessary 

 changes in this voice communications pro- 

 gram. However, the mounting difficulty to 

 be expected in maintaining adequate voice 

 communication, in the face of the growing 

 complexity of equipment and procedures and 

 the increasing level of interfering noises, 

 makes it important that the substance of 

 this program be maintained, and even ex- 

 tended. Moreover, since a training course 

 must work against the speech habits of a 

 lifetime, it is to be expected that telephone 

 talkers, once their initial training is ended, 

 will revert to careless speech procedures un- 

 less their performance is checked periodi- 

 cally during actual operation of the ship. It 

 would seem desirable, then, that: 



1. Ship's officers be indoctrinated with 

 the elements of correct procedures for com- 

 municating in noise, and with a knowledge 

 of the proper operation and care of commun- 

 ication equipment, so that they may super- 

 vise the observance of these rules by their 

 crews. 



2. A submarine talker-training staff be 

 established to make periodic checks on the 

 interior communications of each ship, and 

 to record the flow of messages on the prin- 

 cipal telephone circuits. These recordings 

 can then be used as the basis for making 

 corrections, whenever talking performance 

 shall have fallen below the level necessary 

 for the most efficient operation of the ship. 



IV. The Standardization of Highly Audible 

 Phraseology 



Words, no less than human beings, show 

 extreme differences with respect to the spe- 



2 In addition to special training equipment and 

 training aids, a Submarine Telephone Talker's 

 Manual and an Instructor's Handbook for a Basic 

 Course in Submarine Voice Communications were 

 prepared and published for use in these courses. 

 The program, methods, equipment, and training 

 aids are described in 24. 



