Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS designing an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at intermediate level at people’s police college i

Rationale for the study

Nowadays, it cannot be denied that English has become one of the most popular languages all around the world As an international language, English plays a crucial role in every aspect of social life from economy, education, culture, health care to diplomacy, science, technology and security, etc Thus, there has been an explosion in the demand for English That is also the reason why English teaching and learning is paid special attention by every nation and Vietnam cannot also stand out of the current trend There have been an increasing number of people studying English everyday and longing to master the language for different purposes, but most, if not all, language learners want to develop proficiency in speaking As Richards (2008:19) asserted, of four major language skills, the mastery of speaking skill in English is a priority for many second language or foreign language learners Therefore, the proficiency in English speaking skill should be the learners‟ first and foremost concern

To improve learners‟ English speaking ability, a variety of textbooks and materials have been published At People‟s Police College I (PPC I), the textbook “Lifelines Pre-Intermediate” is being used as the core textbook to serve this purpose However, most of the students, especially the students at Intermediate level, who account for the majority at our college, always meet difficulties in English speaking as well as oral presentation They always feel anxious, inconfident or uninspired in the speaking lessons There are a lot of reasons for this situation, e.g course syllabus, teaching methodology, learning ability, learning motivation or facility, etc As I see it, inappropriate syllabus is one of the key elements leading to the unsuccessful speaking performance since an inappropriate syllabus which is not strictly based on students‟ specific learning needs cannot make them ready for their future jobs, and fails to inspire students‟ motivation as well as create effective English speaking lessons Thus, it is essential to design a supplementary speaking syllabus, which aims at narrowing down the gap between the current textbook and the students‟ specific and practical needs

Additionally, among all majors of our college, students of administrative police programs account for the majority and may speak English a lot in their future job Therefore, it is imperative to design a supplementary material for these administrative police students at Intermediate level This requires a thorough study of their language needs, which explains why I conduct the present study entitled “Designing an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level at People’s Police College I.”

Aims and objectives of the study

The ultimate aim of this study was to design an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I

In order to achieve the above aim, the following objectives were identified:

 Target needs: how administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I are expected to be able to speak English by the end of this course so as to fulfill the tasks of administrative police officers

 Learning needs: what they need to study during the learning process to make up for their current deficiency so as to achieve the expected outcomes.

Research questions

In order to achieve the above aims, the study sought answers to the following research questions:

 What are the learning needs and the target needs of the learners in English speaking to serve their future job as administrative policemen?

 How should an ESP speaking syllabus be designed to cover the types of needs

Scope of study

This study mainly centralized on designing an ESP syllabus for administrative police students of People‟s Police College I In light of the scope of the study, data for the study were only collected from interviews with the subject teachers, administrative police officers as well as questionnaires for the teachers of English and the students of this major, but not any other majors of our college Additionally, this thesis only paid attention to studying speaking skill and designing syllabus of speaking skill.

Methods of the study

Generally, in order to identify the needs of the target students, survey method was employed to find out the needs from different relevant participants Firstly, in order to identify the target needs, interviews were carried out with subject teachers and administrative policemen to determine how the target learners are expected to be able to speak English to make them job-ready Secondly, the researcher delivered questionnaires to teachers of English and administrative police students at Intermediate level, which aims at finding out how the learning needs of the students and the expectation of the teachers about the topics, language elements, methods, level and the timing allocation of the upcoming syllabus should be These procedures provided the researcher with the necessary data to establish the target needs and the learning needs to design an appropriate syllabus for the learners.

Significance of the study

Theoretically, the study contributes to the viewpoints of the importance of

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Meanwhile, this study‟s significance mainly lies in its practical contributions Firstly, the study was conducted with the expectation that it will provide teachers and learners with one more teachable/ learnable material For that reason, it has an extremely important significance for both teachers and learners

Secondly, the output of the study really becomes a practical instruction for the learners to satisfy with the requirements of their future job Finally, it is also an effort to improve students‟ English proficiency in general and enhance students‟ speaking ability in particular.

Structure of the thesis

The thesis consists of three main parts:

Part A - Introduction presents the rationale for the study; aim and objectives of the study; research questions; significance of the study; methods of the study; and the structure of the thesis

Part B - Development, which is the main part of the study, comprises of four chapters:

Chapter 1 - Literature Review presents an overview of the theories relevant to the study, including definitions and types of ESP, types of syllabus; approaches to syllabus design, definition of needs, needs analysis as well as role of needs analysis and the theories of speaking skill

Chapter 2 - Methodology briefly describes the methodology framework of the study covering the PPC I context, the participants, the instruments and procedure of data collection

Chapter 3 - Data Analysis, Findings and Discussion is a detailed analysis of the gathered data as well as the major findings and discussion from the data analysis

Chapter 4 - presents the output of the study - an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I

Part C - Conclusion gives a summary of the study, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.

LITERATURE REVIEW

An overview of ESP

English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which is in contrast with General English (GE), has rapidly got to be an extremely efficient approach in the modern educational trend

To date, there have been a wide variety of definitions and related concepts of ESP such as those stated by Anthony (1997) or Hutchinson and Waters (1987) Despite their different words, almost all linguists agree that ESP is based on studying learners‟ needs According to Anthony (1997), ESP course, which is dependent upon analyzing learners‟ needs and their professional knowledge, helps learners to fulfill real communication using English To a large extent, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) give a very general and concise definition of ESP as follows: “ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner‟s reason for learning”

On the other hand, Dudley-Evans and John (1998:4) show the definition of ESP from the perspective of its characteristics, which helps readers have deeper understanding of ESP He classifies the features of ESP into two types: the absolute and the variable ones

- ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner;

- ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves;

- ESP is centred on the language (grammar, lexis, and register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities

- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

- ESP may use, in specific teaching situation, a different methodology from that of general English;

- ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation It could, however, be used for learners at secondary school level;

- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students Most ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners

As can be seen from the tree of English Language Teaching (ELT) which is clearly displayed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987:17), there are three types of ESP including English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE), and English for Social Sciences (ESS) Each type is further divided into two branches: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP), which cover some majors named as the representatives in the tree, e.g English for Medicine, English for Technicians, English for Office Staff or English for Psychology

The Tree of ELT (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:17)

Overview of syllabus design

It is greatly important to comprehend the concept of syllabus, which helps the author design an appropriate and effective output A large number of educators and researchers have presented the definitions of syllabus According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987:80), syllabus is “a document which says what will (or at least what should) be learnt” Breen (1984:47) defines syllabus as a plan of what is to be achieved through our teaching and our students‟ learning” In Pienemann‟s (1985:23) words, he refers to syllabus as “the selection and grading of linguistic teaching objectives” while its function is “to specify what is to be taught and in what order” (Prabhu, 1984)

Generally, the definitions of syllabus can be agreed and perceived as the specifications of what to teach and how to order the content of language teaching Grasping the of syllabus design According to Munby (1978), syllabus design is comprehensively and thoroughly seen as “a matter of specifying the content that needs to be taught and then organizing it into a teaching syllabus of appropriate learning units” Added to this, it is also very necessary to study the approaches to syllabus design, which helps the researcher infer how to design an applicable and effective syllabus for learners

1.2.2 Approaches to ESP syllabus design

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), there are three different types of approaches to ESP syllabus design as follow: language-centered, skill-centered and learning-centered

The language-centered approach proceeds as follow:

1 Identify linguistic features of target situation + Select theoretical views of language

4 Design materials to exemplify syllabus

5 Establish evaluation procedures to test acquisition of syllabus items This model may seem to be logical, straightforward and systematic because it begins with combining the target situation of learner and the theoretical views of language so as to design a syllabus, which ends with the evaluation to the attainment of the syllabus items However, the language-centered approach still has a number of weaknesses Firstly, it is criticized for being a static and inflexible procedure

Secondly, it is too much dependent on the target situation, but does not take any account of other very important factors contributing to the creation of an effective syllabus such as the motivation, attitude or interests of learners, etc Finally, this model‟s analysis of the target situation data is only at the surface level as it reveals very little about the competence that underlines performance

The procedure of this approach is expressed as follow:

2 Analyze skills/ strategies required to cope in target situation + theoretical reviews of language + theoretical reviews of learning (if needed)

2 Select texts and write exercises to focus on skills/ strategies in syllabus

3 Establish evaluation procedures which require the use of skills/ strategies in syllabus This model aims at aiding learners in developing both skills and strategies It approaches in the way of not providing learners with a group of specific linguistic knowledge, but instructing learners to know how to process the knowledge obtained

Nevertheless, this approach still has some drawbacks that it regards the learner as a user of language rather than a learner of language and the processes it deals with centre more on the language use, but not on language learning

From Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1987) viewpoint, learning process is regarded as “a process of negotiation between individuals and society Society sets the target (in the case of ESP, performance in the target situation) and the individuals must do their best to get as close to the target as possible” For that reason, it can be inferred that learners should not only be taken into consideration at the target situation but also at the context where the learning process takes place In this learning-centered approach, the learners are taken into account at every stage of the learning process

The procedure of the learning-centered approach is presented as follow:

2 Analyze learning situation (+ theoretical views of learning) + analyze target situation (+ theoretical views of language)

1 Identify attitudes/ wants/ potentials of learners; identify needs/ potential/ constraints of learning/ teaching situation + identify skills and knowledge needed to function in the target situation

2 Write syllabus/ materials to exploit the potential of the learning situation in the acquisition of the skills and knowledge required by the target situation

4 (if needed, back to the 2nd step) Bearing this in mind, it can be seen that the learning-center approach does not only concentrate on the competence of the learners but also on how to achieve the competence

To sum up, in contrast with the two above approaches, the learning-centered model does not view the learner as a language user, but really as a language learner It not only pays attention to the competence of the learners but also many other significant factors contributing to the creation of an efficient syllabus such as: the motivation, needs or attitude of learners Perceiving the superiority of the learning- centered approach in comparison with the two other approaches, I take the learning- centered approach as a fundamental procedure for designing the syllabus for administrative police students at PPC I

Up to now, there are a variety of types of syllabus In this part, I would like to present the common types, which aims at finding out the most suitable one for the syllabus design

Historically, structural or grammatical syllabus was the most prevalent type, in which the selection and grading of the content is based on the complexity and simplicity of grammatical items such as how to form and use tenses, verbs, adverbs, voices, singular, plural, etc (Nunan, 1988) The strongest advantage of this type of syllabus is at its pedagogical method, which takes the familiar to inspire the unfamiliar so that the learners find it much easier to acquire the new knowledge However, the grammatical syllabus has a number of limitations First, it pays too much attention to the grammatical regulations while there exists to be other linguistic aspects contributing to the competence in language use Second, it is mostly teacher-centred approach, which leads learners to become more passive in English classes

This type of syllabus is, in fact, an integration of the two models: the functional and the notional one Functions have a bearing on the communicative purposes in real life such as: agreeing, thanking, congratulating, etc Notions, on the other hand, have concern with the conceptual meanings conveyed by language, for example: size, color, time, space, and so on The advantage of the syllabus is that learners will be able to easily make use of the useful functions and notions for their communicative situations in real life

In spite of the advantage, learners may meet difficulties in creating and practicing other communicative functions outside a specific context Moreover, it is not easy to determine which functional item (such as requesting) is either simpler or more complicated than another one (such as complimenting) so that there is obstruction to obeying a logical progression from the simplicity to the complexity of a syllabus

The situational syllabus, on the other hand, mostly gives an emphasis to the communicative situations which learners may use language to deal with such as:

“Seeing the dentist”, “Asking for the directions”, “Checking in and out the hotel”, etc The advantage of this syllabus is that it is nearer to the communicative situations of the learners‟ real life However, similarly to the functional-notional syllabus, the situational one also gets a number of drawbacks in terms of the ability of covering various situations outside classroom and the gradation of difficulties in the syllabus

Existing differently from all the three above types of syllabus, topic-based syllabus views the content, rather than the grammar, function or situation as its starting point

In a topic-based one, the topics being selected must be relevant to the jobs of the students so that it meets the students‟ needs and inspires the students‟ interests For that reason, this type of syllabus is one of the most appropriate syllabi to ESP teaching For all that, this type of syllabus still raises some issues in terms of how the topics or content are decided, what the basis for assessment, the learning of content or the learning of language should be or what the balance between the content and grammar on other strands of the syllabus is

Needs analysis

Dudley-Evans (1998) refers to learners‟ needs at the simplest level as the “identifiable elements” of “students‟ target English situation” On the other hand, Robinson (1991:

7-8) sees needs from both goal-oriented and process-oriented perspective From the goal-oriented perspective, he considers needs as “refers to students‟ study or job requirements, that is, what they have to do at the end of the course.” while his process- oriented definition of needs is “what learner needs to do to actually acquire the language”

As for needs analysis, in Iwai et al.‟s (1999) opinion, needs analysis refers to the activities in order to collect information that will serve as the basis for developing a curriculum This curriculum will meet the needs of a particular group of students On the other hand, Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 54) generally define needs analysis as what is ultimately meant by the analysis of the target needs and learning needs

There are 2 types of needs including target needs and learning needs, as can be classified by a number of linguists

From Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1993) viewpoint, „target needs‟ is identified as what the learner needs to do in the target situation This is a very broad concept, which includes three factors: Necessities, Lacks and Wants

Necessities: Hutchinson and Waters (1993:55) define the term “necessities” as “the type of needs determined by the demands of the target situation” It means that necessities refer to what learners are expected to be able to know and do after finishing a course

Lacks: “Lacks” expresses the gap between the existing proficiency of the learners and the required proficiency in the target situation (Breen, 1984; cited in Hutchinson and Waters (1987:56)) Thus, the “lacks” is related to the “subtraction” between what learners are expected to know and what learners already know

Wants: “Necessities” and “wants” are two terms used by Hutchinson & Waters

(1993) which are closely related to each other If “Necessities” refers to what learners have to know and is regarded as “objective needs”, “wants” refers to what learners themselves feel they need to know and is viewed as “subjective needs”

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1993), learning needs is defined as what learners need to do in order to learn Learning needs includes analyzing the circumstances of language learning (e.g why learners take the course, it is a compulsory or optional course; what they think to achieve; what their attitude towards the course is, etc.) The learning needs plays a great role, in designing a syllabus which is appropriate to specific types of learners

1.3.3 The role of needs analysis in syllabus design

Needs analysis plays a crucial role in designing a syllabus, whether it is a syllabus of General English or it is a syllabus of English for Specific Purposes

According to Johns (1991), needs analysis is the first step in course design He also acknowledges that needs analysis provides both validity and relevancy for all subsequent course design activities In Brown‟s (1995) opinion, needs analysis serves as the basis for developing a curriculum that will meet the learning needs of a particular group of students

As for Graves (2000), he assesses the importance of needs analysis under the perspective of a deeper effect on learners He asserts that when needs analysis is considered as an ongoing part of teaching, learners can think carefully about their learning and recognize their needs Moreover, learners can gain a sense of ownership and control of their learning.

An overview of speaking

Up to the present, there are a large number of linguistics having presented different definitions of speaking Brown (1994) views speaking as “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involving producing, receiving and processing information”

Nunan (2003:48) defines “speaking is the productive oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning.” (cited in International Journal of English Linguistics, 2012)

Generally, it can be inferred from the above definitions that speaking is the oral process of establishing and interacting information among participants

1.4.2 Some common activities to promote speaking skill

The researchers such as Harmer (1984), Ellis and Johnson (1994) and Schwab‟s

(1978) suggest some activities which help promote speaking skill The common activities are as follows:

Harmer (1984) identifies a role-play activity as “Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles.” According to Ellis and Johnson

(1994), using a role-play in class has a variety of advantages Firstly, it is an exciting activity; therefore, it can motivate students‟ learning attitude Finally, it provides learners with an opportunity to use language in a real-life context Thirdly, applying role-play activity in class may help learners improve their confidence, and then their fluency in language use

In discussion activity, students will discuss in pairs or groups about a topic given by teachers In Schwab‟s (1978:106) words, “discussion is an engagement in and a practice of the activities of thought and communication” For that reason, discussion is a useful teaching technique that provides students with an opportunity to comfortably expressing their ideas using the target language

In general, in information gap activity, learners are supposed to work in pairs One learner has the information that the other does not, so the two participants have to interact with each other so as to share the missing information Information gap activity is applied to fulfill a variety of functions such as solving a problem or collecting information Both participants play a very important role because the task will not be achieved if one of the partners does not provide the information that the other needs This type of activity is extremely efficacious because every partner has the opportunity to talk extensively and meaningfully in the target language

As for interview activity, learners are generally required to work in pairs, but it is also an appropriate activity for group-work It is essential before conducting an interview activity that teacher provides learners with information in terms of what type of questions needs to be asked and what path needs to be followed However, each learner still needs to prepare their own interview questions so as to ensure the individuality of each person and each interview Conducting an interview activity has a number of advantages Firstly, it helps learners practice, and then improve their speaking skill not only in class but also in outside daily activities Secondly, it helps learners become more socialized in these collective communication activities

In storytelling activity, learners may briefly narrate a story or a tale they heard beforehand or they can also create their own stories This is an activity which helps learners arouse their creative thinking It also helps learners express details in a logical and structural format from the beginning to the development and ending, which includes all the characters, the setting and the events of the story

In this activity, teacher can give all learners just one picture and ask them to describe what is in the picture Nevertheless, learners may also form into groups and each group is delivered a different picture Learners discuss about the given picture with other members of their group, then a representative of each group describes the picture to the whole class This activity helps facilitate the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their widespread speaking ability.

Previous studies

So far, there have been some previous researches which are similar to mine Studies conducted by Nguyen Thanh Giang (2007), Alhuqbani (2008), Nguyen Thi Minh Thai

(2012), and Nguyen Thi Huong (2013) are some typical examples Nguyen Thanh Giang (2007) has carried out a research which based on the learner-centred approach to designing a speaking syllabus for the third-year students in teacher-training section

As a consequence of the situation, and especially the analysis of the learners‟needs, the author proposed a syllabus framework which includes the content of the course, how it is structured, the learning and teaching activities, how the students are selected, assessed and possible feedback for the improvements of the syllabus From my standpoint, taking the learner-centred approach as the foundation for syllabus design is an appropriate procedure as the future designed syllabus is able to meet the needs of the learners and I will also follow the learner-centre approach as the starting point for my syllabus design

Nguyen Thi Minh Thai (2012) conducted a study on designing an ESP speaking syllabus for the second-year students of Marine engine department at Maritime College I (MC I) In my opinion, like the previous study, it is really suitable that the researcher put main emphasis on analyzing the students‟ needs to the syllabus design

Nevertheless, as for the data collection procedure, the author has made use of survey questionnaires among 100 second-year students of Marine Engine Department, 20 ex- students of Marine Engine Department at MC I who are working onboard a ship and 20 teachers of English for Marine Engine Students at MC I To my mind, it would be better if the author also gathered the information from the subject teachers so that she would have a more comprehensive data of the subject matter for the syllabus design

Alhuqbani (2008) explored the English language needs of police officers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia The participants were 103 male police officers in the of six different sectors in the Ministry of the Interior including the directorates of Passports (GDP), Public Security (GDPS), King Fahd Security College (KFSC), Civil Defence (GDCD), Intelligence (GDI) and Frontier Guards (GDFC) In this study, it is the correct decision that the researcher used questionnaires as an instrument to collect information and identify the target and learning needs Most of the police officers said that although they understand the significance of English to police work, many of them have never been trained on how to use English for police purposes The result indicated that English for police purposes should be stressed

As for Nguyen Thi Huong‟s thesis (2013), she also conducted a research which concerned with one police major was designing an ESP listening and speaking syllabus for the in-service traffic policemen studying at PPC I By means of survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, she analyzed the target needs and the learning needs of the traffic policemen, as a consequence of which, she offered a proposed syllabus for the traffic policemen These data collection instruments have supported her with much valuable data as the basis for designing the ESP speaking syllabus For this reason, I will also employ semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires as the data collection instruments for my research

To put it briefly, most of the above mentioned studies concentrated on designing ESP syllabus However, to the best of my knowledge, there have not been any researches on designing an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students, who need to speak English a lot during their working process That is the reason why I am always aroused to conduct a study to design a syllabus that meets our administrative police students‟ needs.

Chapter summary

This chapter has discussed a number of theoretical background related to the definition as well as the types of ESP Afterwards, the approaches to syllabus design are reviewed, which is the basis to select the most appropriate orientation to syllabus design - the learning centred approach, which not only focuses on the competence of the learners but also other very significant factors such as: the needs or attitude of the learners Next, the types of syllabus are taken into consideration, which is the foundation for the researcher to determine the most suitable one for the ESP course design: the combination of topic based and task-based syllabus In addition, the types of needs are also the fundamental theoretical background being analyzed in this chapter with the objective to design a syllabus satisfying all the types of needs of the learners Lastly, an overview of speaking skill is presented together with common activities applied for speaking lessons, which is the valuable recommendation for the researcher to offer the most exciting and suitable for the desire of the learners.

METHODOLOGY

Settings of the study

This study was conducted at People‟s Police College I in Thanh Xuan district of Hanoi city The college, which consists of 3,697 students, is responsible for training future police officers of eight main majors: administrative police at wards (C1), traffic police (C2), criminal police (C3), economic police (C4), anti drug-crime police (C5), environmental police (C6), technical criminal police (C7) and administrative police at communes (C8) Among them, the number of administrative police students at our college consisting of C1 and C8 major is the largest - 800 students PPC I trains students at two levels: college and Intermediate one In fact, the classes at college level have recently been established; therefore, they are now still being overtaken by the classes at Intermediate level (7 and 21classes respectively)

At PPC I, English has been regarded as a compulsory subject since 2001 with a course of 135 periods, among which, 75 periods for the first term and the rest 60 for the second term The core textbook which has been used since then is Lifelines Pre- intermediate by Tom Hutchinson The teachers and learners have had to cover 14 units of the textbook Despite the teachers‟ efforts in order to find out an appropriate teaching approach, up to now, a lot of the students still reveal their low motivation in English lessons and consequently, their learning outcomes are not very satisfactory In fact, a large number of the students said that the English knowledge they gained at our college could not be applied for their future job

At the moment, the students are only being taught General English, but there is not any ESP syllabus, which is designed closely based on the needs, level and interests of the students Therefore, designing an ESP speaking syllabus, which is strictly related to the students‟ future job, is an urgent task so as to inspire the students‟ eagerness and then, improve their learning outcomes

2.1.2 The teachers of English at PPC I

There are seventeen teachers of English at PPC I, who range from 24 to 39 years old; most of them have at least six-year experience in English teaching

All the seventeen teachers of English at PPC I are female Among them, seven teachers have already had a M.A degree in Applied Linguistics, one teacher is in the process of conducting her M.A thesis, and all the rest have had their B.A degree in Applied Linguistics Although some of the teachers have not had a pedagogical B.A degree, all of them have passed the courses of teacher training held by Hanoi University of Education This assures that all teachers of English at PPC I have already had fundamental knowledge of teaching methodology Furthermore, all teachers in the English department are very responsible and enthusiastic in their career They always study and have an inquiring mind to advance their professional knowledge and professional skills as well as improve their students‟ competence

Firstly, the author would like to present about the main characteristics of the students at PPC I in general and the students of administrative police major in particular All of them have some common typical features, which are different from many other colleges and universities The first, the ages of the students varies greatly from 18 to

30 since a lot of the students enrolled at our college after having several-year experience of working as police officers Because of the considerable difference in ages, their English competence is also varied However, in general, most of the students are at low level of English They have not studied English for a long time

Many of the students lack a large amount of vocabulary to make sentences as well as seem not to be able to pronounce English words correctly Therefore, designing a supplementary syllabus is very essential to make up for what they are still lack in their studying process The second, the students at PPC I seem to have low motivation of English learning Since they are only being taught a General English course, which was determined by the teachers, they always exchange their confidences that the English knowledge they have achieved at our college is rarely applied to their job after graduation For that reason, designing an ESP syllabus which is strictly based on the students‟ application to their forthcoming job is an urgent job of their teachers (including the researcher)

Secondly, the distinctive characteristics of the target learners are to be reviewed The target learners of the study are those of administrative police major at Intermediate level, who take the most number of students at PPC I For that reason, designing an ESP syllabus for this type of students could bring the most effects for learners in comparison with others In addition, the target learners are also the ones who have already participated in the course of their major in Vietnamese Consequently, they have had basic knowledge related to their major and will feel easier to learn the course of their major in English right afterwards.

Methodology

This study is carried out to answer the following research questions:

 What are the learning needs and the target needs of the learners in English speaking to serve their future job as administrative policemen?

 How should an ESP speaking syllabus be designed to cover the types of needs identified?

This study is aimed at designing an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I, so the participants of the study are the students of three administrative police classes including 2 classes of administrative police at ward (B1C1: 48 students, B4C1: 49 students) and 1 class of administrative police at commune (B2C8: 51 students) which consist of 148 students in total They have already finished their General English course and the course of their own major in Vietnamese at PPC I Added to this, 10 working administrative policemen including

5 administrative policemen at Dien Bien ward police station, Hanoi city and 5 administrative policemen at Yen Trung commune, Yen Phong district, Bac Ninh province were invited to participate in the study Besides, 16 teachers of English (except for the author) and 10 teachers of administrative police major at PPC I also got involved in the research

With the aim of designing an ESP speaking syllabus for the target students, a survey research was conducted at PPC I Data were collected by means of (1) interviews with the subject teachers and working administrative policemen, (2) questionnaires for the administrative police students at Intermediate level, (3) questionnaires for the teachers of English

There are the interviews with two groups of people in this study

The first is the interview with 10 subject teachers from the Administrative Police Faculty at PPCI The purpose of the interviews was to explore the teachers‟ viewpoint on the objective of the ESP course, the working situations of an administrative policeman speaking English, their suggested topics as well as teaching methods which make an effective and inspiring ESP syllabus for the learners (See Appendix 1)

The second is the interview with 10 administrative policemen including 5 policemen who are working at Dien Bien ward police station, Hanoi and 5 ones who are working at Yen Trung commune, Bac Ninh province The discussions with working administrative policemen were employed so as to find out their actual experience speaking English in working situations with foreigners and their recommendations on the topics and teaching methods which are appropriate and essential for the ESP syllabus (See Appendix 2)

The first type of questionnaires was designed for 148 students including the students of two classes of administrative police at ward and one of administrative police at commune, which aims at gathering comprehensive data of this major All the questionnaires are written in Vietnamese so as to assure the students‟ thorough and proper understanding of the questions The second type was administered to 16 teachers of the English group at PPC I These two types of questionnaires were employed because it was a useful way of surveying data involving their needs, level, interests as well as the necessary objective, method and time allocation of the upcoming course

The questions of the questionnaires for the target students are similar to the questions for the teachers of English (See Appendix 3 and 4) Question 1 concerns with the learners and teachers‟ attitude to the course Question 2 explores the learners‟ difficulties in learning English speaking skill Question 3 refers to the objectives of the ESP speaking course Question 4 seeks for the topics to be included in the syllabus

Question 5 asks about the teachers and learners‟ opinion on the language functions needed for the course Question 6 is to find out the teaching and learning methods for the course Question 7 looks for the speaking activities which should be applied to the course Question 8 concerns with the teachers and learners‟ opinion on the time allocation of the course

In fact, the questions for the teachers of English are similar to the questions for the target students on account of the following reasons Firstly, both the ESP teachers and the target students are the two only direct participants in the teaching and learning process Thus, every aspect serving the syllabus design including the attitude to the course, the methods and language functions needed for the course or the time allocation of the course should be surveyed for the opinions of these two participants

Secondly, although the target students are the subjects who are the most directly affected by the results of the research, the ESP teachers are themselves the people who understand their learners the most in terms of their strengths, weaknesses as well as needs and interests Thence, all the questions delivered to the students should also be administered to their teachers so as for the researcher to get more thorough and comprehensive data Thirdly, the teachers of English are those who have deep understanding of the language elements as well as pedagogical methods Therefore, although there are some questions seeking for the students‟ learning needs, they should also be consulted their teachers‟ opinions in order to help the researcher gather effectively pedagogical data for the syllabus design

With the objective of adequately and exactly collecting the data, the author carried out the following steps:

Step 1: The context of English teaching and learning at PPC I was identified, which aims at obtaining the thorough understanding of the target learners, then inferring their needs and the target situation;

Step 2: The researcher studied and selected the instruments of data collection as well as the participants that are the most appropriate to the study Afterwards, the author outlined the data collection procedures;

Two groups of interviewees were invited by the researcher with the aim of achieving sufficient data for the research The first interviews were carried out with ten subject teachers at PPC I and the second were conducted with ten working administrative policemen consisting of 5 administrative police officers at Dien Bien ward, Hanoi and

5 ones at Yen Trung commune, Bac Ninh province Appointments were made with these participants prior to the interviews The interview questions were semi- structured with open-ended items All the participants were informed of the purpose of the interviews, which is to design an ESP speaking syllabus and which is not for any personal evaluation Besides, all the information the interviewees provided with the author is completely ensured in terms of its confidentiality The data of the interviews was sound recorded and note taken by the researcher

There are two questionnaires applied to the research: one for the administrative police students at Intermediate level and the other for the teachers of English at PPC I Each questionnaire contains both open-ended and close-ended questions Before completing the questionnaires, the participants of both questionnaires were informed the purpose of the study, which is to gather the necessary data to design an ESP speaking syllabus

Chapter summary

This chapter gives a detailed description of the methodology applied to conduct the study The teaching and learning context together with the characteristics of the participants are analyzed carefully before carrying out the research The study makes use of the two main instruments including the semi-structured interviews with the subject teachers and working administrative policemen as well as the survey questionnaires for the teachers of English and target students because of the fact that, the researcher is aware of the highest contribution of these two instruments to achieving the objectives of the study.

DATA ANALYSIS, RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29 3.1 Data analysis

Data analysis procedures

For the qualitative data collected from the interviews, their content was described in detail and then generalized to draw out conclusion

For the quantitative data gathered from the questionnaires, they were converted into percentage to make it easier for the researcher to compare, give comments and draw out conclusions After that, they were presented in charts and tables in order to have a clear and comprehensive view of all the data collected.

Data analysis from the interviews with the subject teachers

In order to achieve the thorough understanding of the subject matter, the researcher conducted the interviews with 10 teachers of administrative police major at PPC I The questions used for the interviews are presented in Appendix 1

For the first three questions of the interview, the researcher aims at identifying the background of the participants Firstly, all of them are young and there are both male and female teachers participating in the interviews Secondly, all of them graduated in administrative police major from People‟s Police Academy Thirdly, the subject teachers have from 3- to 13-year experience of the subject teaching at PPC I Fourthly, among the subject teachers, there are 3 B.A, 4 M.A, and 3 teachers who are studying for a PhD degree of administrative police major

For the next part of the interviews, the questions are designed to find out the information about the subject matter and the recommended methods to teach it

Firstly, when being asked about the importance of the subject, all the teachers acknowledged that the administrative police subject was very important since it provides students with adequate knowledge and skills for their upcoming job In addition, the teachers appreciated the possibility of designing and applying the ESP syllabus of this major for the students because it can help students fulfill their tasks in their working situations with foreigners

Secondly, the researcher was provided with very important information that the tasks done by the police officers at wards, in fact, are totally similar to the ones done by the police officers at communes The only difference between them is that administrative policemen at wards have more opportunities to work with foreigners than ones at communes In addition, all the teachers agreed with the tasks which must be fulfilled by administrative policemen including managing residence, dealing with cases of security, or fire fighting, etc in the residential area they were assigned Among the tasks, there are some requiring an administrative police officer to communicate in English with foreigners to handle his working situations including declaring and checking foreigners‟ temporary residence, dealing with traffic incidents involving foreigners (for example: foreigners ask for direction, travel in restricted roads or have accidents, etc.), dealing with cases of security and public order involving foreigners (for example: foreigners’ properties are stolen or foreigners make noise after 10 p.m., etc.) The subject teachers also gave a suggestion that those generalized situations may become the main topics in the forthcoming ESP syllabus

Thirdly, when being asked about what teaching methods that the teachers perceived to be effective for their learners, 6 of 10 teachers affirmed that it should be used visual aids such as a film, a picture or an object, etc The rest of the teachers asserted that the ESP teachers should let their students simulate real-life situations Generally, it can be inferred from all the responses that the teachers of English should play a film or give a picture involving the working situations of an administrative policeman, and ask students to deal with the situations through role play or simulation, etc

Finally, in terms of the objectives needed to be achieved after finishing the course, all the teachers expected that their students will be able to speak English to properly handle common working situations with foreigners.

Data analysis from the interviews with the working administrative police

In order to achieve the information of the actual situations which require an administrative policeman to speak English, the researcher carried out interviews with five administrative policemen at Dien Bien ward police station, Hanoi city and five administrative policemen at Yen Trung commune, Bac Ninh province

For the first question of the interview, the police officers were asked about their background In fact, all the policemen graduated in administrative police major from PPC I They have at least four-year experience of working as an administrative police officer This result signifies that all the police officers have basic knowledge of their major

When being asked about the tasks undertaken by the police officers, all the responses composed of managing personal information of residents, monitoring temporary residence and temporary absence, propagandizing Vietnam regulations and law

Owing to their practical working experience, the policemen provided the researcher with the data in terms of their common situations that require them to speak English to fulfill their tasks including attaining personal information of foreigners, registering and monitoring foreigners‟ temporary residence, coping with wrongful acts or law violation involving foreigners, dealing with traffic incidents involving foreigners, briefing foreigners on Vietnam law and regulations

Finally, as learners who had an experience of studying at PPC I, all of the administrative officers suggested that the syllabus should be centralized on vocabulary and pronunciation, but not too much on grammar teaching.

Data analysis from the questionnaires for the teachers of English

The teacher is one of the most crucial elements contributing to the success of the teaching and learning process Thus, the teachers‟ attitude to a course is very important This question aims to seek for the teachers‟ attitudes towards the forthcoming ESP syllabus Their responses are presented in Chart 1 below

Chart 1: Teachers’ attitude towards the ESP syllabus

The responses show that all the teachers appreciated the necessity of the course towards their students‟ future job In fact, there were up to 87.5% of the teachers who asserted that the syllabus is very necessary; the rest including 12.5% of them thought that the course is necessary while none of them was of the view that it is slight or not necessary It can be concluded that they are fully aware of the close relationship between their students‟ learning at school and their students‟ future job

Question 2: Teachers’ opinion on their learners’ difficulties in learning English speaking

This section is intended to look for the difficulties in learning English speaking that the students often meet from the perspective of their teachers Based on the teachers‟ experience, their students‟ most difficulty (nearly 90%) in English speaking learning is lacking vocabulary to say Following the percentage, the teachers were under the impression that their students are not able to pronounce words correctly (75%) As a result, they always felt inconfident and hesitant while communicating in English Whereas, making grammatically incorrect sentences was evaluated to be the least difficulty to their students by the most teachers (62.5%) It can be inferred that their students‟ grammatical knowledge was perceived to be rather good by their teachers It is the basis for the author to give more emphasis on the students‟ weaknesses and less on their strengths in her syllabus design

Lacking vocabulary to say what they want to say

Table 1: Teachers’ opinion on their learners’ difficulties in learning English speaking skill

Question 3: Teachers’ opinion on the objectives of the ESP speaking course

The aim of this question is to find out the teachers‟ expectations about the objectives of the ESP speaking course The number and percentage of the teachers responding to each item are shown in Table 2 As can be seen from the below table, the most important objective of the speaking course is item 5, which is helping the students handle a number of relevant working situations properly speaking English since all the

16 teachers (100%) put it in the first priority The second important objective is given to item 1- the improvement of the learners‟ vocabulary, which was chosen by 62.5% of the teachers Ranking the third is item 2 - the development of the students‟ pronunciation by 62.5% of the responses The fourth priority of the course is put on the fluency in speaking The last objective of the ESP course, in the teachers‟ opinion, lies in the improvement of grammar To my mind, I totally agree with the opinion because of the following reasons Firstly, the students have already had a rather good grammatical knowledge Secondly, this is a speaking syllabus; thence, the communicative elements like vocabulary, pronunciation or fluency should be mainly given emphasis rather than the grammatical accuracy

To sum up, the results collected from the question are the significant foundation for the researcher to concentrate on helping the students deal with working situations properly speaking English, improve their English vocabulary as well as pronunciation rather than grammar in the syllabus design

Having enough words to say what they want to say

Handling a number of relevant working situations properly speaking English

Table 2: Teachers’ opinion on the objectives of the ESP speaking course

Question 4: Teachers’ opinion on the topics to be included in the ESP syllabus

This section is intended to find out the relevant topics for the syllabus from the perspective of the ESP teachers The result of the responses is presented in Table 3

The below table clearly shows that all the three topics mentioned by the author were appreciated by the teachers at very necessary or necessary level and no one added other topics It can be inferred from the data that all the three topics are appropriate and should be included in the syllabus

1 Declaring and checking foreigners‟ temporary residence

Dealing with cases of security and public order involving foreigners

3 Dealing with traffic incidents involving foreigners

Table 3: Teachers’ opinion on the topics to be included in the ESP syllabus

Question 5: Teachers’ opinion on the language functions needed for the ESP course

This section is designed to identify the language functions which are relevant for the ESP speaking course The results are displayed in Table 4

Language function Very necessary Necessary Slightly necessary

Language function Very necessary Necessary Slightly necessary

Table 4: Teachers’ opinion on the language functions needed for the ESP course

It can be seen from the table that most of the language functions mentioned were evaluated to be at very necessary or necessary level Especially, the language functions of greeting, asking for information, verifying and giving instruction were selected at very necessary level by over 90% of the teachers There were hardly any teachers being of the opinion that the language functions was slightly or not necessary, except for the language functions of complaining and warning assessed to be slightly or not necessary by a rather low percentage of the teachers(6.25% - 12.5%) It can be concluded that most of the language functions, in the teachers‟ opinion, are the frequent used at work and should be lectured in the ESP course

Question 6: Teachers’ opinion on the teaching and learning methods to be applied to the ESP course

With an attempt to collect information about the teachers‟ opinion on the teaching methods useful for the ESP course, the researcher designed this section by providing a list of methods for the teachers to choose The results are illustrated in Chart 2

Using visual aids Simulation of situation

Problem solving Pairwork, group work

Chart 2: Teachers’ opinion on the teaching and learning methods to be applied to the ESP course

As can be clearly shown in the above column chart, all the methods mentioned by the researchers are considered to be effective for the ESP course since they receive over 80% of the responses; especially, the method simulation of situation is the one occupying 100% of the responses It can be inferred that these methods should be definitely applicable to the ESP course Added to this, there were 6.25% of the teachers suggesting one more method, in which, the teachers modeled the situations for their students As a result, the researcher should take the method in consideration

Question 7: Teachers’ opinion on the speaking activities needed for the ESP course

This section is intended to find out the teachers‟ opinion on the speaking activities which should be employed for the course The percentage of the responses is shown in Chart 3 below

Chart 3: Teachers’ opinion on the speaking activities needed for the ESP course

It can be easily identified from the above chart that almost all the speaking activities indicated are approved by the high percentage of the responses (over 80%); predominantly, the role-play activity is recognized the full worth by all the 16 teachers (100%) On the other hand, the picture description (with 37.5% of the responses) is supposed to be less significant than the other activities As a consequence, the researcher should take the result into consideration in her process of syllabus design

These data analyzed is the starting point for the researcher to design the appropriate, exciting and helpful speaking activities for the course as well as the target students

Question 8: Teachers’ opinion on the time allocation of the ESP course

This question aims to consult the teachers‟ opinion on the suitable time frame for the ESP course The responses are definitely displayed in the below pie charts

Chart 4: Teachers’ opinion on the length of the ESP course

The above chart reveals the teachers‟ opinion on the length of the ESP course it should be As presented in the chart, there is high percentage of the respondents (68.75%) putting forward that the course should last for 45 forty-five-minute periods The rest at 31.25% of the teachers supposed that the length of the course should be 40 forty-five- minute periods As a result, the researcher should take this data in account while designing the syllabus

The below pie chart presents the teachers‟ opinion on the frequency of the ESP lessons each week

Chart 5: Teachers’ opinion on the frequency of the ESP lessons per week

As it can be seen in the chart, the majority of the teachers recommended that there should be two ESP lessons per week Following the percentage, the same proportion of the responses (12.5%) is selected for one ESP lesson or three ones each week

The below chart displays the teachers‟ opinion on the number of 45-minute periods in each ESP lesson

Chart 6: Teachers’ opinion on the length of each ESP lesson

As can be shown from the chart, nearly 90% of the teachers suggested that the appropriate length for each ESP speaking lesson should be 4 periods of 45 minutes A much lower percentage of the respondents is of the view that it should last for 3 forty- five- minute periods in each lesson

In general, these data of time allocation is the valuable foundation for the researcher in her course designing process.

Data analysis from the questionnaires for the administrative police

The notion of students‟ attitudes towards the ESP course is one of the determinants of achievement of the course The responses of the question are clearly shown in Chart 7 below

Chart 7: Students’ attitude towards the ESP syllabus

Similarly to their teachers‟ opinion, a high percentage of the target students (nearly 90%) evaluated that the syllabus is very necessary towards their job after graduation

The rest of the respondents (11.49%) viewed that the syllabus is necessary towards their future work Whereas, none of the target students thought that the syllabus is slightly or not necessary It can be concluded that the target students really appreciate the necessity of the ESP course towards their future job and the syllabus should be definitely designed so as to meet the needs of the learners

Question 2: Students’ opinion on their difficulties in learning English speaking

The below table presents the target learners‟ self-evaluation of their difficulties in learning English speaking

Item s Difficulties The most difficulty

Lacking vocabulary to say what they want to say

Table 5: Students’ opinion on their difficulties in learning English speaking

As it can be obviously exhibited from the table, lacking vocabulary to say is assessed to be their most obstacle in English speaking by nearly 90% of the students Most of the students (87.16%) found inability of pronouncing words correctly to be their second biggest difficulty in English speaking As a result, they often feel inconfident and more hesitating while producing oral communication The data is similar to the results received from their teachers It can be inferred that the teachers have a really thorough understanding of their students and the same results acquired from both the teachers and the learners offer much more reliable and exact data of the students‟ difficulties for the researcher‟s syllabus design

Question 3: Students’ opinion on the objectives of the ESP speaking course

The aim of this question is to find out the target students‟ opinion on the language competence they expect to achieve after finishing the course The number and percentage of responses are revealed in Table 6

Having enough words to say what they want to say

Handling a number of relevant working situations properly

Table 6: Students’ opinion on the objectives of the ESP speaking course

The table clearly indicates that, no one suggested other course objectives; it means that 100% of the students agreed with the objectives listed by the researcher

As can be shown from the table, item 5 - handling relevant working situations properly speaking English - is considered to be the most significant objective as perceived by the students as it occupies the highest percentage (93.24%) The result reveals that the target needs of the learners is the communicative ability in their future working situations with foreigners In comparison with the needs analysis from the teachers of the English group, it can be concluded that this item is also considered the most important Therefore, the syllabus designer should primarily concentrate on this objective in her process of designing the syllabus

The second important objective of the course as assessed by the most students (54.73%) is having enough words to say what they want to say The third priority of the syllabus lies in the pronunciation improvement at 58.78% the choice proportion of the respondents This result signifies that making up for the deficiency in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary is also the main concern of the students, just like the judgments of their teachers, and it is the basis for the syllabus designer to put much more focus on both vocabulary and pronunciation in her syllabus design process

As for the fourth significant objective of the course, the most students at 35.81% of the responses expected that the syllabus helps them achieve the fluency Similarly to their teachers‟ responses, in the least priority of the syllabus objective, most of the students choose grammatical item It can be inferred that, in both the teachers and the learners‟ opinions, grammar should not be given much emphasis on in their ESP speaking course

Question 4: Students’ opinion on the topics needed for the ESP course

This section is designed to find out the administrative police students‟ opinion on the topics relevant for the ESP syllabus The results of the students‟ responses are shown in Table 7

1 Declaring and checking foreigners‟ temporary residence

Dealing with cases of security and public order involving foreigners

3 Dealing with traffic incidents involving foreigners

Table 7: Students’ opinion on the topics needed for the ESP syllabus

It can be easily identified from the table that all the students agreed with the three topics listed by the researcher since all the three topics are evaluated to be very necessary by high percentages of the respondents ranging from over 75% to 90%

Only one student gave the opinion that the second topic (Dealing with cases of security and public order involving foreigners) is slightly necessary while none of the students negated the necessity of these topics No one suggested other topics It can be concluded that all the three topics should be included in the syllabus and these are very valuable results for the author to put them the main units for the ESP course

Question 5: Students’ opinion on the language functions needed for the ESP course

The section aims at seeking for the necessary language functions for the ESP course as perceived by the students The number and percentage of the responses are showed in Table 8

Table 8: Students’ opinion on the language functions needed for the ESP course

Most of the target learners stated that the language functions listed by the author are ranked at very necessary or necessary level for their forthcoming job However, there are a number of students (ranging from 12.84% to 21.62%) who assessed that the language functions of Complaining, Warning are slightly necessary while there is only 0.68% of the respondents stated that the language function of Warning is not necessary This data is the valuable foundation for the researcher to design a syllabus based on the needs and professional knowledge of the target learners

Question 6: Students’ opinion on the teaching and learning methods to be applied to the ESP course

The question is intended to find out the students‟ expectation on the effective teaching and learning methods that they want to be applied to the course The results are illustrated in Chart 8

Using visual aids Simulation of situations Problem solving Pairwork, group work

Chart 8: Students’ opinion on the teaching and learning methods to be applied to the ESP course

It can be easily identified in the chart that all teaching and learning methods occupy very high proportion of the responses (over 83%), in which, using visual aids and simulation of situations are chosen by the most students at the percentage of

89.2% each In addition, there was no other methods alluded to, which can be inferred that, in the students‟ opinion, the methods given by the researcher are all adequate, necessary and helpful

Question 7: Students’ opinion on the speaking activities to be included in the ESP course

Research findings and discussion

a From the interviews with the subject teachers and the working administrative policemen

Thanks to the data analysis from the interviews with the subject teachers and the working administrative policemen, the researcher drew out the major findings in terms administrative policemen to speak English during their process of working can be generalized into three groups:

1 Dealing with the situation that a foreigner declares his/her temporary residence and checking a foreigner‟s declaring temporary residence

2 Dealing with cases of security and public order (for example: foreigners’ properties are stolen or foreigners make noise after 10 p.m., etc.)

3 Dealing with traffic incidents involving foreigners (for example: foreigners ask for direction, travel in restricted roads or have accidents, etc.)

As a result, the data about the main tasks of an administrative policeman suggested the researcher about the three main topics of the forthcoming syllabus

Secondly, thanks to interviewing about the utterances in the working situations of an administrative policeman with foreigners, the author finds out the language functions used in the conversation speech of an administrative policeman including: greeting, introducing, asking for and giving information, giving instruction, verifying, requesting, describing, warning, giving direction, persuading, giving advice, complaining, promising b From the questionnaires for the target learners and the teachers of English

The first major finding can be achieved from the results of the questionnaires is about the attitude of the target learners towards the syllabus The data demonstrated from the questionnaires shows that most of the learners appreciated the importance of the syllabus and are looking forward to the forthcoming one

The second major finding from the questionnaires is about the objective of the syllabus Both the target learners and the teachers of English agreed that the first and foremost objective of the course is instructing the learners to be able to handle common working situations of an administrative policeman properly speaking English

3.2.2 Learning needs From the questionnaires for the target learners and teachers of English

The first major finding of learning needs is related to the learners‟ difficulties in English speaking skill In fact, it can be found from the questionnaires that most of the learners lack vocabulary to say what they want to express, and then, they feel difficult pronouncing words correctly Therefore, it can be inferred in the syllabus design that the author should focus much attention on assisting learners in broadening their ESP vocabulary and improving their pronunciation ability

Secondly, in order for the target learners to handle working situations of an administrative policeman properly using English, the teachers need let their students simulate real-life working situations of an administrative policeman using English, raise a problem and ask their students as an administrative policeman to find out their solution In addition, in order to inspire the students‟ excitement in lessons, the teachers should use visual aids such as films, videos, pictures or objects relating to a situation, and ask students to deal with the situation Moreover, the teachers of English also should organize pair work or group work so as to give their learners opportunities to communicate

The third finding from the data analysis is that the learners should actively participate in a variety of activities including interview, picture description, information gap, role- play, story-telling and discussion.

Chapter summary

This chapter has reported the data analysis of the study including the data analysis procedures and the detailed analysis of the data collected from interviews and the questionnaires As a consequence, the major findings and discussion, which include the target needs and the learning needs of the target learners, are drawn out These results are the foundation for the author to design a proposed ESP speaking syllabus for the learners, which is presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 4: THE ESP SPEAKING SYLLABUS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE

Objectives of the course

After the course, the administrative police students will be able to handle common working situations properly speaking English.

Structure of the syllabus

Presented in the next page is the proposed ESP speaking syllabus for the target learners

There are 3 units in the syllabus, which is similar to 3 main topics of the syllabus Revision and mid-term test is put after Unit 2 Revision and end-term test is arranged after the last unit.

Teaching and learning methods of the course

The appropriate teaching and learning methods which should be used for the course include the separate ones or a combination of the followings: using visual aids (films, videos, pictures, objects…) related to the working situations of an administrative policeman, simulation of their real-life situations, finding the solutions for the problems raised by the teachers, working in pairs or groups.

Time allocation of the course

The course is proposed to span 6 weeks (45 forty-five minute periods), in which, the students have 2 ESP lessons per week and each lesson lasts four periods

There is one - period revision for both mid-term and end-term test

Revision and mid-term test totally last for 7 periods

Revision and final test totally last for 10 forty-five minute periods

Final test is divided into twice, with 5 and 4 periods each time of examination respectively.

The proposed speaking syllabus for administrative police students at

Table 9: The proposed speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I

Week Unit Lesson Competences Language functions

Language focus Suggested materials Activities for practice Week

Declaring and checking temporary residence

The students are expected to be able to:

- Ask for foreigners‟ personal information and personal papers

- 857 tình huống giao tiếp tiếng Anh

- Từ vựng tiếng Anh theo chủ điểm

- Học cách phát âm từ tiếng Anh

- To verify foreigners‟ declaring temporary residence

- Vocabulary: review vocabulary of personal papers and residence

- Từ vựng tiếng Anh theo chủ điểm

- Học cách phát âm từ tiếng Anh

- Cope with the cases that foreigners hasn‟t declared their temporary residence

Dealing with cases of public order and security

Dealing with cases of public order

- Ask foreigners for specific information of the cases

- Explain foreigners about the regulations

- Impose a fine on foreigners based on its degree

- Từ vựng tiếng Anh theo chủ điểm

- How to pronounce English words and place stresses

2: Dealing with cases of security

- Find out the reasons for the security cases

- Verify the accuracy of foreigners‟ testimony

- Offer solutions appropriate for each case

- Vocabulary: weapons, crimes, law, properties

- 857 tình huống giao tiếp tiếng anh

- Từ vựng tiếng Anh theo chủ điểm

- How to pronounce English words and place stresses

- To give direction speaking English

- Vocabulary: places, prepositions of position, movement verbs

- 857 tình huống giao tiếp tiếng Anh

- Từ vựng tiếng Anh theo chủ điểm

- How to pronounce English words and place stresses

- Ask foreigners for the information of the accidents

- Present Vietnam traffic regulations and laws

- Offer solutions appropriate for each case

- Vocabulary: vehicles, travel, traffic laws and regulations, injuries

- 857 tình huống giao tiếp tiếng Anh

- Từ vựng tiếng Anh theo chủ điểm

Dealing with violations of traffic regulations

- Inform foreigners about the mistakes

- Present Vietnam traffic regulations and laws

- Vocabulary: traffic signs, review vocabulary of travel, vehicles, traffic regulations

- 857 tình huống giao tiếp tiếng Anh

- Từ vựng tiếng Anh theo chủ điểm

- Remind foreigners to obey Vietnam traffic regulations

Test for student progress/syllabus effectiveness

The testing assessment includes one midterm test after unit 2, one final test after the last unit and the assessment for attendance and class participation as follows: a) Midterm test covers 30% of the total mark b) Final test covers 60% of the total mark c) Attendance and class participation: 10% of the total mark

Those who are absent from the class 1/5-odd of course time aren‟t allowed to sit for the end of module

Students present a monologue and role-play in a particular situation of communication

Role-play (10 minutes) Students are asked to work in pairs to do the task below:

Student A: You are an administrative police officer You come to the apartment of a foreigner to check his temporary residence and discover that he didn‟t declare temporary residence Deal with this situation

Student B: You are a foreigner An administrative police officer comes to your apartment to check your temporary residence and discover that you didn‟t declare temporary residence Explain why you didn‟t declare your temporary residence and deal with this situation

The last result is the average of these two sections

Students are asked to give an oral presentation on a given topic (for example: giving direction from Temple of Literature to Uncle Ho‟s Mausoleum speaking English)

Students are asked to work in pairs to carry out the tasks provided below:

Student A: You are an administrative police officer A foreigner comes to the police station to inform that his new camera was stolen Ask him for necessary information and deal with this situation

Student B: You are a foreigner Your new camera was stolen and you come to the police station to inform this case Answer the policeman‟s questions to help him find out the perpetrator.

Chapter summary

This chapter detailedly displays the output of the study, which begins with the objective of the syllabus, the description of the syllabus structure as well as the timing frame for the course Afterwards, the main part of this chapter, which is a proposed ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level at PPC I, is designed Finally, the suggestions for evaluating the effectiveness of the ESP course are also prepared beforehand

Recapitulation

In the first part of the M.A thesis, the basic information of the study including the rationale, the aim, the scope, and the methods of the study is presented As mentioned above, the final aim of the study is to design an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I For that reason, in the second part of the thesis, the theoretical concepts related to ESP, syllabus design and speaking skill are studied In order to collect all the adequate and necessary data for the design of the ESP syllabus, the interviews with the subject teachers and working administrative policemen were conducted In addition, the questionnaires were also delivered to the teachers of English and the target students The results of the interviews and questionnaires provide the researcher with the major findings in terms of the content as well as the method of the upcoming syllabus Based on the findings, a proposed ESP speaking syllabus including 3 main topics related to the common working situations of an administrative policeman with foreigners is designed with the hope that it can bring many benefits for the students and teachers in the ESP teaching and learning process at PPC I As a consequence, in order to help assess the effectiveness of the course, the researcher designs a test sample for the students along with mark scales In the last part of the thesis, the summary of the main contents as well as the limitation of the study and the suggestions for further study are presented.

Limitations and suggestions for further study

This study, however, still has some limitations Firstly, the study is only focused on a macro skill of communication Although according the result of the data analysis, speaking is one of the skills which is used the most in the working situations of an administrative police officer with foreigners, other skills are also very important Therefore, if being provided more time and opportunities, the further studies should be focused on all four communicative skills so that the future administrative policemen will be able to make use of their English knowledge comprehensively in any cases of their working situations

Secondly, because the working situations of an administrative policeman which require speaking English are various, this study can only concentrate upon common situations, but cannot list any situations Thus, it can be recommended for further study that they should be listed more working situations of an administrative policeman so that the policemen may get used to the situations when they meet during their working process

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Maria-Fernanda/ how - teach – English –by-jeremy - harmer)

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11 Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A (1993) English for specific purposes Cambridge:

12 Iwai, T., Kondo, K., Limm, S J D., Ray, E G., Shimizu, H & Brown, J D

(1999) Japannese language needs analysis Retrieved June 25, 2011, from http:// nfl.hawai- edu/ Networks/ Edu/ networks/ NW13

13 John, T F (1991) From printout to handout: grammar and vocabulary teaching in the context of data-driven learning Birmingham: University of

14 Ladousse, G P (1987) Role- play Oxford: Oxford University Press

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16 Nunan, D (1988) Syllabus design Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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21 Roach, P (2009) English Phonetics and Phonology Cambridge: Cambridge

22 Robinson, P (1991) ESP today: A Practitioner’s Guide London: Prentice

23 Schwab, J.J (1978) Science, curriculum, and liberal education Chicago:

QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS WITH THE SUBJECT TEACHERS

1 Thầy/cô tốt nghiệp trường nào? năm nào?

2 Thầy/cô học chuyên ngành gì ở trường đại học?

3 Thầy/cô dạy chuyên ngành cảnh sát quản lý hành chính được bao lâu rồi?

4 Thầy/cô nghĩ gì về tầm quan trọng của học phần mà thầy cô đang dạy và tầm quan trọng của học phần tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cảnh sát quản lý hành chính?

5 Thầy/ cô có thể cho biết những công việc của một cảnh sát quản lý hành chính thường làm là gì và những công việc nào họ thường làm mà cần nói tiếng Anh?

6 Thầy/cô sử dụng những phương pháp nào để giảng dạy học phần này? Theo thầy/cô phương pháp nào là hiệu quả nhất? Vì sao?

7 Thầy/cô có thể gợi ý một phương pháp phù hợp để dạy nói tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho học viên chuyên ngành cảnh sát quản lý hành chính hệ trung cấp của trường Cao đẳng cảnh sát nhân dân I được không?

8 Theo thầy/cô những chủ đề nào cần phải có trong chương trình nói tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cảnh sát quản lý hành chính hệ trung cấp của trường Cao đẳng cảnh sát nhân dân I?

9 Thầy/cô nghĩ sinh viên cần đạt được gì sau khi học xong học phần này?

QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS WITH THE WORKING ADMINISTRATIVE POLICEMEN

1 Anh/chị làm cảnh sát quản lý hành chính được bao lâu rồi?

2 Các công việc cảnh sát quản lý hành chính thường làm là gì?

3 Các công việc cảnh sát quản lý hành chính cần phải nói tiếng Anh trong quá trình làm việc?

4 Theo quan điểm của anh/ chị, anh/ chị có thể gợi ý phương pháp dạy nói tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cảnh sát quản lý hành chính hiệu quả và gây hứng thú đối với học viên?

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE ESP TEACHERS AT PPC I

I am doing a research which aims at designing an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I It is necessary to know what they need and want to achieve in the ESP course Please help me by responding to this questionnaire All the information provided is reserved and the confidentiality is assured in any circumstances of the research Your assistance makes a great contribution to my study Thank you very much for your co-operation

1 What do you think about the necessity of the ESP syllabus towards the job of the students after graduation?

Please circle the level of necessity you choose a Very necessary b Necessary c Slightly necessary d Not necessary

2 What do you think are the difficulties of your students when learning English speaking skill?

Please number the following in the order: 1 for the most difficulty to 5 for the least (You can add other difficulties if necessary and then, number.)

Making grammatically incorrect sentences Lacking vocabulary to say

Pronouncing words incorrectly Speaking reluctantly Being unconfident when speaking

3 What do you think the ESP syllabus should focus on?

Please number the following in the order of importance: 1 for the most important to 5 for the least (You can add other aspects of your own if necessary.)

Having enough words to say what they want to say Pronouncing words correctly

Using grammatically correct sentences Speaking fluently

Handling a number of relevant working situations properly speaking English Others (please specify):

4 What are the topics needed to be included in the ESP syllabus?

Please tick in the cells of the topics related to an administrative policeman’s common working situations with foreigners that you think should be included in the syllabus according to their level of necessity (You may add more topics of your own if necessary.)

1 Declaring and checking foreigners‟ temporary residence

2 Dealing with cases of security and public order involving foreigners (for example: foreigners’ properties are stolen or foreigners make noise after

3 Dealing with traffic incidents involving

5 What are the language functions needed to be included in the course?

Please tick in the language functions that you think needed to be included in the course You may add more language functions if necessary

Asking for information Giving information Giving instruction Verifying

Requesting Describing Promising Giving direction Persuading Giving advice Complaining foreigners (for example: foreigners ask for direction, travel in restricted roads or have accidents, etc.)

Warning Other language functions (please specify):

6 Which teaching and learning methods should be applied to the course?

Please circle the method you choose and you may choose more than one method a Using visual aids (films, videos, pictures, objects…) b Simulation of real-life situations c Problem solving d Pair work, group work e Other methods (please specify)

7 What are the speaking activities necessary to be included in the syllabus?

Please circle the activity you choose and you may choose more than one activity a Interview b Picture description c Information gap d Role-play e Storytelling f Discussion g Others (please specify)

8 How many 45-minute periods should the course last? How many ESP lessons should be taken place each week? How many periods should each lesson last?

Please fill in the blank

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE POLICE STUDENTS

AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF PPC I

Phiếu điều tra này được thực hiện nhằm mục đích thu thập thông tin để thiết kế chương trình nói tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cảnh sát quản lý hành chính cho học viên hệ trung cấp của trường Cao đẳng Cảnh sát nhân dân I Mong muốn của người nghiên cứu là thiết kế một chương trình dạy học phù hợp với nhu cầu, trình độ và công việc của học viên sau khi ra trường Những ý kiến đóng góp của bạn rất hữu ích cho nghiên cứu của tôi Những thông tin bạn cung cấp chỉ để phục vụ cho mục đích nghiên cứu này và được bảo mật trong mọi trường hợp Xin vui lòng cung cấp câu trả lời chân thực vì chỉ có điều này mới đảm bảo được sự thành công của cuộc điều tra Rất chân thành cảm ơn sự giúp đỡ của bạn

1 Bạn đánh giá như thế nào về sự cần thiết của chương trình này đối với công việc học viên sau khi ra trường ?

Bạn hãy khoanh tròn vào mức độ cần thiết theo quan điểm của bạn a Rất cần thiết b Cần thiết c Tương đối cần thiết d Không cần thiết

2 Bạn gặp phải những khó khăn gì khi học nói tiếng Anh?

Bạn hãy đánh số thứ tự từ khó khăn nhất (số 1) đến ít khó khăn nhất (số 5) Bạn có thể bổ sung thêm những khó khăn khác bạn gặp phải (nếu có), rồi đánh số thứ tự vào

Nói sai ngữ pháp Không có đủ vốn từ vựng để nói Phát âm không chuẩn

Nói năng không lưu loát Thiếu tự tin khi nói Khó khăn khác (nếu có)………

3 Bạn nghĩ khía cạnh nào nên được tập trung vào trong chương trình nói tiếng Anh chuyên ngành này?

Hãy đánh số theo trật tự tầm quan trọng của nó trong chương trình, 1 là quan trọng nhất đến 5 là ít quan trọng nhất (Bạn có thể bổ sung thêm khía cạnh khác nếu có theo quan điểm của bạn.)

Có vốn từ vựng đủ để giao tiếp được Phát âm chuẩn Đặt câu đúng ngữ pháp Nói trôi chảy, lưu loát

Xử lý một số tình huống làm việc liên quan đến người nước ngoài một cách hợp lý bằng tiếng Anh

Khía cạnh khác (nếu có) ………

4 Theo bạn các chủ đề nào sau đây cần có trong chương trình nói tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cảnh sát quản lý hành chính cho học viên hệ trung cấp của trường?

Hãy đánh dấu () vào các ô tương ứng dưới đây (ghi thêm những chủ đề cần thiết khác theo ý kiến của bạn)

STT Chủ đề Rất cần thiết

1 Khai báo, kiểm tra tạm trú của người nước ngoài

2 Giải quyết các vụ việc về an ninh trật tự (ví dụ như: trình báo mất cắp, gây rối trật tự công cộng) có liên quan đến người nước ngoài

Students‟ opinion on the length of each ESP lesson