ESP Curriculum Development through Analyzing the Needs of Border Guarding Police Cadets in Amin Police University: Target Situation Analysis

Subject Areas : All areas of language and translation

Mehdi Javid ¹ , Ahmad Mohseni ² , Alireza Ameri ³ , Abdollah Baradaran ⁴

1 - PhD Candidate of TEFL at Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
2 - Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
4 - Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English Language Teaching, Islamic Azad University; Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2020-06-24 Accepted : 2020-06-24 Published : 2020-04-01

Keywords: ESP, curriculum development, Needs analysis, Police cadets, Target situation analysis,

Abstract :

The present paper provides a detailed description of target situation analysis of the ESP needs of border guarding police cadets. It was conducted as a part of a comprehensive ESP needs analysis research whose results have been used to develop an ESP curriculum for police cadets at Iran’s Amin Police University. The importance of English language in border guarding missions and lack of a proper ESP curriculum in the faculty were among the reasons of ESP curriculum development for police officers. The researchers utilized a qual/quan design (exploratory sequential - qualitative first). The study was conducted in 2018-2019. The participants were chosen from among 249 participants of current BA cadets, ESP teachers, and graduate frontline officers, managers, and commanders. The data were gathered utilizing semi-structured interviews and a researcher-made questionnaire. Through target situation analysis, the researchers determined the target needs in border guarding, the needs related to language skills in academic/target career, extra needs, the type of curriculum and materials they might need, the possible situations of applying English in the academic/target career, and specific border police content and subjects. The results are to be used in designing and developing an ESP curriculum, syllabus, and materials for police cadets who study ESP in the Faculty of Border Guarding at Amin Police University.

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