VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - - NGUYỄN HOA HỒNG DESIGNING AN ESP SPEAKING SYLLABUS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE POLICE STUDENTS AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF PEOPLE’S POLICE COLLEGE I (Thiết kế chương trình nói tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Cảnh sát Quản lý Hành cho học viên hệ trung cấp trường Cao đẳng Cảnh sát nhân dân I) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - - NGUYỄN HOA HỒNG DESIGNING AN ESP SPEAKING SYLLABUS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE POLICE STUDENTS AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF PEOPLE’S POLICE COLLEGE I (Thiết kế chương trình nói tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Cảnh sát Quản lý Hành cho học viên hệ trung cấp trường Cao đẳng Cảnh sát nhân dân I) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Lâm Quang Đông HANOI - 2016 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the M.A thesis entitled “Designing an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level of People’s Police College I” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, and that this thesis has not been published or submitted for any degree at any other universities or tertiary institutions Hanoi, 2016 Nguyễn Hoa Hồng i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of doing the research, I have received supports and assistance from a variety of people First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Lâm Quang Đông, for his insightful guidance, constructive criticism and his whole-hearted encouragement without which the thesis would not have been fulfilled I wish to express my special thanks to all my lecturers for their interesting lectures, valuable comments and helpful suggestions I am also grateful to all the staff members of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies who gave me valuable and essential instructions to fulfill my thesis I would like to convey my great thanks to my colleagues and administrative police students at People’s Police College I for their invaluable feedback, useful support and enthusiastic participation in this research Last but not least, I owe the completion of this study to my beloved family who have given me their endless inspiration, support as well as sympathy throughout my graduate program ii ABSTRACT This minor thesis was conducted with an attempt to design a suitable supplementary material to teach ESP speaking skill for administrative police students at Intermediate level of People’s Police College I (PPC I) The thesis is organized in three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion In the second part - the most predominant one of the study, two research instruments, including semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires were presented in detail Firstly, the subjects involved in the study were 10 subject teachers and 10 administrative police officers They were invited to participate in the interviews conducted by the researcher The second participants of the study included 148 target students in three classes and all 16 teachers of English at our college Thanks to that, all of the participants contributed valuable data to the author’s research about the target needs and learning needs of the students in order to propose an appropriate syllabus for the students It can be concluded that most of the administrative police students at PPC I really desire to be taught a speaking course for their major Thus, it is crucial to design an ESP syllabus which can satisfy with the students’ needs as well as their job requirements after graduation Additionally, the majority of the students encounter certain difficulties in learning English speaking skill Actually, they lack background knowledge of vocabulary and pronunciation Therefore, it is imperative to have a supplementary speaking material with the aim to make up for what they are now lacking Besides, the target learners also express their expectation in terms of the teaching and learning methods, speaking activities or the time allocation of the ESP course It is the useful data for the researcher to demand all types of needs of the learners, which helps enhance the learners’ inspiration in English lessons iii Based on the findings, a proposed ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students is designed with the hope that it can bring many benefits for the students as well as the teachers in the process of teaching and learning ESP speaking at PPC I iv v PART A: INTRODUCTION 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 identified? 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