English for Law Enforcement Purposes: ESP Needs Analysis of Border Guarding Officers (Research Paper)

English for Law Enforcement Purposes: ESP Needs Analysis of Border Guarding Officers

[1] Mehdi Javid*

[2]Ahmad Mohseni

   Research Paper                                                         IJEAP- 2007-1582           DOR: 20.1001.1.24763187.2020.9.4.6.9

Received: 2020-07-14                            Accepted: 2020-11-08                                Published: 2020-11-13

Abstract

The present research study provided a detailed description of needs analysis (NA) of border guarding police cadets in relation to the English Education requirement. English taught for border guarding purposes is known as English for specific purposes (ESP). The main objective of the study was development of an ESP curriculum for police officers at Amin Police University (APU) in Iran. Researchers of the study utilized a Qual/Quan design (exploratory sequential mixed methods design) which contained collection of both qualitative and quantitative research data. The study was conducted at the faculty of Border Guarding of APU based in Tehran, Iran in the academic year of 2019. Participants of the study included 249 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 NA, the researchers analyzed the learners’ factors, present situation, target situation, and specialist discourse of the population. The results of the study were used to design and to develop an ESP course curriculum for police cadets studying at the Faculty of Border Guarding at APU in Iran.

Keywords: Curriculum Development, ESP, English for Law Enforcement Purposes, Needs Analysis, Police Officers

1. Introduction

The present research aimed at conducting needs analysis (NA) in order to develop an ESP curriculum for police cadets at Amin Police University (APU), Faculty of Border Guarding. The NA procedure was conducted for border guarding police officers, professionals and cadets in training who need to learn English for their specific purposes.

ESP, apparently, plays a crucial role in police mission, especially in border policing and enforcement. Vast and common range of duties of border guards around the globe and evolution of international border policing cooperation for promoting peace in the light of tolerance and understanding of neighbors and other distant yet involved countries in matters of mutual interest, have been accompanied by the growing realization of the fact that, in order to carry out border guarding missions, it is essential that those involved in border policing can communicate effectively, in one common language (Block, 2008; Yakhlef, Basic & Akerstrom, 2015). Consequently, the development of a foreign language training based on the specific context, subjects, needs and characteristics of the border police cadets and real exigencies of the profession via utilizing a meticulous NA procedure, seemed to be vital and indispensable.

In summary, the study sought answer to the following question: “What are the ESP needs of border guarding students in Amin Police University?” Regarding the research question, the needs of the police cadets were determined using multiple sources and methods in the data gathering stage and the researchers used triangulation for validating results. The results were used in designing and developing an ESP curriculum and materials for Faculty of Border Guarding of APU. However, the first phase in curriculum development, analyzing the needs of the students, is described in this paper.

2. Literature Review

NA in ESP literature has manifested itself more strongly than ever and its importance has been vented in ESP curriculum development. It is the first step for course development, followed by curriculum design, materials development, methodology, assessment, and evaluation. These steps are not separate, rather they construct a linear complementary procedure. Indubitably, developing an ESP curriculum and learners’ NA are inextricably interwoven themes. In some prime examples of ESP curriculum development NA lies at the heart (e.g. Hutchinson & Waters learning- centered approach (1987), (1991), Brown’s systematic approach (1995), Dudley-Evans and St John’ multi-disciplinary approach (1998), Richards’s forward, central, and backward designs (2013), or Basturkmen’s model (2010). Therefore, we cogitate the importance of collecting learners’ needs from different triangulated channels and the chain of students, teachers and educational managers (Brown, 2017); yet, isn’t it the time to bear the weight of learners’ real needs in this merry-go-round circle and give them the right to be heard and promote their contribution in the curriculum? However, what has happened in sundry works of ESP (e.g. Arnó-Macià & Mancho-Barés, 2015; Banegas, 2018; Forey & Cheung, 2019; Miller et al, 2020) is the dominance of normative and instrumental approaches in teaching which stress on achieving the objectives without identifying learners’ needs and what is good for every learner and without providing equal experiences for individuals.

There are diverse forms of rhetoric in ESP literature. Accordingly, Hyland defines NA broadly as “the techniques for collecting and assessing information relevant to course design” (as stated in Paltridge & Starfield, 2013, p.325), but it is a concept that consists of different dimensions and categories which are addressed differently in related projects. Needs definition and types, approaches and methods of analysis, as well as data validation procedures are among dimensions that are manifested in works of NA practitioners as depicted in table 1.

Table 1: NA Different Dimensions and Categories

About NA in police context, it should be mentioned that few researches have been done in the field of English for Police or Law Enforcement Purposes. Many English experts have tried to develop ESP curriculum for police officers, but most of them suffered from methodological deficiencies, such as: lack of proper NA procedure, improper materials and tasks, unclear understanding of specialty discourse of police fields, lack of validity and reliability in evaluating their courses and materials. There are, however, studies in English for Legal Purposes (ELP) or Legal English which may contributed substantially to the development of both understanding and practice of Police-geared ESP.

One overriding research in police-geared ESP was conducted by Basturkmen (2010). She reported the development of the English for Police course in a full chapter and explained that course developers followed a five-section- process to organize an English curriculum for police officers. In doing the NA for police officers, Basturkmen (2010, p.19) followed the following steps:

• Target situation analysis (TSA): Identification of tasks, activities and skills learners are/will be using English for; what the learners should ideally know and be able to do.
• Specialist discourse analysis (SDA): Descriptions of the language used in a context.
• Present situation analysis (PSA): Identification of what the learners do and do not know and can or cannot do in relation to the demands of the target situation.
• Learner factor analysis (LFA): Identification of learner factors such as their motivation, how they learn and their perceptions of their needs.
• Teaching context analysis (TCA): Identification of factors related to the environment in which the course will run. Consideration of what realistically the ESP course and teacher can offer.

Basturkmen (2010) acknowledges the importance of NA in ESP curriculum development for police officers and says that general descriptions of curriculum development may not show how courses are developed in response to a given situation and in light of the particular characteristics of the learners. In this respect, following the steps introduced by her, this study described how the first important step in curriculum development, i.e. NA, was conducted in the specific context of police training. Therefore, via utilizing Basturkmen (2010) model, researcher attempted to investigate the ESP learners’ needs in order to understand target situation, to analyze related specialist discourse, present situation, learners’ factors, and teaching context.

In conclusion, developing a curriculum in a higher educational system which professes to respects learners, demands thorough analysis of various factors, most importantly, their genuine needs and wants. NA within immediate educational context is such an indispensable issue which cannot be ignored both in curriculum development or reinvention. Therefore, it is vital to examine if the curriculum is largely based on the idiosyncratic and common needs of learners or is imposed from the top, accommodating some specific societal interests and objectives. The present study aimed to indicate just that by analyzing the learners’ needs in an ESP course in Iranian military context. This scrutiny has helped to examine the status quo curriculum and to provide the educational officials with some insights for the curriculum improvement or even reinvention in micro-level. It should be mentioned that this study is a part of comprehensive NA process which was conducted upon the request and official permission of the university with the aim of improving the status quo ESP curriculum and its related pedagogy attributes in policing fields.

3. Methodology

3.1. Participants

The study was conducted in APU, faculty of border guarding based in Tehran in academic year of 2019. Participants of the study were chosen from among the current BA students, ESP teachers, and graduate officers, managers, and commanders who were working as frontline police personnel in different parts of IR Iran Border Guarding Department.

Table 2 indicates the number of Participants and sampling strategies based on target groups and research phases. In qualitative phase, the researchers used purposive sampling up to the data saturation when no new information or themes were observed in the data. In quantitative phase, since the researchers had access to the entire population via Police Automation System, they utilized simple random sampling; so each individual was chosen randomly and entirely by chance.

Table 2: Participants of The Study Based on Groups and Research Phase

3.2. Research Design and Procedure

As depicted in figure 1, the present research utilized a QUAL/quan design (an exploratory sequential-qualitative first mixed method study). The purpose of this design was to extract qualitative themes from specific samples by interview and then to see if data from a few individuals could be clarified in a large sample of a population in quantitative phase (Cresswell, 2014). To avoid duplication of responses, samples were drawn both from the same population but individuals for both samples were different.

Figure 1: Research Design and Procedure of The Study

In qualitative phase, the main frequent qualitative data collection method in ESP NA was used, i.e. semi- structured interview (Long, 2005; Kim, 2006). In quantitative phase, the researchers intended to investigate whether findings of qualitative phase can be approved in large scale or not. Participants of this phase included: students who have already passed ESP course; ESP teachers who were faculty members of APU; graduates and police managers from the Border Guarding Police Command with different areas of specialization, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Distribution of The Personnel and Managers Participants by Specialization

3.3. Instrumentation

Multiple sources and instruments were utilized in the study, including: semi-structured interviews with members of different categories of stakeholders, i.e. ESP teachers, students, graduate officers, managers and police commanders; researcher-made questionnaire survey for broad coverage of numbers of each mentioned category; SPSS and Smart PLS software to analyze the quantitative data.

3.3.1 Semi-structured interview

The preliminary draft of interview questions was designed based on the ideas of Long (2005), Basturkemen (2010), Flowerdew (2013), and Hyland (2014). Then the interview questions were reviewed and piloted with one representative from each group (one students, one teacher and one manager) and consequently ambiguous items were revised for final draft. It consisted of the following structure as shown in table 4:

Table 4: The Interview Structure

3.3.2 Questionnaire

In quantitative phase, the researchers designed and utilized a researcher-made questionnaire. Themes and codes extracted from qualitative phase were used for designing and developing the questionnaire. In designing the questionnaire, the researchers utilized published NA questionnaires (e.g. Basturkmen, 2010; Brown, 2001, 2016; Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Richards, 2001). Final version was prepared after piloting it with total number of 57 questions via a 5-Likert scale for each item. 201 copies of the questionnaire were distributed. All incomplete, unreliable and late responses were excluded from the study, leaving 179 valid responses. It should be mentioned that researchers calculated the Cronbach’s alpha value (α= 0.891) and the score indicated a good relationship between the items of the questionnaire (table 5).

Table 5: Reliability Results of Designed Questionnaire

In piloting stage, questionnaire constructive validity was also checked through confirmatory factor analysis via using Smart PLS statistical software. The number of participants who were used in this stage, was consisted of one third of the total population in the quantitative phase. The results are summarized in the table 6 and figure 2. The indices of each latent variable had the largest factor loadings with the factor indicating that the final index was appropriate. It should be noted that indices having factor loadings of less than 0.3 with their latent variables, were removed and factor analysis was run again.

Table 6: Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results for Validation of Questionnaire Components

Figure 2: Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results for Validation of Questionnaire Indices in Standard Mode Using Smart PLS Software

To ensure reliability, validity, and trustworthiness of instruments, the researcher conducted the following steps:

• Discussing the use of instruments with experts in the field holding PhD in the field of TEFL and checking their reliability and validity for moderation.

• Conducting two types of triangulation in the study, i.e. stakeholder triangulation – to include multiple stakeholders as sources of information (ESP students, teachers, and police graduates and mangers); and method triangulation – to analyze multiple data gathering procedures in interviews and questionnaires (Brown, 2016).
• Persistent engagement with the research context (one of the researchers has worked at APU for more than 17 years).

• Establishing academic rapport with the participants to collect accurate in-depth data and being careful about certain codes of ethics to avoid any damage to the reputations of participants.

3.4. Data Analysis

Interview data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative content analysis techniques (Creswell, 2012). Following the coding procedure described by Creswell (2012, 2014), researchers use some combination of emerging and predetermined codes. As a result, short passages uttered by interviewees were carefully read to extract key codes, categories and themes. The classification of the data into different categories and themes was guided by theoretical framework of the study and the research questions.

Questionnaire data were analyzed using SPSS software. Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test showed that data collected was non-parametric. Therefore, the following tests were used for questionnaire data analysis: Friedman test to find the differences between groups and to rank them accordingly; Binomial test to compare the sample proportion to the presumed value; and Kruskal-Wallis to compare independent groups.

4. Results

To answer the research question, the results obtained from participants’ responses during interviews are presented first for each case. Then the findings of the questionnaire which was developed based on the interview codes were presented subsequently. In qualitative phase, various codes were extracted which were divided into twelve categories and labeled under the four main themes, i.e. learner factor analysis, present situation analysis, target situation analysis, and specialist discourse analysis.

4.1. Learner Factor Analysis

Three questions (Qs 1-3) were asked during interviews (see appendix A for interview questions) and three main themes were extracted from obtained codes: importance and role of ESP in target career and academic studies and satisfaction with the current ESP course.

Students’ Responses: All students said ESP was important for them for a number of reasons: passing the course; searching in internet and English resources; reading English books and journals; getting promotion in job; increase in income; in border meetings and missions; and in encountering smugglers. In Q3 of interview, most of them were not satisfied (n=19); five students stated little satisfaction and one of the students said, “I am totally satisfied with course because I had a good ESP teacher and he gave me a good score”. Another students said: “we read only some texts and we learned limited technical terms. We are not interested in the subjects”.

ESP Teachers’ Responses: To answer Q1 and Q2 of interview, all teachers stressed the importance and role of ESP in target career and academic studies. In response to Q3 of interview, teachers were not satisfied because they believed that “there is not a professional syllabus and curriculum and few TTCs are available for teachers” or “lack of educational technologies and materials as well as low salaries are bothering us”.

Personnel’s and Managers` Responses: In response to interview Q1 and Q2, one commander of coast guarding who worked in Bandar Abbas said:

“Once we were on marine patrol on the Persian Gulf and we faced a suspicious small ship. We stop it and we wanted to ask the crew what they were doing there. But unfortunately we did not understand each other, because none of us could speak English and we just let them go.”

In answering Q3 of interview, 15 interviewees expressed their dissatisfaction because they believed that there were no link between what they read and what they do, or because “teachers are not aware of border guarding missions”, or most importantly, because “they could speak with foreigners in radio and face-to-face communication and comprehend English texts”.

Quantitative Clarification: These issues were further investigated in quantities phase. Figure 3 displays the percentage of responses by students, teachers, and personnel and managers to questionnaire items. Q1 & Q2 were asked about importance of ESP in academic and future career, and Q3-Q4-Q5 investigated their satisfaction with the current course.

Figure 3: Participants Views on Importance of ESP In Academic and Future Career and Their Satisfaction with The Current Course (E= Personnel & Managers, T= Teachers, S= Students)

Based on the observed percentages, for majority of the students ESP was important for academic studies and future career while they felt the current course was not enjoyable and interesting. Similarly, frequency of responses by teachers and personnel’s and managers show that findings in Q1-Q2-Q3-Q5 support the interview data, but in Q4 more that 63% of participants had neutral perspectives about the current course.

4.2. Present Situation Analysis

The researcher asked five questions during interviews (Qs4-8) and three main categories were generated: i.e. the role of current course in meeting target career/academic needs, in improving their language skills, and the general effectiveness of the current course.

Students’ Responses: In response to Q4, students shared same problems, such as having problems in reading books or using internet, difficulties in speaking or inability to use educational resources and equipment properly. For instance one student said:

“Border guarding demands use of technology such as GPS or GIS. The GIS software has a lot of capabilities but I cannot use it because it is written in English. In using GPS, we just use limited options although it provides a wide range of utilities, because of the same problem.”

In response to Q5 which was asked how well the ESP course at the Police University has met your target career needs, 18 students said that it did not meet their needs and 7 students believed that it met their needs in low extent. In Q6, it has helped to improve reading and to vocabularies to a limited extend and it was not helpful in improving grammar and writing skills at all. In response to Q7 and Q8, all interviewees, in varying degrees, agreed that the course was not helpful and effective. For example one students said:

“We always need to read their subject textbooks and other significant references so that to be successful in our academic studies… what I dislike is that we are questioned to write in quizzes and final exams, but we cannot write and we usually leave this part of the exam papers blank… we seldom need to speak. What I like is to be able to read and speak”.

ESP Teachers’ Responses: All five interviewed teachers talked about some common problems, such as lack of time, lack of enough motivation of students, students’ fatigue due to military exercises, and lack of proper course book (Q4). One teacher said: “I am willing to teach and practice speaking, but what can I do with a bunch of tired and indifferent students?” All teachers, mentioned that ESP course at the Police University met target and academic career needs to a low extent and the course was not helpful in improving grammar, listening and writing (Q5, Q6). In Q7 of interview, teachers were asked if they considered current ESP course as generally effective and helpful. One teacher said that it was not very helpful and effective and he is “just doing our duty”. Four teachers said it was not effective and one teacher was satisfied moderately because “the current status has made our job easy”.

Personnel’s and Managers` Responses: In response to Q4 and Q5 of interview, 17 interviewees talked about problems they encountered while using English. Some codes were derived from their statements, such as having problem in: reading brochures and guidebooks of the equipment; in using recent equipment such as GPS and GIS; reading letters and corresponding; speaking in border meetings; inspecting foreign ships and boats. Most of them said that the course was not helpful in improvement of language skills (Q6). For instance, one manger said:

“Most graduates cannot talk with and understand the foreigners. Their reading skills are not good and they know limited vocabularies. I remember when I was in Police University there was a language training center that was responsible for language training, but I know that it does not work anymore and the condition of current courses are not satisfactory and helpful. The evidence of my claim are graduate students who cannot use English a lot.”

About the general effectiveness and helpfulness of the current ESP course, 12 interviewees said it was not helpful and effective (Q7). One employee said: “in my idea, the current course is helpful enough but cadets are not well motivated. What we need is to motivate cadets and create an atmosphere of learning for them.”

Quantitative Clarification: Further investigation for present situation analysis was conducted in quantitative phase via using the questionnaire. They needed to choose if the current course has met their academic or target career needs (questions 6, 7, 8), the role of current course in improving their language skills (questions 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) and general effectiveness and helpfulness of the current course (questions 14, 15, 16). Percentage of three groups’ responses related to Questions 6, 7, 8 support the interview data; the percentages in figures 4, 5, & 6 indicate that majority of respondents believed the current course did not meet their academic or target career needs.

Figure 4: Percentage of Students’ Questionnaire Responses for Q6 To Q16

The results of Q9 to Q13 most students, teacher, and personnel and managers disagreed or strongly disagreed that the current course improved their language skills. In Q14, 87 % of students disagreed, all personnel and managers (100%) and 72.7 percent of teachers disagreed strongly that the current ESP course in general terms is successful and effective. The data related to Q15 & Q16 also revealed that students needed appropriate and relevant resources to their needs which is in accordance with interview findings. In Q15, it looks incongruous that teachers were conservative in revealing their ideas in the questionnaire whereas interview data revealed the opposite. In contrast to Q15, responses to Q16 indicated that most teacher considered the course as inappropriate and irrelevant to learners needs. Magnitude of finding of this item and the results of Q15 data revealed that the course was not helpful in border guarding mission. The data related to Q16 also showed that respondents needed appropriate and relevant resources to their needs which is in accordance with interview findings.

Figure 5: Percentage of Teachers’ Questionnaire Responses for Q6 to Q16

Figure 6: Percentage of Personnel’ And Managers’ Questionnaire Responses for Q6 to Q16

4.3. Target Situation Analysis

To analyze target situation needs, four questions were asked during interviews. Extracted codes were organized under five main themes: target needs in border guarding, needs related to language skills in target career, needs related to vocabulary and translation, and extra needs, the type of curriculum and materials they might need. Their responses are summarized in table 7.

Table 7: Stakeholder Needs Determined in TSA

Quantitative Clarification: To follow-up qualitative results and to find answer for research question 1, viewpoints of stakeholders were investigated by the questionnaire on the following items:

• target needs for the improvement of the ESP (Qs 17-18),
• needs related to language skills in academic and target career (Qs 19-23),
• extra needs (Qs 24-26),
• the type of curriculum and materials they need (Qs 27-30)

In response to Q 17, 89.7 % of student, 72% of teachers, and 81.3 % of personnel and managers agreed strongly that it seemed necessary to develop a curriculum and syllabus based on the missions of border guarding. In response to Q 18, 89% of student, and 54.5 % of teachers chose strongly agree and 87.5 % chose agree option. It means that based on their ideas it seemed necessary to develop new books and materials based on the missions of border guarding. All statistics support interview findings.

To understand needs related to language skills in academic and target career (Qs 19-23), Friedman test was run to understand which skill had the highest rank among other skills. The results of mean ranks in table 8, 9, and 10 show that the most important skills from stakeholders’ perspectives. The interview data is supported by quantitative results since reading is the key skill in both databases.

Table 8: Friedman Test of Cadets` Views on Language Skills Ranking

Table 9: Friedman Test of Teachers’ Views on Language Skills Ranking

Table 10: Friedman Test of Personnel and Managers` Views on Language Skills Ranking

Extra needs from stakeholders’ perspectives were investigated via Qs 24-26. In response to Q24, most of them agreed strongly that it was necessary to improve the translation abilities; in Q25, 63% of teachers, 93.8 % of personnel chose agree for in-services courses of officers of border guarding to refresh their knowledge, but 90% of students were neutral for in-services courses. However, all three groups strongly agreed in Q26 that it was necessary to develop teachers’ knowledge of border guarding through holding workshops. Therefore, the results of extra needs in quantitative phase support the interview data.

The type of needed curriculum and materials investigated by Qs 27 to 30. In response to Qs 27-28 which asked if the ESP curriculum and materials for border guarding should be designed based on the specialized subjects of this field, more than 90 percent of participants agreed strongly with first item and 87.5 percent chose strongly agree in the later. The rate of Observed Prop in Binomial test results in table 11 for Q27-28 indicate that majority of teachers chose strongly agree option. Use of tasks in ESP curriculum and materials investigated in Qs 29-30. Table 11 also shows that majority of personnel and managers chose disagree or neutral with task-based curriculum and materials. The results are depicted in Binomial test (Table 11) which shows that P-value is less than 0.05, so there is a significant difference between personnel and managers who chose disagree in Q29 and neutral in Q30 with others, and Observed Prop rate indicates that those who chose disagree and neutral are majority of options respectively. All findings support interview data.

Table 11: Binomial Test Results of Teachers’ Views On 27 To 30 Of Questionnaire

Table 12: Binomial test results of personnel’s and managers’ views on Q17 to 30 of questionnaire

4.4. Specialist Discourse Analysis

To conduct specialist discourse analysis two questions were asked during interviews to understand the viewpoints of stakeholder on possible situations of applying English in (Q13) and specific police content and subjects (Q14).

Students’ Responses: In response to Q13, students talked about some possible situations of applying English in the academic environment. The main codes of their responses are as follows: watching border guard training movies, reading and comprehending essays, using of training equipment like GPS, using internet and maps- or satellite-based software, participating in course exams, and discussing some issues with their ESP teacher.

In Q14, all the students did not have a clear idea of specific police content and subjects in the field of border guarding. As an example, one student said:

“As far as I know, some issues that we study in the faculty should be the most important one… subjects like, map reading, Iran geography, border enforcement, Iran borders and geography, and border crimes like human smuggling. Honestly, what we are doing here is limited to marching exercises and physical training and we do not have enough time to think about specific subjects. If I find any extra time, I prefer sleeping in the dormitory.”

ESP Teachers’ Responses: Considering Qs 13-14 all five participant did not have a clear ideal about the specialty issues. All the ESP teacher were studied English Teaching and they were not a part of military staff of border guarding. In this respect, one of the teachers said, “I am a not border officer and my expertise is in teaching methodology and testing”. So to determine the specialty discourse of this field, you should go to border areas and work with the border guards. In my idea, triangulation doesn’t help a lot in this case.

Personnel’s and Managers’ Responses: Personnel and managers of border guarding department which are summarized in the table 13. In this respects, one of the officers said, “Border guarding as the main pillar of the country's defense plays a key role in the fight against peripheral threats that with strengthening the military, defense, security and social approach we must be at the highest level of implementation of the border missions.”

Another commander officer said, “Iran shares its northern borders with several post-Soviet states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. ... Iran's western borders are with Turkey in the north and Iraq in the south, terminating at the Arvand Rud. So we need to know English and other languages. Students should know a couples of issues such as border security control & management, border guarding technology, international law and so on”.

Table 13: Personnel’s and Managers’ Responses on Specialist Discourse of Border Guarding

Personnel and managers of border guarding department, in contrast to students and teachers, shared a good range of issues and subjects of the field. Therefore, in order to determine the specialist discourse of border guarding, the researcher mainly focused on the viewpoints of personnel and managers who were doing the job in action. It seemed that relying on the ideas of personnel and managers could be more logical.

Quantitative Clarification: Possible situations of applying English and specific police content and subjects were investigated via Qs 34 to 57 by comparing three groups’ responses to clarify the similarities and difference between the extracted codes in the qualitative phase. Kruskal-Wallis test used to compare cadets’, and ESP teachers’ and personnel and managers’ responses of the most important specialty subjects of border guarding (table 14).

Table 14: Kruskal-Wallis Test Report for Comparison Between Cadets’, ESP Teachers’ and Personnel’s and Managers’ Questionnaire Responses for Items 34-57

In this respect, the p-value (p<0.05) in K-W test results in table 14, indicates that there are significant differences between groups in items 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 47, 48, 50, 54 and 55. The test was run in the mentioned items to locate the exact source of the significant differences, which were found to be between the mean ranks of the cadets and those of the ESP teachers and personnel and managers. This implies that the ESP teachers and personnel and managers had similar ideas about specialty subjects of border guarding, however the cadets’ ideas were different in the mentioned items. Table 15 also shows the Friedman test results which was run to understand possible situations and specific content of ESP for border guarding officers from the viewpoints of the outweighed group, i.e. personnel and managers.

Table 15: Friedman test for ranking the Personnel’ and Managers’ views on possible situations of applying English

The results indicated that based on the views of personnel’ and managers the most important specialty subjects of border guarding were:

1. Border meetings
2. Cross-border conflict
3. Iran geography.
4. Cross-border cooperation
5. Coast guarding
6. Border treaties
7. Investigating human smuggling
8. Iran geography
9. Borders’ history
10. Globalization and future of borders
11. Detecting smugglers in borders
12. Fighting against drugs
13. International law and international cooperation
14. Human smuggling across Borders
15. Border Guarding missions
16. Illegal trespassing and Border Management
17. Political geography
18. Using internet
19. Radio communications
20. Fighting against terrorism.
21. Cyber space and borders
22. Border security news and issues
23. News and interviews of border police commanders.
24. Airport affairs

The results were by some means similar to interview data. In interview phase, personnel and managers of border guarding department shared a good range of issues and subjects and results of questionnaire supported their views. However, cadets and teacher did not generate useful themes regarding the issue, but the responses of teachers in quantitative phase showed same consistency with those of personnel and managers, unlike cadets’ responses in some items.

5. Discussion

In the present study, one research question was developed as a guide for the study. This section is intended to revisit and discuss the findings related to this question which are as follows. First, the study indicated that NA was the first step in the present ESP course development, followed by curriculum design, materials development, methodology, assessment, and evaluation. The study showed that these steps should not be considered as separate, but they constructed a complementary procedure. This finding is in line with what Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) that believed these processes are interdependent overlapping activities in a cyclical process.

Second, this study also showed that different stakeholders may have different needs and all of them should be taken, analyzed and included in the curriculum. This is in line with claims of many scholars (e.g. Brown 1995; Harding, 2007; Cooke and Simpson, 2008; Reguzzoni, 2008) who believe needs are always constructed; needs are not constant or static facts; needs are open to modification; needs are not totally independent; needs differ from one person to another depending on context and individual; needs are multiform or multifaceted; needs can be recognized and analyzed.

Third, the findings in this study also indicated that the overarching purpose of the curriculum is to provide students with knowledge and skills and to prepare them for future jobs in order to serve the society. In this sense, the curriculum is a social practice which helps to improve essential knowledge and skills for particular jobs (Apple, 2004). Most interviewees believed that higher education should train learners to become useful people for society, and prepare them to join society. These understandings about the higher education curriculum were almost identical to the description of the curriculum to, "efficiently meet the needs of society by training youth to function as future mature contributing members of society" (Schiro, 2013, p. 5).

Fourth, as the findings of this study demonstrated, ESP curriculum at the APU was not prepared based on a meticulous NA process. Therefore, curriculum objectives were not shaped correctly and imposed from the top. The findings showed that the teaching content, teaching methods, and learning activities were not standard enough to prepare students for their missions. The findings also indicated that the process of curriculum development at the Police University was employed in a top-down manner, in which needs analysis and situational analysis were completely absent. Therefore, it is recommended that a different process of curriculum should be employed to include these analyses. The proposed curriculum was in line with many instances of influential attempts in curriculum development or syllabus design, in which bottom-up NA lies at the heart: Taba’s instructional strategies model (1962), Weinstein and Fantini’s humanistic model (1970), Hutchinson & Waters learning- centered approach (1987), Eisner’s systemic-aesthetic model (1991), Dudley-Evans and St John’ multi-disciplinary approach (1998), Richards’ curriculum development (2001) and forward, central, and backward models (2013), Brown’s systematic approach (1995), and Basturkmen pyramid model (2010).

Fifth, the research finding (based on ESP teachers’ responses) showed that the content-based approach served the best to prepare cadets for their future job. As Toohey (1999) notes, the major focus is on providing students with knowledge and skills for their performance in their future jobs.

Sixth, compared with curriculum and curriculum development from a Western perspective, the understandings of curriculum at Amin Police University were mainly product-oriented and teacher-focused. However, curriculum understandings and the proposed curriculum in this research challenged the traditional perspectives of curriculum and emphasized the interaction and collaboration between teacher and students, students and students, students and materials. The research findings showed that students needed to be prepared to work in groups and teams, to engage in constructive arguments so that knowledge can be constructed through team work and group work.

Seventh, responses of the border guarding personnel especially in specialist discourse analysis stage showed that some of the necessary learning will take place in the broader environment out the university. Although learning begins in university level but it needs to be linked with outside target context. If it is to maintain relevant, the curriculum must maintain these links through formal schooling. In this regard, Briggs (2001) talked about the learning beyond classroom and claimed that a curriculum should manage the learning environment in proper way so that other sources of learning not to be forgotten.

Finally, research finding showed that professional development of the curriculum teaching staff must be a part of the training program. Watkinson (1999) makes the point that the professional development of all staff of the curriculum can help in academic improvement and adding subject professional to the ESP program can have direct role in enhancing achievement.

6. Conclusion and Implications

Through comparison of the sources and methods and triangulating the findings related to NA, it was concluded that the suggested curriculum for border guarding police officers could do the followings. These findings also provide a comprehensive answer to the research question.

1. Stakeholders admitted that ESP played an important role in the academic and target career of border gu
2. They were not satisfied with the current course.
3. The current course did not meet their academic and target career needs.
4. The current course was not helpful in course in improving their language skills.
5. In general, the current course was not helpful and effective from stakeholders’ perspectives.
6. New curriculum was needed. It should be based on the missions of Border guarding department. Accordingly, new ESP syllabus and materials were needed.
7. The most important skills based on the views of stakeholders were reading, vocabulary learning, speaking, listening, and writing respectively.
8. ESP Teachers’ knowledge of border guarding should be updated through holding workshops and in-service courses.
9. A content-based approach could serve the best for curriculum, syllabus and materials development.
10. Translation skills of cadets need to be developed. Translation lesson and exercises should be included within the material.
11. Varied border guarding vocabularies and related drills and exercises were needed. Vocabularies were extracted via corpus analysis of the resources available in the faculty.
12. Possible situations of applying English in the academy are: listening to border guard training movies; reading and comprehending academic essays; reading and writing in ESP exams; reading the manuals of training equipment like GPS, maps, weapons, etc.; using internet and maps- or satellite-based software like GIS which demand knowledge of vocabulary and reading.; Participating in foreign conferences: Writing papers, listening and speaking.
13. Possible situations of applying English on the job, needed skills and content are as follows and the syllabus and materials should be designed accordingly: land border guarding missions: reading maps, reading equipment manuals, reading GPS data; marine border guarding missions: talking with foreigners, reading travel documents, listening to and speaking with radio communication; air border guarding missions: reading equipment manuals, listening to & talking with radio communication; fighting against drug, goods, human smugglers, reading GPS, talking with criminals, writing reports, checking documents; fighting against any foreign trespassing in land or sea: listening to radio communication; border terminals, border markets: talking with passengers, checking passports and other documents; border meetings with foreign border guards: listening to foreign officers and talking with them, reading reports and border contracts, negotiating; arresting, inspecting criminals in borders: talking with foreign citizens for checking their documents; protecting the rights of border area citizens (land or sea): reading signs, manuals, & directories, listening and speaking with foreign citizens; protecting the territorial integrity: reading border contracts, document, translating them, reading border signs, reading geography text; observing the border treaties and laws: reading border treaties, reading related laws using GIS & GPS; settlement of disputes in border areas: ability to negotiate.

Although the present study was context-specific, but some general implications can be extracted from it. First, English as a lingua franca plays an important part in law enforcement field. Having a fluent command of English is seen as an integral part of being a successful police officer. English for the purpose of policing can be sub-branch of ESP that should be considered seriously by ESP practitioners.

Second, the workplace is an environment that provides lots of information for curriculum developers and can also be very beneficial for ESP course developers too. By spending some time in the workplace, course developers can see how the content, skills and tasks on which they want to base the course are actually used by officers in the real word. Third, triangulation and collection multiple types of data from various sources in NA and course evaluation is also an indispensable part of understanding of ESP needs. In other words, NA should have the aim of informing and be able to inform decision-making on all other aspects of curriculum development, including the resetting and adjustment of its objectives and aims if needed. Fourth, the research results showed that the overall objective of the ESP course was not the mere improvement of the oral communication skills. Rather, the improvement of other skills and also translation should be included in the overall objective of the course. Fifth, it is so important to match objectives to needs. In this respect, the instructional objectives of the course components should be derived from the different target tasks identified in specialist discourse analysis.

ESP teachers should not forget that they have responsibility to keep context and comprehensibility foremost in their instruction, to provide scaffolding for students’ linguistic content learning, and to create learner-centered classrooms. Teachers should encourage valuable study skills such as note taking, summarizing and extracting key information from texts also encourage collaborative skills, especially using group work, which can have great social value. Cadets are hypothesized to become autonomous and independent in CBI, so that they are conscious of their own learning process and can take charge of their learning.

Another implication is that ESP teacher should be responsive in dealing with cadets with different needs: All border guarding cadet should pass this course as their ESP. However, cadets with marine and air branches should pass extra ESP courses based on their respective ranks. One of the research findings was that interaction between pairs and groups of students play an important role in the development of linguistic and communicative competence. In fact, it rises the amount of student contribution in the class and empowers the ESP teachers to work more as a facilitator and consultant.

The results of NA for any suggested curriculum should include a flexible ESP course that allows room for change based on the feedback of stakeholders. Teachers should be accountable and responsive in gaining feedback from students so that to improve the curriculum wherever needed. Also, ESP teachers can teach more effectively by means of enhancing close cooperation and direct contact between the them and border guarding teachers. Such partnership may enhance the quality of the curriculum.

Finally, the curriculum and syllabus that resulted from NA research were accepted by the APU. Materials, textbooks and teacher’s manuals were developed by the researcher based on the finding of specialist discourse analysis and corpus analysis which were conducted in other stages of the research. The suggested ESP course was implemented and evaluated in faculty of border guarding and the final model was revised and presented accordingly.

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Appendix A: Semi- Structured Interview Questions

Learner factor analysis

1. According to your working experience as a police officers, do you think English is important in your current career? Please explain.
2. In your opinion, is it necessary to have a fluent command of oral and written English in your job? Why or why not. Please explain.
3. Are they satisfied with and interested in the current course? Why or why not. Please explain.

Present situation analysis

4. At your workplace or during your missions, have you encountered problems while using English? If yes, could you please explain them?
5. How well, do you think, the ESP course at the Police University met your target career needs?
6. During your missions and work/study, how helpful was the ESP course in improving the following items:

Your level of English

Your language skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking)

Your grammar

Your vocabulary (general, police related)

7. Do you think that the current ESP course is generally effective and helpful? Please explain.
8. Would you please explain about you ESP course? (Likes and dislikes)

Target situation analysis

9. What suggestions would you like to make for the improvement of the ESP course at the Police University?
10. To what extent, do you think, the four main skills are important to your current job?
11. What do you think is needed in order to make the ESP course more effective and relevant to officers’ needs on the job?
12. Do you think the ESP curriculum and materials for border guarding should be designed based on the specialized subjects of this field?

Specialist discourse analysis

13. In your opinion, what are some of the possible situations of applying English in your working environment (e.g. talking to foreigners, to criminals, meeting with foreign police officers, etc.)?
14. Based on your working experience, what specific police content and subjects should be included in ESP course?

Would you like to add any more points or comments?

[1] PhD in TEFL (Corresponding author), mjavid57@yahoo.com; Department of Foreign Languages, Amin Police University, Tehran, Iran.

[2] Associate professor of Applied Linguistics, amohseny1328@gmail.com; Department of English languages, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran.