Challenges for teachers and students in the ESP course for Police Studies

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES --- TRAN THI HUONG GIANG CHALLENGES FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS I

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

-

TRAN THI HUONG GIANG

CHALLENGES FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

IN THE ESP COURSE FOR POLICE STUDIES (Những thách thức đối với giảng viên và sinh viên trong việc dạy và học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cảnh sát)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

HANOI, 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

-

TRAN THI HUONG GIANG

CHALLENGES FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

IN THE ESP COURSE FOR POLICE STUDIES (Những thách thức đối với giảng viên và sinh viên trong việc dạy và học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cảnh sát)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Dr Tran Thi Thu Hien

HANOI, 2019

of others The material in this thesis has not been submitted for any other university

or institution wholly and partially

Hanoi, 2019

Tran Thi Huong Giang

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research paper would not have been completed without the help of people

to whom I would like to express my deep gratitude

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Tran Thi Thu Hien, my supervisor, for her wholehearted support, continuous motivation and precious guidance which were decisive factors to the completion of the thesis Also, I would like to give my warmest thanks to all of the lectures and officers working at the Postgraduate Faculty, University of Languages and International Studies, for their supporting me while I was studying and conducting this thesis

I would like to extend my special thanks to all the research participants, my dear colleagues and students Without their valuable opinions and ideas in the questionnaires, the study would not have been accomplished

Last but not least, I owe my family their continuous support Their patience and love have helped me go beyond what sometimes looks like an insurmountable task

ABSTRACT

This study was intended to investigate the challenges for teachers and students

in the ESP course for police studies More specifically, the researcher strived to (i) investigate challenges that the teachers and students encounter in teaching and studying the ESP course for police studies, and (ii) propose some suggestions to overcome these challenges

To achieve the above mentioned objectives, a survey research was conducted with the participation of 24 teachers and 100 students at an academy in Ministry of Public Security The data came from a questionnaire for the teachers, a questionnaire for the students, and interviews with some of the participants

The results from data analysis have shown that the teachers had such difficulties

as knowledge of the subject, class organization, teaching methods, the learners’ English proficiency, time-constraint, as well as the course book and teaching materials From the other perspectives, the students had to face up with challenges like time-constraint, the students’ English proficiency, knowledge of the subject, motivation and studying habits On the basis of the findings, some recommendations were given to help solve the challenges met by the teachers and the students

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES viii

PART A INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Research method 2

5 Scope of the study 2

6 Significance of the study 3

7 Structure of the thesis 3

PART B DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

1.1 English for Specific Purposes 4

1.1.1 Definitions and characteristics of ESP 4

1.1.2 English for Specific Purposes vs General English 7

1.1.3 Types of ESP 7

1.1.4 Features of ESP courses 10

1.1.5 ESP teaching material 13

1.1.6 The roles of ESP teachers 13

1.1.7 The roles of ESP learners 14

1.1.8 ESP learners’ motivation 16

1.2 Previous studies 18

1.3 Chapter summary 19

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 21

2.1 Research setting 21

2.2 Participants 21

2.3 Research types 22

2.4 Data collection instruments 22

2.4.1 Questionnaires 22

2.4.2 Interviews 23

2.5 Data collection procedure and analysis 23

2.6 Chapter summary 24

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

3.1 Results of the survey questionnaires 25

3.1.1 The questionnaires for ESP teachers 25

3.1.2 Results of the questionnaire for the students 29

3.2 Results of the Semi-Structured Interviews 31

3.2.1 Teachers and students’ suggestions to improve their knowledge 31

3.2.2 Teachers’ suggestions for class organization 33

3.2.3 Teachers’ suggestions for teaching methods 33

3.2.4 Teachers and students’ suggestions to enhance students’ English proficiency 34

3.2.5 Teachers and students’ suggestions for time-constraint 35

3.2.6 Teachers’ suggestions for using the course book and teaching materials 37 3.2.7 Teachers and students’ suggestions to motivate students 37

3.2.8 Students’ suggestions to change their studying habits 39

3.3 Discussion 39

3.3.1 Challenges the teachers encounter in teaching ESP 39

3.3.2 Challenges the students encounter in studying ESP 42

3.4 Implications 44

3.4.1 Suggestions to overcome the challenges for the teachers 44

3.4.2 Suggestions to overcome the challenges for the students 47

3.5 Chapter summary 49

PART C CONCLUSION 51

1 Recapitulation 51

2 Limitations of the Study 52

3 Suggestions for further studies 52

REFERENCES 53 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 IV APPENDIX 3 VI APPENDIX 4 VII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EAOP: English for Academic and Occupational Purposes EAP: English for Academic Purposes

EFL: English as Foreign Language

EGAP: English for General Academic Purposes

EOP: Occupational Purposes

ESAP: English for Specific Academic Purposes

ESP: English for Special Purposes

EST: English for Science and Technology

GE: General English

PPA: the People’s Police Academy

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 3.1: Training areas the teachers want to receive 27

Table 3.2: Challenging aspects in teaching ESP 28

Table 3.3: Challenging aspects in studying ESP 31

Figure 1.1: Tree of ELT (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987) 9

Figure 1.2: The Division of ESP (Carter, 1983) 10

Figure1.3: Factors Affecting ESP Course Design (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987) 11

Figure 3.1: Teachers’ ESP & GE teaching experience 25

Figure 3.2: Teachers’ subject knowledge 25

Figure 3.3: Formal training forms received by teachers 26

Figure 3.4: The use of a different teaching methods 26

Figure 3.5: Factors made the methods different 27

Figure 3.7: Students’ ESP studying experience 29

Figure 3.7: Students’ English proficiency 29

Figure 3.8: Students’ means of studying ESP 30

Figure 3.9: Teachers’ suggestions to improve their knowledge 31

Figure 3.10: Students’ suggestions to improve their knowledge of the subject 32

Figure 3.11: Teachers’ suggestions for class organization 33

Figure 3.12: Teachers’ suggestions for teaching methods 33

Figure 3.13: Teachers’ suggestions for students’ English proficiency 34

Figure 3.14: Students’ suggestions to enhance their English proficiency 35

Figure 3.15: Teachers’ suggestions for time-constraint 35

Figure 3.16: Students’ suggestions for time-constraint 36

Figure 3.17: Teachers’ suggestions for using the course book and teaching materials 37 Figure 3.18: Teachers’ suggestions to motivate students 37

Figure 3.19: Students’ suggestions to motivate their motivation 38

Figure 3.20: Students’ suggestions to change their studying habits 39

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

As a result of globalization and integration processes, English has become an essential part of international communication and exchange Especially, English for specific purposes (ESP) has been steadily growing to meet to the demands of people working in different fields Thus, with the national policy of renovation and international integration, there is an increasing need for teaching and learning English in Vietnam More importantly, the idea of adopting ESP in the classrooms

at schools, colleges, and universities cannot be avoided

Having recognized the strategic necessity of ESP for its students after graduation, the academy’s teachers have applied the ESP course to its Police Studies for three years All freshmen enrolled at this academy have to take ESP courses despite their majors The textbook used for the courses is “English for Police” including specialized vocabulary, topics, and knowledge related to law and police field It helps students enrich their vocabulary and get familiar with daily situations they may encounter while working as police officers in the real life

However, several complaints that they were not considered capable of taking ESP teaching and studying responsibilities were expressed by both teachers and students at the academy To the teachers, it is vital that they must develop the competencies needed for the task of teaching ESP in Police Studies This is particularly important as there are frequent complaints when they confront the realities of the classroom To the students, it is said that they have had enormous difficulties in taking the courses of which vocabulary, topics, and knowledge are totally different from what they studied at high schools Consequently, the students are at loss, which may create high levels of anxiety and stress among the students

For the reasons above, it is clearly imperative to explore the challenges of ESP teaching and studying at the academy, which helps find out solutions for the teachers and students to overcome the obstacles Thus, before sorting out suitable methods in teaching and studying the ESP course at the academy, the researcher

would like to conduct a research paper entitled “Challenges for teachers and

students in the ESP course for Police Studies”

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The general purpose of the study is to investigate what challenges the teachers and students in the researched academy may encounter while teaching and studying the ESP courses

The specific objectives of the research are as follows:

- Investigate challenges that the teachers and students have to cope with while teaching and studying the ESP courses of Police Studies

- Propose some recommendations to help both the teachers and students achieve better results in approaching the ESP course of Police Studies

3 Research questions

This research aims at addressing the two following questions:

- What challenges do the teachers and students encounter in teaching and studying the ESP courses of Police Studies?

- What are possible suggestions to overcome the challenges?

4 Research method

Survey research was chosen as the primary method since it met the aims and objectives of the study This method is also justified to offer significant benefits for the researcher, who is also an EFL teacher

5 Scope of the study

Within the frame of this study, the researcher would like to focus on finding out challenges encountered by the teachers and students working with the ESP courses of Police Studies, and from the findings, propose some suggestions to help the teachers and students overcome and take advantages of the challenges found All of the attempts to deal with ESP from other perspectives and other types of students in other contexts are out of the scope of this study

6 Significance of the study

The study is expected to contribute to the development of teaching and learning ESP courses The study is meaningful in such aspect that it will provide teaching and studying implications for English as foreign language (EFL) teachers and students In other words, this is substantial for educators in providing suggestions for overcoming the challenges and developing their teaching and studying syllabus, methods, and assessment Lastly, this research can be used as a reference source for those who have interest in this issue and a supplement to related studies

on teaching and studying ESP

7 Structure of the thesis

The study is composed of three main parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

Part A: Introduction states the rationale, aims, objectives, research

questions, research method, scope and significance of the study as well as the structure of the study

Part B: Development consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background provides theories of ESP and

teaching ESP, and previous studies related to the topic

Chapter 2: Methodology demonstrates the research methods applied in

the study with details on how and why these methods were implemented Besides, the data collection procedure and data analysis are also described in this chapter

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion reports data analysis, the results and

discussions

Part 3: Conclusion summarizes the main issues covered in the paper,

presents the limitations of the study and some suggestions for

further studies in the research area

References and Appendixes are presented at the end of the research

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 English for Specific Purposes

1.1.1 Definitions and characteristics of ESP

Smoak (2003) regarded English for specific purposes (ESP) as an enormous and ever-changing area; that is why giving it an exact definition is a difficult task ESP was defined as being simply the teaching of English for any purpose (Anthony, 1997) Meanwhile, Khan (2011) described ESP as what learners needed

in the target situation or what learners wanted about their function of language usage in the sense of linguistic terminology Hutchinson and Waters (1987) defined ESP as a language learning approach and not a product, which indicated that no particular kind of language, teaching materials, or methodology got involved in ESP, but it was based on the learners’ needs In other words, it focused

on how learners used English in the context, but not restricted to that specific one Sharing a similar view, Robinson (1991) stated that ESP was “normal goal-directed” which meant that its courses are based on needs analysis Needs analysis was not only knowing what the learners did with language but also dealing with how to use that language in different contexts (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) John and Price-Machado (2001) pointed out that ESP needs analysis focused on both the specific language use and learning needs of a specific group of learners Also, ESP learners’ needs made the set of skills, texts, linguistic forms, and communicative practices limited (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998 and Hyland, 2009) Đỗ and Cái (2010) suggested that with the purpose of determining the special activities and final goals that students have to do and achieve, ESP was English courses based on survey results and needs analysis Thus, ESP was regarded as an English course of which the textbooks and materials were adapted

to meet specific desires and purposes

According to Dudley-Evans and St John (1998), ESP characteristics were divided into three categories: the first one was that ESP met specific purposes of the learners; the second one was that ESP made use of underlying methodology

and activities of the discipline it served; and the last one was that ESP was centered

on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse, and genre

In addition, there were some variable characteristics of ESP Firstly, ESP might

be related to or designed for specific disciplines Secondly, ESP might use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of general English Thirdly, ESP was likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level However, in some cases, ESP was also designed for high school students Fourthly, ESP was generally designed for intermediate or advanced students Lastly, most ESP courses assumed some basic knowledge of the language system, but it could be used with beginners

ESP seemed to have quite flexible discipline so it had been defined differently

by different scholars We could count as many definitions as the number of linguists who had defined it All these definitions appeared to cover various characteristics of this approach (Master’s, 2005: 99) mentioned a very broad definition “ESP is a division of English Language Teaching (ELT), the only other member of which is English for General Purposes.” McDonough’s (1998: 105) defined that “ESP describes language programmes designed for groups or individuals who are learning with an identifiable purpose and clearly specifiable needs.”

Moreover, Johns and Price-Machado (2001: 43) said that English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a movement based on the proposition that particular groups of students with specific learning and language use needs could be met by adjusting all language teaching Also, the sociocultural contexts in which these students would be using English played a sensitive factor

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) defined ESP as an “approach” rather than a

“product” That means any particular kind of language, teaching material or methodology was not necessarily involved in ESP The fundamental function of ESP was to answer why that learner needed to learn a foreign language Milevica

(2006) as well as Hutchinson and Waters (1987) stated that the core of ESP was to the hypothesis of learning English

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 4-5) presented a modified definition of ESP containing absolute and variable characteristics of ESP that are as follows:

Absolute Characteristics

ESP has three main absolute characteristics First, it was defined to meet specific needs of the learner Second, ESP made use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves Lastly, it was centered on the language (grammar, lexis), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities

Although Dudley-Evans had improved it substantially by removing the absolute characteristic that ESP was "in contrast with 'General English'" (Johns et al., 1991: 298), and had added more variable characteristics, his definition was clearly influenced by that of Strevens (1988) In justifying arguments about what was and was not ESP, the division of ESP into absolute and variable characteristics, in particular, was very useful From the definition, it could be seen that ESP could be unnecessarily involved with a specific discipline, or be aimed at

a certain age group or ability range ESP itself should be simply seen as an 'approach' to teaching, or what Dudley-Evans described as an 'attitude of mind' Hutchinson et al (1987:19) made a similar conclusion and he saw ESP as an approach to language teaching in which all content and method decision-making was based on the learner's reason for learning

1.1.2 English for Specific Purposes vs General English

If the above definition was agreeable, it was time to to see how broad ESP really was In fact, one important question, “What is the difference between the ESP and General English approach?” was raised The question was answered quite simply by Hutchinson et al (1987:53), "in theory nothing, in practice a great deal" When the book was written, of course, the last statement was quite true At the time, General English teachers were also aware of students’ having specific purpose for studying English However, they would rarely conduct a needs analysis to find out what was necessary to actually achieve it In contrast, modern teachers nowadays absolutely acknowledged the importance of needs analysis, and certainly the goals of learners at all stages of materials production were carefully considered by materials writers Perhaps this demonstrated the influence that the ESP approach had had on English teaching in general Apparently, the line between where General English courses stopped and ESP courses gradually started

to become vague

There was an ironic fact that while a learner needs analysis and teachers’ specialist knowledge of using English for real-life communication were applied in the syllabi of the so-called GE teachers, while many General English teachers can

be described as using an ESP approach, a large number of the so-called ESP teachers were using an approach furthest from that described above Many ESP teachers did not carry out interview with specialist in the field, or did not analyze the language required in the profession, or even did not conduct students’ needs analysis That was the reason why these ESP teachers became so dependent on the available textbooks that they were incapable of assessing the adaptability based in personal experience, and not willing to do the necessary analysis of difficult specialist texts to verify their contents

1.1.3 Types of ESP

According to Dudley-Evans and St John (1998), English for Academic Purposes (EAP) fell into two divisions: English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) and English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) While EGAP

referred to the teaching of language skills that were common in different disciplines, ESAP was related to the teaching of language features that were specific for various disciplines Insights into the mutual relationship of EGAP and ESAP had been offered by research

Skills and language functions learnt in EGAP programs might be transferred to specific disciplines in ESAP programs (ibid.) The types of ESP had been discussed by many researchers and ESP had been categorized into two main groups: English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Robinson, 1991) whereas Carter (1983) had identified the following three types of ESP:

1 English as a restricted language;

2 English for Academic and Occupational Purposes (EAOP);

3 English with specific topics

According to Mackey and Mountford (1978), the concept of “restricted language” was clearly defined in the following statement: “ the language of international air-traffic control could be regarded as 'special', in the sense that the repertoire required by the controller was strictly limited and could be accurately determined situationally, as might be the linguistic needs of a dining-room waiter

or air-hostess The scope of this first type of ESP which allowed the learners learn English language for very restricted purposes was extremely limited and the learners were trained to deal with specific situations in extremely limited linguistic settings This kind of ESP teaching let learners acquire limited number of phrases and expressions, which made these learners incapable of using English in any settings other than the ones they had been trained for

Carter (1983) regarded EAOP as the second kind whereas majority of other researchers had confined their classification of ESP to EAP and EOP These two types in the classification of ESP were also included by Robinson (1991) English for Science and Technology (EST) had been enumerated in the list of types of ESP by Kennedy and Bolitho (1984) It seemed to transpire that ESP had been separated from EOP and EAP because of the fact that it was basically scientific and technological knowledge that this new approach of ELT was supposed to

transfer to non-native speakers of English (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Gatehouse, 2001; Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998; Strevens, 1977) Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 6) described the classification of ESP in detail by using “Tree

of ELT” which offered important insights into the broad scope of ESP

Figure 1.1: Tree of ELT (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987)

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) and Carter (1983) seemed to have similarities

in their belief that EOP and EAP are not entirely separate phenomena They argued that people could work and study at the same time; it was also likely that in many cases that the student could take up, or return the language learnt for immediate use in a study environment to a job (ibid., p 16) What might be revealed from the above discussion was that EOP and EAP had approximately common goals but their dynamics were indeed different from their means to achieve the ultimate

Pre-vocational Purposes

Vocational Purposes

English (Academic)

for Science and

Technology

English for Professional Purposes

English for Occupational Purposes

English for Specific Purposes

English for Academic Purposes English for Occupational Purposes

English (Academic) for Legal Purposes

English for Medical Purposes

English for Business Purposes

goals Only EAP and EOP had been also included in their division of ESP by Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 5)

Carter (1983) categorized “English with specific topics” into the third type of ESP Activities like post-graduate reading studies, working in foreign institutions and attending conferences were mentioned as future needs for scientists Before any ESP material was designed, the third category of ESP required that the linguistic needs of the learners should be properly determined It was the target future (linguistic) needs of the learners that was focused on to prepare the learners for their future needs It seemed that this category of ESP was not very distinguishable because all ESP courses had a proper need analysis procedure as

an integral component of developing ESP teaching material which targeted situational language, including topics mentioned by Carter (1983) and others, in present and target workplace settings (Gatehouse, 2001)

1.1.4 Features of ESP courses

Carter (1983) discussed the identification of the characteristics of ESP courses

He affirmed that there were three features common to ESP courses: the first was authentic material, the second was purpose-related orientation, and the last was self-direction

Figure 1.2: The Division of ESP (Carter, 1983)

Pre-experience Post-experience

Simultaneous/

In-service

As a School Subject

English for Occupational Purposes

Integrated Independent

Pre-study In-study Post-study

ESP

Dudley-Evans (1997) asserted that ESP should be offered at an intermediate or advanced level, use of authentic learning materials is entirely attainable Closer examination of ESP materials would follow; suffice it to say at this juncture that use of authentic content materials, modified or unmodified in form, were indeed a feature of ESP, particularly in self-directed study and research tasks For Language Preparation for Employment in the Health Sciences, a large component of the student evaluation was based on an independent study assignment in which the learners were asked to scrutinize and present an area of interest The learners were also encouraged to carry out research using an array of different resources, including the Internet Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.22) provided the issue of how to reasonably structure such survey in the figure regarding factors affecting ESP course design

Figure1.3: Factors Affecting ESP Course Design (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987)

ESP COURSE

Nature of particular target and learning situation

WHO? WHY?

WHERE?

WHEN?

Needs Analysis Factors affecting ESP

Course Design

Purpose-related orientation indicated the simulation of communicative tasks required of the target setting It was Carter (1983) that cited student simulation of

a conference, involving the preparation of papers, reading, note taking, and writing In his study, Students at Algonquin College were involved in English for business courses in the design and presentation of a unique business venture, which was composed of market research, pamphlets and logo creation The students were asked to present all final products to invited ESL classes during a poster presentation session For a health science program, a seminar on improving the students’ listening skills was held They practiced listening skills, such as listening with empathy, and then utilized their newly acquired skills during a field-trip to a local community center where they would work in groups with English-speaking dwellers

Finally, ESP courses had characteristic of self-direction, which meant the learners would be turned into users in ESP courses (Carter, 1983: 134) In order for self-direction to occur, it was a certain degree of freedom to decide when, what, and how the learners would study that they must have Carter (1983) also added that tear hers had to make a systematic attempt by introducing the learners about learning strategies to teach them how to learn It was necessary, though, to teach high-ability learners such as those enrolled in the health science program about learning strategies It was argued that it was not essential In contrast, what was vital for these learners was to learn how to access information in a new culture

The main focus of ESP was how to teach English with proper and easy method

to attain the specific goals It did not emphasis on the language, but tried to meet the need of a learner such as, English for the Engineers, Lawyers, Doctors and Tourists, etc For example, to teach a tourist guide English for communication, the class of ESP would be all about developing communication capabilities instead of other skills Obviously, in tourism, communicative skills were really essential Without communication skills, one could not interact with others Therefore, English would be taught in a distinguish way as per the field demands ESP put

more emphasis on the training and selection of suitable content The objective could be to develop a restricted English Proficiency

1.1.5 ESP teaching material

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) presented four reasons for using materials which seemed significant in the ESP context: (1) as a source of language; (2) as a learning support; (3) for motivation and stimulation; and (4) for reference

According to these researchers, in certain circumstances, where English was a foreign not a second language, the ESP classroom might be almost the only source

of English Materials then played a crucial role in exposing learners to the language, which implied that the materials needed to present real language, as it was used, and the full range that learners required

As a learning support, materials needed to be reliable, that was, to work, to be consistent and to have some recognizable pattern This need did not mean a rigid unit structure; there wouldn’t be a fixed format

To enhance learning, materials must involve learners in thinking about and using the language The activities needed to stimulate cognitive not mechanical processes The learners also needed a sense of progression

To stimulate and motivate, materials needed to be challenging yet achievable;

to offer new ideas and information whilst being grounded in the learners’ experience and knowledge; to encourage fun and creativity The input must contain concepts and/or knowledge that were familiar but it must also offer something new, a reason to communicate, to get involved The exploitation needed to match how the input would be used outside the learning situation and take account of language learning needs The purpose and the connection to the learners’ reality need to be clear

1.1.6 The roles of ESP teachers

An argumentative question frequently raised regarding ESP teachers was whether they needed to be experts in the subject area The general hypothesis was that language teachers should be primarily those engaged in Teaching English as

a Foreign Language (TEFL) and should, above all, be experts in the language and

language teaching, and they were not required to have specialist knowledge However, it was extremely essential for them to have some understanding of the subject area, which was ideally accompanied by a positive attitude towards it Another significant factor was that ESP teachers did have the ability to actively integrate student knowledge about the subject matter or, as Ellis and Johnson (1994: 26) claimed that it was the learners who had the specific content knowledge and who were capable of bringing that knowledge to the classroom” Therefore, Ellis and Johnson (1994: 26) pointed out that good ESP teachers would be “experts

in presenting and explaining the language,” who also had the ability “to ask the right questions and make good use of the answers” Other valuable sources of information for ESP teachers are subject teachers and subject-matter textbooks

To sum up, to make best use of the resources mentioned above when designing

a syllabus, selecting, and/or writing materials, as well as teaching the course, ESP teachers could be ideally supported by a genuine interest in the subject to have at least some basic knowledge about the subject matter in question It is even more important that they act as facilitators and encourage pupils to share their own knowledge about the subject matter with the class and to actively participate in the learning process This characteristic of was cited by Harmer (2007: 107) that the wisdom of a teacher was shown by his not bidding the learners enter the house of his wisdom, but leading them to the threshold of their own mind

1.1.7 The roles of ESP learners

The learners came to the ESP class with a specific interest for learning, subject matter knowledge, and well-built adult learning strategies They had the tasks to develop English language skills to reflect their native-language knowledge and skills In short, Mary and Brenda (1986) categorized the students’ roles to play in learning process into three groups

 Focus for Learning: Each ESP student had a particular purpose and

focus for learning People learnt languages when they had opportunities to understand and work with language in a context that they understood and found interesting ESP was a means for such opportunities Students would require English when they worked with materials which they found

interesting and relevant and which they could use in their professional working environment or further studies Successful learners paid attention

to the meaning of the language they heard or read and did not focus primarily on the linguistic input or isolated language structures The ESP student was particularly well disposed to focus on meaning in the subject-matter field In ESP, English should not be presented as a subject or body

of facts to be learned in isolation from real use, nor as a mechanical skill or habit to be developed In contrast, English should be presented in authentic contexts to make the learners acquainted with the particular ways the language was used in functions that they would need to perform in their specialty fields

 Subject-Matter Knowledge: A real contribution to the language

learning process was able to be made by learners in the ESP classroom who were generally aware of the purposes for which they would need to use English Having already oriented their training toward a specific field, they saw their English instruction as complementing this orientation The students were enabled to identify a real context for the vocabulary and structures of the ESP classroom knowledge of the special area In this way, the learners could make use of what they already knew about the subject matter field to learn English

 Adult Learning Strategies: An adult gained a lot of advantages

when learning - adults must work harder than children to learn a new language, but the learning strategies they brought to the task enabled them

to learn faster and more efficiently The skills they had already developed

in reading and writing their native languages would make learning English easier Although the English of the students you would be working with would most likely be quite limited, the language learning abilities of the adult in the ESP classroom were potentially great Language learning continued naturally throughout our lives Educated adults were constantly learning new language behavior in their native languages; expanding vocabulary, becoming more articulate in their fields, and modifying their

linguistic behavior in new situations or new roles ESP students could tap these natural competencies in learning English

1.1.8 ESP learners’ motivation

Motivation was considered as an important factor to determine the success or

the failure of learning It could be defined as “some kind of internal drive that

encourages somebody to pursue a course of action If we perceive a goal and that goal is sufficiently attractive, we will be strongly motivated to whatever is necessary to reach that goal.” (Harmer, 1983:3) There might be different types

of goals: term goals and long-term goals Regarding English learning, term goals might be represented by wanting to pass an end-of-semester examination or to finish a unit in the textbook On the other hand, long-term goals might include the desire to get a better job or to be able to communicate with other people from a different community or culture As a generally established remark, strongly motivated students with long-term goals were easier to teach than those with other type of goals, namely with no real inner drive The students with higher level of motivation succeeded much better in learning the language They engaged

short-in more detailed activities, put much effort short-in improvshort-ing all the skills related to language learning and apply them in their specialty

There were many factors that could affect learners’ degree of motivation in learning ESP, such as:

 Attitude: The relation between motivation and learner attitudes had

been considered a predominant concern in language learning research Teaching ESP was faculty-based and was intended to develop language learning skills and structural knowledge of English under the premise that interest in the content of the ESP language subject would motivate learners

Hence, Gardner (1985:1) stated that “motivation … refers to the

combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes”

 Interest: According to Woolfolk and Margetts (2013), there were

two kinds of interest personal or individual interest and situational interest They considered the individual interest of the student as “students with

individual interests in learning in general seek new information and have more positive attitudes towards schooling.” Therefore, the student’s

interest on the task or activity could affect student’s motivation to learn, and student’s interest was identified as one of the important motivational constructs that influenced students‟ engagement and achievement in learning

 Learning Environment: Teaching and learning processes were

shaped by their physical, social and organizational environment, and the design of learning environments was, in turn, influenced by the processes that took place within them Therefore, learning environment was the complete physical, social and pedagogical context in which learning was intended to occur In a learning environment, developing motivation was a difficult task for the teacher considering that every student learns differently and every student was diverse in their own ways But the students expected the teacher to guide and encourage them in a constructive manner (Shadlyn, 2004)

 Teacher Responsibility: The major motivational factor in language

learning was the teacher; in fact, the teacher remained the best model for motivation Thus, the way of teaching and teacher’s attitude would affect

learners’ motivation Ames (1990: 421) asserted that “Effective schools and

effective teachers are those who develop goals, beliefs, and attitudes in students that will sustain a long-term involvement and that will contribute

to quality involvement in learning” Therefore, it was important for the

teacher to be mindful of the fact that how he/she structured the course and the teaching methodologies he/she used could greatly affect his /her students‟ motivation to learn

In short, it was very important to motivate students to learn ESP by making a supportive environment in which they were stimulated, engaged in activities which were appropriate to their age, interest and cultural backgrounds, and most importantly, where learners could experience success

1.2 Previous studies

Mohammad (2014) carried out research on issues, tasks, and challenges facing the ESP teachers Issues in ESP teaching were addressed as “Who are ESP teachers?” and “What do they teach?” Regarding the former question, they were teachers at vocational schools, colleges, and universities, as well as any other teachers who dealt with their students’ professional development Concerning the latter one, they taught English for the profession and encouraged their students

to use their background knowledge along with the academic skills in dealing with all sorts of authentic information in their profession Tasks of ESP teachers were identified as developing curriculum; designing ESP courses; determining approaches to course designs such as language-centred course designs, skill-centred course designs, and learning-centred approaches; needs analysis; and assessments The researcher based on a previous study of Abudulaziz et al (2012) to sort out the challenges for ESP teachers The challenges were presented

as follows: (1) pronunciation of certain vocabulary words borrowed from other languages; (2) the eligibility between the course title and the qualification of an ESP practitioner; (3) the inappropriate course design for the learners; (4) the teachers’ adaptation to the demands of the world and learners; (5) the need for more trained teachers; (6) the students’ unfamiliarity with the format of the exam; (7) the teachers’ unwillingness of teaching ESP; and (8) the teachers’ quality assurance As a conclusion, ESP teachers’ role is a more complex and responsible one than teaching GE

In Vietnam, Hoa and Mai (2016) conducted a study on difficulties in teaching English for Specific Purposes at Vietnam universities There were more than 400 teachers and students at 11 universities participating in the survey and 362 valid replies were received Most of the students were in third year and learned ESP in such universities as Vietnam University of Commerce, University of Transport and Communications, Hanoi National University of Education, and Hanoi University of Science and Technology A questionnaire of 12 difficulties was handed to the teachers and students The results of the study indicated difficulties related to the teachers and students The difficulties the teachers encountered

while teaching were the quality of lectures and textbooks, the teachers’ qualifications and teaching methods It was found that many teachers had English certificates but could not teach ESP due to listening skills while those who were good at 4 English skills lacked specialized knowledge Also, the number of native English-speaking teachers trained in their major was still small On the other hand, the students run into such difficulties as language proficiency and the big difference between Vietnamese and English involving parts of speech, pronunciation, word usage and grammar Many long and difficult ESP words as well as complex structures in scientific articles created difficulties in studying ESP This resulted in the lack of English vocabulary among Vietnamese students

It was concluded that teaching ESP was facing numerous difficulties arising from subjective and objective factors These difficulties had a direct impact on teaching ESP and students’ ability to find jobs after graduation

Apart from these above studies, there are a plenty of works conducted related

to the challenges of teaching and studying ESP at schools and universities Several conclusions could be reached from these studies To the teachers, they encountered such challenges as the teachers’ qualifications, specialized knowledge, and adaptation to the new demands of the world and the learners To the learners, they had to faced up with difficulties in specialized vocabulary, complex structures, and quality of studying materials In conclusion, both teachers and learners have risen to considerably serious challenges of teaching and studying ESP Thus, the researcher would like to do an intensive study on the challenges for teachers and students in the ESP course specialized in Police Studies

1.3 Chapter summary

This chapter has presented the relevant literature, which has helped to form the theoretical and conceptual framework for the study Firstly, a number of concepts about ESP, ESP’s characteristics, types, course features, as well as materials are given according to some leading scholars Secondly, the investigator has shown the roles of ESP teachers as a teacher, a course designer, a researcher, a collaborator, and an evaluator Lastly, ESP learners’ roles and motivation are

demonstrated Through the demonstration, it is expected to set the framework for finding out the challenges in teaching and studying for both teachers and students for Police Studies

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research setting

The study was conducted at an academy in Ministry of Public Security There are 13 departments with about 700 lecturers, and 40.000 students in the academy The Foreign Language Department there focuses on three languages, English, Chinese, and Russian General English and English for Specific Purposes are the two main parts of English language teaching There are 12 classes studying General English only for in-service students, and 3 classes studying English for Specific Purposes for regular students

The research just focused on first-year students studying ESP In the students’ first year at the academy, they had two semesters mainly studying four English skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) related to ESP The ESP material used in the two semesters was “English for Police” In the first semester, there were 14 topics taught in 102 periods, each period lasted for 50 minutes Before semester 1 started, a written test held by Center of Languages and Information Technology had been given to all of the students The test results helped classify the students as their English proficiency in order to divide them into classes The best students would be put into the first classes At the end of semester 1, another test including four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) was held to check their studying results All of the students were required to reach B1 level (CEFR) after finishing the course in semester 2 After using the textbook to teach the first-year students in semester 1, the researcher received reflections from both teachers and students which showed that they encountered difficulties when teaching and studying ESP

2.2 Participants

Subjects under this investigation are 24 teachers and 100 first-year students at the academy These students are from 3 ESP classes All of the participants completed the questionnaires Overall, the teacher group is a heterogeneous one They are different from each other in terms of age, teaching, experience and the time they have taught using the ESP textbook

In the academic year 2018 – 2019, there were 3 classes including 100 first-year students studying ESP Thus, it could be concluded that the number of the students

in each class was rather equivalent to each other and all classes were quite large

2.3 Research types

The research was conducted as a quantitative and qualitative study in order to achieve its goal which is finding out challenges for the teachers and students in the ESP course for Police Studies Quantitative data were collected by using questionnaires while participants’ interviews were used to gather qualitative data

2.4 Data collection instruments

2.4.1 Questionnaires

The issues discussed in this paper are of a study that focuses on perceived challenges in teaching and studying ESP for Police Studies in order to give suggestions and recommendations to overcome the challenges Based on the essence of the research questions, the researcher relied upon the quantitative and qualitative methods using survey questionnaires for some reasons Firstly,

“extensive and detailed” description, clarifications, and interpretations to form a thorough understanding of the research questions were offered when using this technique (Burns, 1999: 22) In addition, questionnaires for the teachers and students can “capture the richness and complexity of behaviour that occurs in natural settings from the participants’ perspectives” (Trauth, 2001: 37) Finally, the collected data were inductively analysed to generate findings Hence, two questionnaires were delivered to the teachers and students to collect the information

The former questionnaire (See Appendix 1) delivered to the teachers

consisted of two sections: section 1 including 10 questions designed to get general information about the teachers; section 2 including 11 sub-questions corresponding with reasons for the challenges due to teaching methods, knowledge of the participants, teaching materials, teaching time, and learners was the main part of the survey: perceived challenges in teaching ESP for Police Studies

The latter questionnaire (See Appendix 2) delivered to the students also

consisted of two sections: section 1 containing 3 questions planned to find general information about the students; section 2 composed of 9 sub-questions corresponding with reasons for the challenges due to teaching methods, teachers’ knowledge, learning materials, learning time, and learners’ own problems was the other main part of the survey: perceived challenges in learning ESP for Police Studies

2.4.2 Interviews

To collect more data, several semi-structured interviews were conducted with the purpose of finding out the causes for the biggest challenges in teaching and studying the ESP Also, it was expected to get the teachers and students’ suggestions to solve these challenges The formats of the semi-structured

interviews for the teachers and students included some questions relatively (See

Appendix 3 and Appendix 4)

2.5 Data collection procedure and analysis

Reference materials provided the researcher with valuable information to design the questionnaires, which were later sent out to the teachers and students After that, the questionnaires were revised in terms of the language used as well as the instructions to make it clearer The research was carried out through the following steps:

- The survey questionnaires were delivered to the teachers and students in December 2018 After all of the answers were collected, the author embarked upon the calculation and analysis work All the returned questionnaires were carefully studied to make sure that no answers were left out Then the data were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed using descriptive approach The descriptive analyses were then reported in

percentages so that the findings were clearly demonstrated

- Apart from the survey questionnaires, the researcher conducted a structured interview with some of the targeted participants for more detailed explanation to reasons or causes of the challenges in teaching and learning

semi-ESP of Police Studies ad well as recommendations for handling them Especially, interview questions focused on some of the most difficult problems that the teachers and students had to encounter in teaching and learning ESP The participants’ answers were taken notes and recorded

Common themes of the answers were carefully analysed

2.6 Chapter summary

This survey research was carried out in the ESP classes at the People’ Police Academy with the purpose of investigating the challenges for the teachers and students in the ESP course for Police Studies The data were collected from the two questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews, which were analysed by means of descriptive statistic devices and content analysis methods It was expected that the combination of these instruments would enable to answer the research questions

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

To investigate the challenges for the teachers and students in the ESP course for Police Studies, two questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were administered to the participants The results were as follows:

3.1 Results of the survey questionnaires

3.1.1 The questionnaires for ESP teachers

a The teachers’ ESP and GE teaching experience

Figure 3.1: Teachers’ ESP & GE teaching experience

From figure 3.1, it was shown that 37.5% of the teachers had less than 3-year teaching experience while 41.7% of them had from three to ten years’ teaching experience Only 20.8% of them taught English for more than ten years

It could also be seen that all participants took part in teaching GE Of all the teachers, there were 25% of them teaching GE for less than three years Meanwhile, 45.8% of them taught from three to ten years and 29.2% of them had more than 10-year teaching experience

b The teachers’ subject knowledge

Figure 3.2: Teachers’ subject knowledge

37.5

41.7

20.8 25

GE teaching experience

8.3

58.4

33.3

A little Satisfactory Very good

The figure above revealed that all of the teachers had specialist knowledge 8.3% admitted that they had a little specialist knowledge while 58.4% of them found their specialist knowledge satisfactory 33.3% thought their knowledge was very good

100% of the teachers agreed that they gained their knowledge from attending lectures, reading on their owns, and teaching experience Such other sources to acquire knowledge as taking part in real-life activities, dealing with specialized issues, and learning from the senior colleagues were also listed

All of the teachers affirmed that specialist knowledge played an essential part for ESP teachers and the essence was very much

c The teachers’ ESP formal training

Figure 3.3: Formal training forms received by teachers

100% of the teachers received formal training to teach ESP 29.2% of them had degrees while the rest, 70.8 %, got short courses The degrees and courses mentioned by the teachers were Investigation, Workshop: Teaching ESP, etc

d The teachers’ teaching methods

Figure 3.4: The use of a different teaching methods