Designing an ESP speaking syllabus for administrative police students at intermediate level at people’s police college i

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

----------

NGUYỄN HOA HỒNG

DESIGNING AN ESP SPEAKING SYLLABUS
FOR ADMINISTRATIVE POLICE STUDENTS
AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
OF PEOPLE’S POLICE COLLEGE I
(Thiết kế chương trình nói tiếng Anh
chuyên ngành Cảnh sát Quản lý Hành chính
cho học viên hệ trung cấp trường Cao đẳng Cảnh sát nhân dân I)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

----------

NGUYỄN HOA HỒNG

DESIGNING AN ESP SPEAKING SYLLABUS
FOR ADMINISTRATIVE POLICE STUDENTS
AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
OF PEOPLE’S POLICE COLLEGE I
(Thiết kế chương trình nói tiếng Anh
chuyên ngành Cảnh sát Quản lý Hành chính
cho học viên hệ trung cấp trường Cao đẳng Cảnh sát nhân dân I)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lâm Quang Đông

HANOI - 2016


DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the M.A thesis entitled “Designing an ESP speaking
syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level of People’s Police
College I” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,
and that this thesis has not been published or submitted for any degree at any other
universities or tertiary institutions.

Hanoi, 2016

Nguyễn Hoa Hồng

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the process of doing the research, I have received supports and
assistance from a variety of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my
supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lâm Quang Đông, for his insightful guidance,
constructive criticism and his whole-hearted encouragement without which the
thesis would not have been fulfilled.
I wish to express my special thanks to all my lecturers for their interesting
lectures, valuable comments and helpful suggestions. I am also grateful to all the
staff members of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies who gave me valuable and
essential instructions to fulfill my thesis.
I would like to convey my great thanks to my colleagues and administrative
police students at People‟s Police College I for their invaluable feedback, useful
support and enthusiastic participation in this research.
Last but not least, I owe the completion of this study to my beloved family
who have given me their endless inspiration, support as well as sympathy
throughout my graduate program.

ii


ABSTRACT

This minor thesis was conducted with an attempt to design a suitable
supplementary material to teach ESP speaking skill for administrative police

students at Intermediate level of People‟s Police College I (PPC I).
The thesis is organized in three main parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion. In the second part - the most predominant one of the study, two
research

instruments,

including

semi-structured

interviews

and

survey

questionnaires were presented in detail. Firstly, the subjects involved in the study
were 10 subject teachers and 10 administrative police officers. They were invited to
participate in the interviews conducted by the researcher. The second participants
of the study included 148 target students in three classes and all 16 teachers of
English at our college. Thanks to that, all of the participants contributed valuable
data to the author‟s research about the target needs and learning needs of the
students in order to propose an appropriate syllabus for the students.
It can be concluded that most of the administrative police students at PPC I
really desire to be taught a speaking course for their major. Thus, it is crucial to
design an ESP syllabus which can satisfy with the students‟ needs as well as their
job requirements after graduation. Additionally, the majority of the students
encounter certain difficulties in learning English speaking skill. Actually, they lack
background knowledge of vocabulary and pronunciation. Therefore, it is

imperative to have a supplementary speaking material with the aim to make up for
what they are now lacking. Besides, the target learners also express their
expectation in terms of the teaching and learning methods, speaking activities or
the time allocation of the ESP course. It is the useful data for the researcher to
demand all types of needs of the learners, which helps enhance the learners‟
inspiration in English lessons.

iii


Based on the findings, a proposed ESP speaking syllabus for administrative
police students is designed with the hope that it can bring many benefits for the
students as well as the teachers in the process of teaching and learning ESP
speaking at PPC I.

iv


CONTENTS
DECLARATION ..........................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... iii
CONTENTS .................................................................................................................v
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................. viii
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES ............................................................................ix
PART A: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1
1. Rationale for the study .........................................................................................1
2. Aims and objectives of the study .........................................................................2
3. Research questions ...............................................................................................2
4. Scope of study ......................................................................................................3

5. Methods of the study ............................................................................................3
6. Significance of the study ......................................................................................3
7. Structure of the thesis ...........................................................................................4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................................5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................................................5
1.1. An overview of ESP .........................................................................................5
1.1.1. Definition of ESP .......................................................................................5
1.1.2. Types of ESP ..............................................................................................6
1.2. Overview of syllabus design .............................................................................7
1.2.1. Definition of syllabus and syllabus design ................................................7
1.2.2. Approaches to ESP syllabus design ...........................................................8
1.2.3. Types of syllabus......................................................................................10
1.3. Needs analysis .................................................................................................13
1.3.1. Definition of needs and needs analysis ....................................................13
1.3.2. Types of needs ..........................................................................................14
1.3.3. The role of needs analysis in syllabus design ..........................................15
1.4. An overview of speaking ................................................................................15
v


1.4.1. Definition of speaking ..............................................................................15
1.4.2. Some common activities to promote speaking skill .................................15
1.5. Previous studies ...............................................................................................17
1.6. Chapter summary ............................................................................................19
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................21
2.1. Settings of the study ........................................................................................21
2.1.1. The context of teaching and learning English at PPC I ...........................21
2.1.2. The teachers of English at PPC I..............................................................22
2.1.3. The target learners ....................................................................................22
2.2. Methodology ...................................................................................................23

2.2.1. Research questions revisited ....................................................................23
2.2.2. The participants ........................................................................................23
2.2.3. Data collection instruments ......................................................................24
2.2.4. Data collection procedures .......................................................................26
2.3. Chapter summary ............................................................................................27
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29
3.1. Data analysis ...................................................................................................29
3.1.1. Data analysis procedures ..........................................................................29
3.1.2. Data analysis from the interviews with the subject teachers ...................29
3.1.3. Data analysis from the interviews with the working administrative police
officers .....................................................................................................31
3.1.4. Data analysis from the questionnaires for the teachers of English ..........32
3.1.5. Data analysis from the questionnaires for the administrative police
students ....................................................................................................41
3.2. Research findings and discussion....................................................................50
3.2.1. Target needs .............................................................................................50
3.2.2. Learning needs .........................................................................................52
3.3. Chapter summary ............................................................................................52

vi


CHAPTER 4: THE ESP SPEAKING SYLLABUS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE
POLICE STUDENTS AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF PPC I..53
4.1. Objectives of the course ..................................................................................53
4.2. Structure of the syllabus ..................................................................................53
4.3. Teaching and learning methods of the course .................................................53
4.4. Time allocation of the course ..........................................................................53
4.5 The proposed speaking syllabus for administrative police students at
Intermediate level of PPC I ............................................................................54

4.6. Test for student progress/syllabus effectiveness .............................................59
4.6.1. Testing procedure .....................................................................................59
4.6.2. Form of testing .........................................................................................59
4.6.3. Sample of a speaking test .........................................................................59
4.7. Chapter summary ............................................................................................60
PART C: CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................61
1. Recapitulation.....................................................................................................61
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study....................................................61
REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................63
APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 2 ............................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 3 .............................................................................................................. II
APPENDIX 4 ............................................................................................................ VI
APPENDIX 5……………………………………………………………………………………………...X
APPENDIX 6…………………………………………………………………………………………..XIX

vii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

PPC I :

People‟s Police College I

GE

General English

:

ESP :

English for Specific Purposes

ELT :

English Language Teaching

EST :

English for Science and Technology

EBE :

English for Business and Economics

ESS

English for Social Sciences

:

EAP :

English for Academic Purposes

EOP :

English for Occupational Purposes

MC I :

Maritime College I

viii


LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES
1. List of charts
Chart 1: Teachers‟ attitude towards the ESP syllabus…………………………………….32
Chart 2: Teachers‟ opinion on the teaching and learning methods to be applied to the ESP
course .................................................................................................................... 38
Chart 3: Teachers‟ opinion on the speaking activities needed for the ESP course ............. 39
Chart 4: Teachers‟ opinion on the length of the ESP course .............................................. 40
Chart 5: Teachers‟ opinion on the frequency of the ESP lessons per week ....................... 40
Chart 6: Teachers‟ opinion on the length of each ESP lesson ............................................ 41
Chart 7: Students‟ attitude towards the ESP syllabus ......................................................... 41
Chart 8: Students‟ opinion on the teaching and learning methods to be applied to the ESP
course .................................................................................................................... 47
Chart 9: Students‟ opinion on the speaking activities needed for the ESP course ............. 48
Chart 10: Students‟ opinion on the length of the ESP course ............................................. 49
Chart 11: Students‟ opinion on the frequency of the ESP lessons per week ...................... 50
Chart 12: Students‟ opinion on the length of each ESP lesson ........................................... 50
2. List of tables
Table 1: Teachers‟ opinion on their learners‟ difficulties in learning English speaking .... 33
Table 2: Teachers‟ opinion on the objectives of the ESP speaking course ........................ 35
Table 3: Teachers‟ opinion on the topics to be included in the ESP syllabus .................... 36
Table 4: Teachers‟ opinion on the language functions needed for the ESP course ............ 37
Table 5: Students‟ opinion on their difficulties in learning English speaking.................... 42

Table 6: Students‟ opinion on the objectives of the ESP speaking course ......................... 44
Table 7: Students‟ opinion on the topics to be included in the ESP syllabus ..................... 45
Table 8: Students‟ opinion on the language functions needed for the ESP course ............ 46
Table 9: The proposed speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate
level of PPC I........................................................................................................ 54

ix


PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale for the study
Nowadays, it cannot be denied that English has become one of the most
popular languages all around the world. As an international language, English plays a
crucial role in every aspect of social life from economy, education, culture, health care
to diplomacy, science, technology and security, etc. Thus, there has been an explosion
in the demand for English. That is also the reason why English teaching and learning
is paid special attention by every nation and Vietnam cannot also stand out of the
current trend. There have been an increasing number of people studying English
everyday and longing to master the language for different purposes, but most, if not
all, language learners want to develop proficiency in speaking. As Richards (2008:19)
asserted, of four major language skills, the mastery of speaking skill in English is a
priority for many second language or foreign language learners. Therefore, the
proficiency in English speaking skill should be the learners‟ first and foremost
concern.
To improve learners‟ English speaking ability, a variety of textbooks and materials
have been published. At People‟s Police College I (PPC I), the textbook “Lifelines
Pre-Intermediate” is being used as the core textbook to serve this purpose. However,
most of the students, especially the students at Intermediate level, who account for the
majority at our college, always meet difficulties in English speaking as well as oral

presentation. They always feel anxious, inconfident or uninspired in the speaking
lessons. There are a lot of reasons for this situation, e.g. course syllabus, teaching
methodology, learning ability, learning motivation or facility, etc. As I see it,
inappropriate syllabus is one of the key elements leading to the unsuccessful speaking
performance since an inappropriate syllabus which is not strictly based on students‟
specific learning needs cannot make them ready for their future jobs, and fails to

1


inspire students‟ motivation as well as create effective English speaking lessons. Thus,
it is essential to design a supplementary speaking syllabus, which aims at narrowing
down the gap between the current textbook and the students‟ specific and practical
needs.
Additionally, among all majors of our college, students of administrative police
programs account for the majority and may speak English a lot in their future job.
Therefore, it is imperative to design a supplementary material for these administrative
police students at Intermediate level. This requires a thorough study of their language
needs, which explains why I conduct the present study entitled “Designing an ESP
speaking syllabus for administrative police students at Intermediate level at People’s
Police College I.”
2. Aims and objectives of the study
The ultimate aim of this study was to design an ESP speaking syllabus for
administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I.
In order to achieve the above aim, the following objectives were identified:


Target needs: how administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I

are expected to be able to speak English by the end of this course so as to fulfill the

tasks of administrative police officers.



Learning needs: what they need to study during the learning process to make up

for their current deficiency so as to achieve the expected outcomes.
3. Research questions
In order to achieve the above aims, the study sought answers to the following research
questions:
 What are the learning needs and the target needs of the learners in English
speaking to serve their future job as administrative policemen?
 How should an ESP speaking syllabus be designed to cover the types of needs
identified?

2


4. Scope of study
This study mainly centralized on designing an ESP syllabus for administrative
police students of People‟s Police College I. In light of the scope of the study, data for
the study were only collected from interviews with the subject teachers, administrative
police officers as well as questionnaires for the teachers of English and the students of
this major, but not any other majors of our college. Additionally, this thesis only paid
attention to studying speaking skill and designing syllabus of speaking skill.
5. Methods of the study
Generally, in order to identify the needs of the target students, survey method
was employed to find out the needs from different relevant participants.
Firstly, in order to identify the target needs, interviews were carried out with subject
teachers and administrative policemen to determine how the target learners are

expected to be able to speak English to make them job-ready. Secondly, the researcher
delivered questionnaires to teachers of English and administrative police students at
Intermediate level, which aims at finding out how the learning needs of the students
and the expectation of the teachers about the topics, language elements, methods, level
and the timing allocation of the upcoming syllabus should be. These procedures
provided the researcher with the necessary data to establish the target needs and the
learning needs to design an appropriate syllabus for the learners.
6. Significance of the study
Theoretically, the study contributes to the viewpoints of the importance of
English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Meanwhile, this study‟s significance mainly lies
in its practical contributions. Firstly, the study was conducted with the expectation that
it will provide teachers and learners with one more teachable/ learnable material. For
that reason, it has an extremely important significance for both teachers and learners.
Secondly, the output of the study really becomes a practical instruction for the learners
to satisfy with the requirements of their future job. Finally, it is also an effort to

3


improve students‟ English proficiency in general and enhance students‟ speaking
ability in particular.
7. Structure of the thesis
The thesis consists of three main parts:
Part A - Introduction presents the rationale for the study; aim and objectives of the
study; research questions; significance of the study; methods of the study; and the
structure of the thesis.
Part B - Development, which is the main part of the study, comprises of four
chapters:
Chapter 1 - Literature Review presents an overview of the theories relevant to the
study, including definitions and types of ESP, types of syllabus; approaches to syllabus

design, definition of needs, needs analysis as well as role of needs analysis and the
theories of speaking skill.
Chapter 2 - Methodology briefly describes the methodology framework of the study
covering the PPC I context, the participants, the instruments and procedure of data
collection.
Chapter 3 - Data Analysis, Findings and Discussion is a detailed analysis of the
gathered data as well as the major findings and discussion from the data analysis.
Chapter 4 - presents the output of the study - an ESP speaking syllabus for
administrative police students at Intermediate level of PPC I.
Part C - Conclusion gives a summary of the study, limitations of the study and
suggestions for further research.

4


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1.

An overview of ESP

1.1.1. Definition of ESP
English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which is in contrast with General English (GE),
has rapidly got to be an extremely efficient approach in the modern educational trend.
To date, there have been a wide variety of definitions and related concepts of ESP
such as those stated by Anthony (1997) or Hutchinson and Waters (1987). Despite
their different words, almost all linguists agree that ESP is based on studying learners‟
needs. According to Anthony (1997), ESP course, which is dependent upon analyzing
learners‟ needs and their professional knowledge, helps learners to fulfill real
communication using English. To a large extent, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) give a

very general and concise definition of ESP as follows: “ESP is an approach to language
teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner‟s reason
for learning”.
On the other hand, Dudley-Evans and John (1998:4) show the definition of ESP from
the perspective of its characteristics, which helps readers have deeper understanding of
ESP. He classifies the features of ESP into two types: the absolute and the variable
ones.
 Absolute characteristics:
- ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner;
- ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines
it serves;
- ESP is centred on the language (grammar, lexis, and register), skills, discourse
and genres appropriate to these activities.
 Variable characteristics:
- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

5


- ESP may use, in specific teaching situation, a different methodology from that
of general English;
- ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution
or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be used for learners at
secondary school level;
- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students. Most ESP
courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with
beginners.
1.1.2. Types of ESP
As can be seen from the tree of English Language Teaching (ELT) which is clearly
displayed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987:17), there are three types of ESP including

English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics
(EBE), and English for Social Sciences (ESS). Each type is further divided into two
branches: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational
Purposes (EOP), which cover some majors named as the representatives in the tree,
e.g. English for Medicine, English for Technicians, English for Office Staff or English
for Psychology.

6


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

1.2. Overview of syllabus design
1.2.1. Definition of syllabus and syllabus design
It is greatly important to comprehend the concept of syllabus, which helps the author
design an appropriate and effective output. A large number of educators and
researchers have presented the definitions of syllabus. According to Hutchinson and
Waters (1987:80), syllabus is “a document which says what will (or at least what should) be
learnt”. Breen (1984:47) defines syllabus as a plan of what is to be achieved through our
teaching and our students‟ learning”. In Pienemann‟s (1985:23) words, he refers to syllabus
as “the selection and grading of linguistic teaching objectives” while its function is “to
specify what is to be taught and in what order” (Prabhu, 1984).
Generally, the definitions of syllabus can be agreed and perceived as the specifications
of what to teach and how to order the content of language teaching. Grasping the
concept of syllabus, the researcher comes to the next step to understand the definition
7


of syllabus design. According to Munby (1978), syllabus design is comprehensively
and thoroughly seen as “a matter of specifying the content that needs to be taught and

then organizing it into a teaching syllabus of appropriate learning units”. Added to
this, it is also very necessary to study the approaches to syllabus design, which helps
the researcher infer how to design an applicable and effective syllabus for learners.
1.2.2. Approaches to ESP syllabus design
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), there are three different types of
approaches to ESP syllabus design as follow: language-centered, skill-centered and
learning-centered.
1.2.2.1. Language-centered approach
The language-centered approach proceeds as follow:
1. Identify linguistic features of target situation + Select theoretical views of language
2. Identify learners‟ target
3. Create syllabus
4. Design materials to exemplify syllabus
5. Establish evaluation procedures to test acquisition of syllabus items
This model may seem to be logical, straightforward and systematic because it
begins with combining the target situation of learner and the theoretical views of
language so as to design a syllabus, which ends with the evaluation to the attainment of
the syllabus items. However, the language-centered approach still has a number of
weaknesses. Firstly, it is criticized for being a static and inflexible procedure.
Secondly, it is too much dependent on the target situation, but does not take any
account of other very important factors contributing to the creation of an effective
syllabus such as the motivation, attitude or interests of learners, etc. Finally, this
model‟s analysis of the target situation data is only at the surface level as it reveals
very little about the competence that underlines performance.

8


1.2.2.2. Skill-centered approach
The procedure of this approach is expressed as follow:

1. Identify target situation
2. Analyze skills/ strategies required to cope in target situation + theoretical reviews of
language + theoretical reviews of learning (if needed)
1. Write syllabus
2. Select texts and write exercises to focus on skills/ strategies in syllabus
3. Establish evaluation procedures which require the use of skills/ strategies in syllabus
This model aims at aiding learners in developing both skills and strategies. It
approaches in the way of not providing learners with a group of specific linguistic
knowledge, but instructing learners to know how to process the knowledge obtained.
Nevertheless, this approach still has some drawbacks that it regards the learner as a user of
language rather than a learner of language and the processes it deals with centre more
on the language use, but not on language learning.
1.2.2.3. Learning-centered approach
From Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1987) viewpoint, learning process is regarded as “a
process of negotiation between individuals and society. Society sets the target (in the
case of ESP, performance in the target situation) and the individuals must do their best
to get as close to the target as possible”. For that reason, it can be inferred that learners
should not only be taken into consideration at the target situation but also at the context
where the learning process takes place. In this learning-centered approach, the learners are
taken into account at every stage of the learning process.
The procedure of the learning-centered approach is presented as follow:
1. Identify learners
2. Analyze learning situation (+ theoretical views of learning) + analyze target situation
(+ theoretical views of language)

9


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

situation
2. Write syllabus/ materials to exploit the potential of the learning situation in the
acquisition of the skills and knowledge required by the target situation
3. Evaluation
4. (if needed, back to the 2nd step)
Bearing this in mind, it can be seen that the learning-center approach does not
only concentrate on the competence of the learners but also on how to achieve the
competence.
To sum up, in contrast with the two above approaches, the learning-centered
model does not view the learner as a language user, but really as a language learner. It
not only pays attention to the competence of the learners but also many other
significant factors contributing to the creation of an efficient syllabus such as: the
motivation, needs or attitude of learners. Perceiving the superiority of the learningcentered approach in comparison with the two other approaches, I take the learningcentered approach as a fundamental procedure for designing the syllabus for
administrative police students at PPC I.
1.2.3. Types of syllabus
Up to now, there are a variety of types of syllabus. In this part, I would like to present
the common types, which aims at finding out the most suitable one for the syllabus
design.
1.2.3.1. Structural/grammatical syllabus
Historically, structural or grammatical syllabus was the most prevalent type, in which
the selection and grading of the content is based on the complexity and simplicity of
grammatical items such as how to form and use tenses, verbs, adverbs, voices,
singular, plural, etc. (Nunan, 1988). The strongest advantage of this type of syllabus is at

10


its pedagogical method, which takes the familiar to inspire the unfamiliar so that the
learners find it much easier to acquire the new knowledge. However, the grammatical
syllabus has a number of limitations. First, it pays too much attention to the

grammatical regulations while there exists to be other linguistic aspects contributing to
the competence in language use. Second, it is mostly teacher-centred approach, which
leads learners to become more passive in English classes.
1.2.3.2. Functional-notional syllabus
This type of syllabus is, in fact, an integration of the two models: the functional and
the notional one. Functions have a bearing on the communicative purposes in real life
such as: agreeing, thanking, congratulating, etc. Notions, on the other hand, have
concern with the conceptual meanings conveyed by language, for example: size, color,
time, space, and so on. The advantage of the syllabus is that learners will be able to easily
make use of the useful functions and notions for their communicative situations in real life.
In spite of the advantage, learners may meet difficulties in creating and practicing other
communicative functions outside a specific context. Moreover, it is not easy to determine
which functional item (such as requesting) is either simpler or more complicated than
another one (such as complimenting) so that there is obstruction to obeying a logical
progression from the simplicity to the complexity of a syllabus.
1.2.3.3. Situational syllabus
The situational syllabus, on the other hand, mostly gives an emphasis to the
communicative situations which learners may use language to deal with such as:
“Seeing the dentist”, “Asking for the directions”, “Checking in and out the hotel”, etc. The
advantage of this syllabus is that it is nearer to the communicative situations of the learners‟
real life. However, similarly to the functional-notional syllabus, the situational one also gets
a number of drawbacks in terms of the ability of covering various situations outside
classroom and the gradation of difficulties in the syllabus.

11


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

In a topic-based one, the topics being selected must be relevant to the jobs of the
students so that it meets the students‟ needs and inspires the students‟ interests. For
that reason, this type of syllabus is one of the most appropriate syllabi to ESP
teaching. For all that, this type of syllabus still raises some issues in terms of how the topics
or content are decided, what the basis for assessment, the learning of content or the learning
of language should be or what the balance between the content and grammar on other
strands of the syllabus is.
1.2.3.5. The task-based syllabus
Robinson (1991: 39) speaks about the features of a procedural or task one as “consisting a
set of tasks or activities ordered according to cognitive difficulty. Class time is devoted to
performance of the task and attention is only directed to language if this is necessary for
completion of the task. A major concern throughout is that students understand the task and
what they are doing, and do not act in mechanical way”. Getting over the disadvantages
of the functional-notional, the situational and the topical syllabus, with a task-based
one, the designers are able to grade the contents in progression from the simplicity to
the complexity. Moreover, this procedural syllabus also encourages learners to use
language in order to cope with a duty in real situation. Nevertheless, this type of
syllabus also has limitations in terms of its lack of content specification (for example:
vocabulary, grammar, situation, function and notion, etc.), which may be perceived to
be easily confusing by both teachers and learners.
1.2.3.6. The skill-based syllabus
In designing this type of syllabus, the author mainly focuses on helping learners
improve the four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The advantage
of the skill-based syllabus is that it puts emphasis on the performance in relation to

12


specific skills; thence, it provides a practical model for syllabus designing and material
teaching. However, this type of syllabus is also criticized for concentrating too much

on separated aspects of performance rather than on an integrated communicative
competence.
To put it briefly, we have just taken into consideration the six types of syllabus, which
are developed based on the three above approaches to syllabus design. For each type
of syllabus, there are both the advantages and the disadvantages. To minimize the
limitations and to maximize its efficiency, the researcher, therefore, intends to adopt a
mix of the two syllabuses: the topic-based and the task-based one in designing a
syllabus for the students at PPC I, which mainly focuses on the language use in
particular tasks that administrative police officers have to fulfill in their day to day
jobs.
1.3. Needs analysis
1.3.1. Definition of needs and needs analysis
Dudley-Evans (1998) refers to learners‟ needs at the simplest level as the “identifiable
elements” of “students‟ target English situation”. On the other hand, Robinson (1991:
7-8) sees needs from both goal-oriented and process-oriented perspective. From the
goal-oriented perspective, he considers needs as “refers to students‟ study or job
requirements, that is, what they have to do at the end of the course.” while his processoriented definition of needs is “what learner needs to do to actually acquire the
language”.
As for needs analysis, in Iwai et al.‟s (1999) opinion, needs analysis refers to the
activities in order to collect information that will serve as the basis for developing a
curriculum. This curriculum will meet the needs of a particular group of students. On
the other hand, Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 54) generally define needs analysis as
what is ultimately meant by the analysis of the target needs and learning needs.

13


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

1.3.2.1. Target needs
From Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1993) viewpoint, „target needs‟ is identified as what the
learner needs to do in the target situation. This is a very broad concept, which includes
three factors: Necessities, Lacks and Wants.
Necessities: Hutchinson and Waters (1993:55) define the term “necessities” as “the
type of needs determined by the demands of the target situation”. It means that
necessities refer to what learners are expected to be able to know and do after finishing
a course.
Lacks: “Lacks” expresses the gap between the existing proficiency of the learners and
the required proficiency in the target situation (Breen, 1984; cited in Hutchinson and
Waters (1987:56)). Thus, the “lacks” is related to the “subtraction” between what
learners are expected to know and what learners already know.
Wants: “Necessities” and “wants” are two terms used by Hutchinson & Waters
(1993) which are closely related to each other. If “Necessities” refers to what learners
have to know and is regarded as “objective needs”, “wants” refers to what learners
themselves feel they need to know and is viewed as “subjective needs”.
1.3.2.2. Learning needs
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1993), learning needs is defined as what learners
need to do in order to learn. Learning needs includes analyzing the circumstances of
language learning (e.g. why learners take the course, it is a compulsory or optional course;
what they think to achieve; what their attitude towards the course is, etc.). The learning
needs plays a great role, in designing a syllabus which is appropriate to specific types of
learners.

14