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

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