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      Police English course advice - ESP
      Submitted by meljthomson on 18 December, 2009 - 21:17

      Hi,

      I have been asked to deliver a short (20 hour approx) ESOL course for non-native speakers who want to take the police entrance exam in the UK.

      Has any one delivered/ heard of an ESP for Police course? (not necessarily in the UK)

      I'd really like to find out if any materials exist for this vein of ESP - my internet searches haven't come up with much so far...

      Many thanks!

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      Heath's picture
      Heath
      Public Security Bureau
      Submitted on 21 December, 2009 - 02:34

      Wow, that sounds really interesting.

      I have done something similar in Beijing, unfortunately my experiences won't be of any value because the learner backgrounds are just too different.  We were involved in teaching a 6-month, 2-hours-a-day, twice-a-week 'pre-Olympics' course in 2005/6.  At first, we were planning to interview a few police and do some research online to find out what kind of ESP language would be involved... but we very quickly found out that the people we were teaching were false beginners and that the main aim was to be able to make tourists feel welcome and perhaps give directions and not much more than that.  In fact, the only 'specialist' language we ended up including were Olympic's related (sports & venues, really).

      Have you thought about actually just going down to a Police Station and asking about the Entrance Exam.  They'd probably be really interested in what you were doing and might go out of their way to help, and at worst they'd be able to give you an indication of the general format (eg. Is it written, spoken, or both?  Does it focus more on finding out if the candidate is a good/honest/trustworthy/hardworking person, or on their knowledge of the law?  Is knowledge of the law tested in general terms or based around specialist language?  etc).

      While at the station, picking up a few brochures and handouts would help too.

      The only other thing I can think of, is that if the students are planning on taking the exam, there's a good chance they have exam-prep books.  If you could borrow one of those from a student it would help you get an idea of what kind of language will be involved.

      Sorry I can't be much more help. 

       

      Konrad's picture
      Konrad
      ESP - Police
      Submitted on 9 August, 2010 - 00:59
      In Brazil, the Police Academy entrance exams are general English reading and vocabulary exams, as they are taken by other candidates to university degree courses. I would say that candidates need to be at B1 - B2 to get 70 - 100%.  The exams (not only English but also other subjects) are considered challenging or difficult by the Police Academy candidates, who need to achieve a very high score. These ESP students are usually low ranking police officers (aged around 20-25) and young adults who have finished secondary school. Their aim is to join the Police Academy in order to become high ranking officers in the Military Police Force in Brazil, whose income is also considered very high. I have also had ESP police students preparing for post-graduate English exams, necessary for Master's and PhD programmes.  These students are often high ranking officers learning academic English, not 'Police English'. The experience in both teaching situations has been great, due to the commitment of the students, who always show determination and interest in learning. For other teaching situations which involve police-related courses, there are very interesting coursebooks available in the market nowadays (Military, Aviation, etc).