Content and Language Integrated Learning Approach in Designing an English Course Book for Police Investigators at the People’s Police University in Vietnam

Abstract

In the 1990s, locally designed and produced materials used for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at the People’s Police University in Vietnam (VPPU) proved ineffective due to flaws in L2-L1 translation. Since the creation of the original materials, English teachers at the VPPU have made consistent efforts to fix the problems, ranging from orthodox to empirical and experimental. Studies in recent years indicate that needs analysis seems to be a useful approach that can be transferred between language-led ESP and the more balanced Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). This paper reviews the evolution of CLIL to define the curriculum and to establish the scope of designing materials. It attempts to answer several significant questions about the context of education, such as what CLIL based materials have been published and compiled internationally, regionally and nationally, and the effectiveness of teaching with those materials in Vietnam. A case study of pilot teaching of CLIL-based materials conducted in the People’s Police Academy in Vietnam (VPPA) - an educational institution of the shared context as the VPPU. The aim of this paper is to make a proposal for the application of appropriate CLIL models in developing specific course books for police students in the VPPU.