The Definition of Specific-Purpose English Language Competences Needed in Border Control and Their Development Potentials

The aim of this series of papers is to present modern methods of linguistics and language pedagogy concerning specific-purpose language competences and to describe the English competences EU border guards need for their work and international activities and to explore the prospects for their improvement. The first part discusses the dilemmas and methodology related to the definition of specific-purpose language competences, indispensable for language course design. The second and the third parts wish to prove that the ongoing FRONTEX project entitled English Communication for Border and Coast Guards very well illustrates how the new approach to needs analysis methods is used to define the English language skills needed for border control in the EU. Using the authentic material provided by border guards and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the author also makes an attempt to define the ESP competences at various levels, needed for their work, according to the categories used in applied linguistics. The second and the third parts discuss elementary and intermediate (A2/B1) and upper-intermediate (B2) EBG competences respectively.