Analysis of Functional Language of Thai Case Police Applied in the Design of a Text-based Bachelor of Arts Program

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2025

Authors

Rotkert, Napatsinee

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Mickan, Peter

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Abstract

This research aims to create a curriculum for professionals. To achieve this, a career—Thai case police officer—has been chosen as a studied model. This research focuses on an investigation of language used by Thai case police officers. An English text-based curriculum for Thai police is then developed before it is used as a model to apply to other professions. The study begins with a collection of seven verbal interactions between Thai police case officers and visiting international tourists followed by a categorisation into purposeful types. Each conversation is then linguistically analysed using Systemic Functional Linguistics and Conversation Analysis tools—functional stages, speech functions and responses, clause analysis, mood analysis, appraisal analysis, and modality analysis. These analyses are used to explore the roles, responsibilities, and power exercised by the police officers. Additionally, the analyses investigate how the officers navigate verbal texts when they encounter communication challenges. The analyses demonstrate that there are three purposeful categories: consultation, report, and general talk in the case office. As for the social roles of police when on duty, these are varied: advice and information provider, interrogator, investigator, official reporter and safety provider. The police officers mainly initiate and control the direction of the conversations. They use command and question speech functions to develop conversations. This supports the authority of Thai police officers without visitors protesting. Also, the police do not display personal feelings or judgements, though they show certainty when speaking. Finally, both interlocutors face some linguistic challenges, such as the use of one mood choice to achieve another purpose, pronoun ambiguity, and pronunciation issues. However, they recognise the issues and are able to overcome them. Findings reveal that Thai police officers rely on simplified yet effective language to achieve practical outcomes and that their success often depends more on communicative awareness than grammatical accuracy. These insights were used to inform the development of a curriculum framework tailored to the needs of Thai police officers, which was later adapted to design a broader undergraduate program—English for Careers. The proposed comprehensive curriculum framework integrates social practices, real-life texts, and workplace communication skills to prepare learners for meaningful use of English across a range of professional contexts.

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School of Humanities : Linguistics

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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities : Linguistics, 2025

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This electronic version is made publicly available by the University of Adelaide in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. This thesis may incorporate third party material which has been used by the author pursuant to Fair Dealing exceptions. If you are the owner of any included third party copyright material you wish to be removed from this electronic version, please complete the take down form located at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/legals

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