Reconciling language teaching and legal concepts.

Abstract

As English has become the lingua franca in the fields of international law, the question arises whether legal concepts should be lectured to non-native speakers studying law, in English directly, or whether by means of a process of collaboration between the legal specialist and the language teacher. Although the teaching of Legal English has been developed on a very large scale in France, teaching Law in English is not yet acceptable in a law faculty.

Introduction

With the expansion of globalization and an increasing tendency to privatize public services in Europe, as well as a need for English in international hearings, there is growing demand for non-native speakers of English in the law profession to improve their linguistic skills in order to live up to expectations in an international context. It therefore does not come as a surprise that international law firms and other legal institutions expect candidates to have a certain "graduateness" (Graddol, 2005) as far as English language skills are concerned.

During the past decades most European universities have introduced courses in English for Special Purposes (ESP), such as Legal English to cope with this demand. Some schools and universities even offer specialized courses, inter alia, Economics, Marketing and Management, in English directly; Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), as it has been known since the 90's. In a world of fast foods and instant solutions, is it strange that universities started following this method used in Scandinavian secondary schools and gradually spilling over to European Union countries such as France, Germany and Italy? It is clear that dual-focused CLIL methodologies have immense potential in easing the language burden in certain countries, as in enhancing language learning in others (Marsh, 2005). Although CLIL has grown in popularity, it is not been proved a successful method in teaching Law. Learners who are unfamiliar with such an immersion program could develop a total block, which can lead to serious difficulties during the learning process, (Smith, 2005) in such a specialized field. Learners' ability as well as their existing level of L2 skills, should also be taken into consideration, as those who simply do not have the capacity or the ability to learn foreign languages, are confronted with serious language learning (L.L.) and language acquisition (L.A.) (Smith, 2005) problems.

Past experience as a teacher of Legal English, has proved to the author that learners need to understand the difference between the different legal systems, in order to overcome their linguistic gaps. For the purpose of this research the focus is on reconciling the teaching of Legal English and legal concepts in a cross-cultural way. The aim is to establish a learning program of micro-tasks and macro-tasks that fits into action research, to achieve this.

Possible Methods--CLIL or no CLIL

Having researched the use of CLIL, the author realized that there could be some language skills and cultural hiccups, which could not be ignored, especially as the subject matter depends on whether it is 'soft or hard core' (Rosner, 2005). As Rosner points out, the former covers subjects such as History, or Art and the latter Psychology or Mathematics. First of all, the quality of language teaching remains a sensitive issue. Language teachers fear that the quality of language skills will suffer as a result of the difficulty of the content of the specialized discipline. Secondly, Law is an extremely precise and concise discipline and words are commonly considered the tools of the lawyer's trade. From a cultural point of view, legal principles are interpreted according to a specific legal system. Ignoring this factor often creates translation problems that have nothing to do with language.

Although Legal English has become an obligatory subject in a majority of French universities, the average French law student is not in a bilingual situation, as a result of the lack of total immersion. A method such as CLIL might therefore be impossible to put into practice immediately. If this method cannot be used, why not analyze the possibilities of an integrated method?

Integrated Method?

On the assumption that legal principles cannot be taught in English to non-native speakers directly, as a result of the problems mentioned above, we need to analyze alternative methods. Close collaboration between the specialists and language teachers seems to be an acceptable alternative. It is important that teachers do not exceed the limits of their skills. In other words it should not be expected of a language teacher to teach Law and vice versa. As a trained teacher and Law and Business Administration graduate, the author realizes the value of such a new approach. The knowledge of legal principles, Economics and Administration combined with language teaching skills become very useful in the preparation of courses.

In a phase of early experimentation, this was tried with groups of learners enrolled in Private Law and Administrative Law (Master's degree). Although it might be too early to assess, a slight improvement in the learners' progress is noticeable. In the Private Law groups there was an improvement of 50% of the weaker learners (increase of 2 points out of 20), whereas there was an improvement of 75% in the Administrative Law group, the weakest of whom obtained 10 / 20. Learners have to become familiar with the English terminology and definitions of legal concepts. The legal specialists, lawyers, and the author decide together about the content. The former checks the content, whereas the latter takes care of the linguistic part.

Step-by-step the specialist and the language teacher work together on the content and the tasks are prepared according to a structure, to achieve what Apelbaum (Legal consultant at the United Nations, UNOPS, New York) and Azam-Pradeilles (French academic) advocated: concentrating on meaning-focused / real-world activities in order to prepare the learners for future appointments in international law firms and international institutions and to participate in international conferences. The author proposes a three-phase structure in which one cannot proceed from one to the other without having established a solid foundation for future learning.

The Structure

Three phases develop round an essential strategy by focusing on the following question: What is the aim of the language learning program? One has to bear in mind that the learners in this program already have a basic knowledge of English, but are expected to adapt to Legal English; working from the known to the unknown.

Phase A--evaluation of existing skills In order to establish their level and linguistic capacity of English, all learners have to fill in a selfassessment questionnaire; the European Language Portfolio (ELP). The ELP constitutes a practical application of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages as prescribed by the European Counsel of Languages; a reference which amongst other things, provides a scale of evaluation of the general competence of a learner.

Phase B--evaluation of existing knowledge

Learners are then requested to complete a second questionnaire, which comprises a section on personal detail to establish their existing experience of English and another to assess their knowledge. Once this phase is completed, a "meaning-focused" (Ellis, 2003) language learner program is created, which consists of detailed micro- and macro-tasks by which a communicative process is used which corresponds to "real-world activities" (Ellis, 2003).

Phase C--applying ESP as 12

This is the most important phase in the structure, as it is about "managing" existing knowledge, establishing a solid foundation for ESP and guiding the learners in order to work independently in the future. It serves as link between existing skills and the aim of the language learning program, deciding on matters such as:

* the appropriate study material;

* preparation to improve reading and writing skills in Legal English; especially for bar examinations (from a cultural point of view) and participation in international legal activities.

During the program, which is developed to cover the four skills, there is continuous control to evaluate and regulate the learners' performance in tasks that correspond to social-cultural situations in real life. The content of the study material has to be selected very carefully, and adapted in such a way that learners can apply their skills of Legal English in their field of work. Bearing in mind that the type of projects and the selection of content depend on the "outcome" and the "aim", by concentrating on what has to be tested (Ellis, 2003), the process is finally evaluated to know whether the aim of the training has been attained or not. The tasks are therefore planned as follows.

Creating the Task-Based Program

These tasks in the language learning program consist of, inter alia, analyzing texts; training which leads to learning legal principles in L2 and improvement of the learners' ability as is required according to the European framework (European Language Framework Reference, 2000) or as in professional use, for example in Law. One has to distinguish between micro-tasks and macro-tasks to prepare the learners for "meaning-focused" and "real-world activities".

Macro-tasks

The purpose of macro-tasks is to enable learners to express themselves orally and literally in an international environment, for example at conferences or in international courts. They should also be able to deal with legal texts such as treaties, judgments and laws of a challenging level in this field of specialty. Once they can cope with these tasks in a confident and competent manner, the learners will be able to participate eloquently in the activities of international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank or the IMF. In a recent research group of Administrative Law, learners dealt with the text of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and the terminology of international contracts in government procurement. In numerous countries, providing public services is more and more administered as public/private partnership (PPP). As aspiring international contract lawyers, learners need to know the different forms of international contracts, for example BOT-CONSECCION, terminology which is used by the World Bank and the IMF.

Micro-tasks

Macro-tasks are backed up by micro-tasks. These tasks consist of traditional language exercises to help the learners who simply cannot perform the macro-tasks properly. In order to overcome obstacles, a special reading program of specific themes, which cover course material (definitions and legal terminology), is set up. This forms part of what is called "English support" (Rosne 2005); a program, which consists of complementary tasks and individual (self-study) projects. Learners work independently, covering about 60% of the material during class time and 40% at home. This last part, which is assessed during a subsequent course, could entail grammar exercises, reading and extra vocabulary research. Learners become more confident in Legal English and class participation improves. It is this part of the research that is being developed at present.

Organizing tasks: Content and material

As most of the learners are Francophone and not acquainted with the legal system of the countries where English is spoken, the program starts with material introducing the cultural history of English law and the differences between a codified system as it is known in Western Europe and Latin America and Common law as it prevails in Anglophone countries. Training would naturally incorporate the legal culture that influenced the legal trend of thought which corresponds to the terminology used in legislation and court procedure, which is adversary in a common law system and inquisitorial in a codified system.

Adapting the study material

The author concentrates on press articles that contain legal concepts. In the excerpt from the following article, on the violation of intellectual property in cyber space, there is reference to legal concepts such as: case, ruling, defamation, jurisdiction, amendment, appeals court, settled law, plaintiff, criminal law, lawsuits and libel. As the journalist refers to a previous court decision, the author can treat the concept of precedence (stare decisis); a common law doctrine which expresses the notion that previous court decisions must be recognized as precedents in trials, according to case law.

"A ruling by Australia's high court (...) in a (...) libel case, (...) would set an important precedent which could make all Internet publishers open to lawsuits in any of the 190 countries where the Internet can be accessed.

The Australian high court has now confirmed the earlier ruling. (...) This is just the latest in a string of cases in which courts worldwide have struggled to cope with the question of who has jurisdiction in the borderless domain of cyberspace. These have involved not just defamation, but criminal law as well. The most celebrated has been a case brought against Yahoo!,(...) It has won its case in an American federal court on the grounds of America's first amendment free-speech protections, but French civil-rights campaigners have appealed, and the case (was) heard by a federal appeals court. (...)

Settled law in most countries has long allowed defamation suits to be brought against publishers wherever their publication is circulated, irrespective of where they based their operations or did their printing. For example, Britain, where libel laws have long favoured the plaintiff, has always been a favourite forum for such suits. (...)" (December 2002, The Economist)

At the end of the program, there is a final test during which learners can apply what they have learnt during the program, comprising a compulsory section; treating a text, followed by three optional sections. There is a choice of one out of three sections based on the meaning of idioms, phrasal verbs, legal definitions and principles, which were discussed during the program. Learners can also choose to write an essay on a theme based on international legal aspects. The program is a combination of "system-based" and "performance-referenced" tasks, because after the analysis of the learners' linguistic skills, there follows an evaluation of their capacity; of their ability to put these skills into practice in a professional context (Ellis, 2003). The learners are never expected to analyze entire legal texts. It serves merely as practice to help them to analyze such texts in their future legal profession.

A typical model of a task

The text

Texts for comprehension are selected from journals and magazines of high quality according to a pre-determined level. Although the learners' comprehension cannot be measured (NarcyCombes, 2005), one can assess what they can do with their existing knowledge.

Legal definitions

As far as elementary legal vocabulary is concerned, learners are expected to define, very concisely, concepts such as contract, solicitor, attorney, tort law, antitrust law, and so forth.

A precis of the text

As jurists are expected to use concise language, learners practice summarizing extracts from texts. They have the opportunity to develop an astute dexterity by summarizing a text without losing the global sense thereof; a step in the right direction to apply in their future profession.

A composition

Writing a composition requires an extraordinary control of the language as learners select a theme of own choice and develop the ideas as desired, combining their written and linguistic skills with an ability to formulate external ideas of international legal themes in a language of specialty, which differs immensely from their mother tongue. By doing this, communication applies a production and comprehension process at the same time.

Conclusion

The aim of this language learning program is to enable learners to respond to the demands of professional training or respectively to real-world activities. Working from the known to the unknown puts them at ease. Although they are confronted with terminology of specialty, they can familiarize themselves with what they have already learned about the language, since the grammatical structure does not change. The same method can therefore be applied to Economic English, Fiscal English and Medical English.Continuous evaluation, as is the case in this specific task-based language learning program, aims at correcting the tendency that makes the outcome of one category affect another. The final evaluation produces the outcome of the experienced knowledge. In order to obtain a successful outcome, the learners understand that they have to use the language in such a way to promote the learning of the language and that language learning ought to be continued life-long, and it should be encouraged.

References

Apelbaum, R. (2004). Les PPP et le developpement du droit public francais a l'etranger. Actualite Juridique Droit Administratif (ADJA), 60 (32), 1759-1766.

Azam-Pradeilles, A. (2003). English As The Language Of International Public Administration : The Professional Language Of Millions Of Civil Servants Of All Nationalities All Over The World. GERAS conference, http://www.mshs.univ-poitiers.fr/colloques/geras2003/ResAAP.htm

Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Graddol, D. (2005). Spoken Everywhere, but at what cost? The Guardian Weekly. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0,,1464372,00.html

Marsh, D. (2005). Adding language without taking away. The Guardian Weekly. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0,,1464367,00.html

Narcy-Combes, J-P. (2005). Didactique des langues et TIC: vers une recherche-action responsable, Ophrys.

Rosner, G. (2005). Response to Smith article below. http://www.onestopenglish.com/content_language_integratedlearning_clil /clil_case StudyGR.htm

Smith, K. (2005). Is this the end of the language class? http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/teaching/story/0,,1394830,00.html

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. (2000). Strasbourg.

Elsa Liebenberg, Law Faculty, University of Nice, France

Liebenberg, M.B.A., Masters in Law, doctoral student at Paris-3 and lecturer of Legal English at the University of Nice, France, specializing in reconciling L2 and legal concepts.