Legal English Communicative Competence of Czech Lawyers – Language Skills and Language Systems Specifics

Author(s):

Veronika Tomankova(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES G 09, Language and Education

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-08

09:00-10:30

Room:

328. [Main]

Chair:

Zsuzsanna Veroszta

Contribution

Based on the methodological framework of the currently undertaken dissertation project and results of the pilot study conducted in its early stages, the objective of this presentation is to report on the results of the main study performed in the period between 2014 and 2015.

Given the thriving field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in higher education in the Czech Republic, this dissertation project pursues as its main goal the specification of the selected aspects of Legal English Communicative Competence (LECC) based on the identification of communicative needs of the professional community through semi-structured interviews and register analysis of texts submitted by respondents where an ethnographic corpus has been compiled. The paper will focus on both branches of the research which will be presented within the context of two main research subquestions exploring the selected features of LECC in the area of language skills and language systems and thus will reflect the classic dichotomy of use versus usage. The results obtained here will then be synthesized to provide the answer to the main research question which seeks to find the specific aspects of LECC formulated as objectives for the teaching of this variety of ESP in higher education.

Dominant in ESP course design, the needs analysis approach takes account of the awareness of the target situation communicative needs on the foreign language userʼs part, the so called target needs, and matches them with his or her learning needs with the purpose of closing the perceived gap between the two (Hutchinson &Waters, 1987). In an effort to identify the aspects of Legal English use within job requirements of legal professionals, the present study proposes the first step of the procedure leading towards the course design on the tertiary level of the education system.

Method

Within the framework of needs analysis, distinct methods of data collection, processing and intepretation have been employed for the area of language skills and language systems. Within the former, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with a total of 14 respondents representing three professional domains (state, academic, private). Using the semantic unit for analysis, the transcripts were coded by two independent coders. The coders used a system of categories devised in the theoretical project section and modified during the pilot research, achieving a level of inter-coder reliability averaging at the 71.6% and 85% direct percentage agreement marks for pilot and main research studies respectively (Cohen et al., 2007). While the aim of the content analysis of the interviews is to specify LECC particularly in the area of language skills, the purpose of the register analysis is to serve as a lexico-grammatical probe into the area of language systems. Based on a number of studies exploring the discourse of a professional or academic community (Cortes, 2004; Biber, Conrad & Cortes, 2004; Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2012; Cortes, 2013; Grabowski, 2013) and complying with the key requirement for the studied linguistic features to be pervasive in register analysis (Biber & Conrad, 2009), the study looked at the most frequent lexical bundles. These are defined as recurrent sequences of 3- and more words which become the building blocks of the text and an essential component of coherent linguistic production. Using the texts submitted by the respondents, four distinct ethnographic corpora determined by the text content (Academic and Study Legal Texts, Judicial Decisions, EU Legislation and Contracts) were created which contained the total of 35 texts with the average size of 14, 956 words per text and cca 9 texts per corpus. Using Sketch Engine, a text corpus management and analysis software tool, the most frequent lexical bundles were generated. For analysis, four-word bundles were chosen due to easier specification of their structure and function as opposed to three-word bundles and due to their lower degree of variability as opposed to five-word and longer bundles (Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2012; Grabowski, 2013). The generated lexical bundles were classified by two independent raters both structurally and functionally and compared with the authoritative list of lexical bundles for Academic English (Biber et al., 1999) serving as a reference corpus. The outcomes of the lexical chunks analysis were then synthesized with the situational context of these documents to produce the final register analysis.

Expected Outcomes

The results demonstrate varying degrees of importance of the four individual language skills across the professional fields where some of the respondents representing the state sphere (Constitutional Court, Supreme Administrative Court, etc.) and all of those representing the academic sphere (Masaryk University Law School) showed a fair degree of similarity in the area of language skills as well as language systems (dominant position of the reading skill where the reading of standardized documents prevails, diminished or no opportunities for legal language use with non-lawyers). The private sphere respondents (private law firms) together with law specialists working in the state institutions dealing with clients not represented by legal professionals (Public Defender of Rights, Office for International Legal Protection of Children, etc.) on the contrary emphasized the decreasing importance of the reading skill in the course of career progression characterized by the gradual replacement of extensive specialist reading with non-lawyer client communication favouring language simplification, thus displaying quite the opposite trend. The outcomes may be used to inform the course design in the area of language skills including their micro and macroskill components. Given by the formulaic nature of Legal English, the results so far obtained in the area of language systems indicate occurrence of lexical bundles dramatically exceeding the threshold levels required for a word sequence to meet in order to qualify for inclusion in register analysis (Biber et al., 2004). The results also indicate various levels of agreement between the lexical bundles generated within the four above-mentioned corpora and those on the reference list of the most frequent word sequences used in academia displaying various levels of legal vocabulary occurrence throughout the corpora. The outcomes may be used to provide some insights into the proportion of academic and Legal English when incorporating the two into Legal English course design.

References

Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow: Pearson Biber, D., Conrad, S. & Cortes, V. (2004). If you look at...: lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied Linguistics,25, 371-405. Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in Education. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from Cortes, V. (2004) Lexical bundles in published and student disciplinary writings: Examples for history and biology. English for Specific Purposes, 23, 397-423. Cortes, V. (2013). The purpose of this study is to: Connecting lexical bundles and moves in research article introductions. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 12, 33-43. Dontcheva-Navrátilová, O. (2012). Lexical Bundles in Academic texts by Non-native Speakers. Brno Studies in English, 38, 2, 37-58. Brno: Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. Grabowski, L. (2013). Register Variation across English Pharmaceutical Texts: A Corpus-Driven Study of Keywords, Lexical Bundles and Phrase Frames in Patient Information Leaflets and Summaries of Product Characteristics. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 95, 391-401. Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes. A learning-centred approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author Information

Veronika Tomankova (presenting / submitting)

Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Brno, Czech Republic

Brno

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