Ways to improve future legal professionals’ foreign language communicative competence

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Ways to improve future legal professionals' foreign language communicative competence

I.M. TURCHYN

PhD (Pedagogy), Acting Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages, Lviv National Environmental University, Dubliany, Lviv region, Ukraine

N. H. HORODETSKA

PhD (Psychology), Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages, Lviv National Environmental University, Dubliany, Lviv region, Ukraine

S.R. DOBROVOLSKA

PhD (Economics), Acting Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages, Lviv National Environmental University, Dubliany, Lviv region, Ukraine

N.B. HAVRYSHKIV

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages, Lviv National Environmental University, Dubliany, Lviv region, Ukraine

The article deals with the development of future legal professionals' foreign language communicative competence in the process of studying English. The aims of our research include providing the definition of the foreign language communicative competence and outlining the ways of its development for future legal specialists. The results suggest that the usage of videos on legal topics (TV shows, films and others) foster grasping new material. Videos and audio recordings can be used to demonstrate how native speakers interact with others in their respective fields while taking into account the context. Instructions, given by educators about oral communication with people from foreign countries may contribute to the future negotiations, meetings and debates. It can be assumed that background knowledge of different countries, culture, other peculiarities are beneficial for communication. The mock trials can be done during English classes to encourage students. Dialogues or monologues on professional themes are productive in developing foreign language communicative competence. Future lawyers' professional competency is fundamentally based on their ability to cope with compliance between verbal and nonverbal components of communication. Participants in the educational process have to pay attention to the fact that they communicate with one another by employing gestures, facial expressions, and body lan-guage. The article discusses lawyers' speech culture, which is an important quality. Law blogging is a common activity and a convenient way to find information on legal issues. Innovative ways of choosing communicative tasks can better the educational process.

Key words: foreign language communicative competence, legal professional, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, culture, law blogging.

ШЛЯХИ ПІДВИЩЕННЯ ІНОЗЕМНОЇ КОМУНІКАТИВНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТІ МАЙБУТНІХ ФАХІВЦІВ-ЮРИСТІВ

І.М. ТУРЧИН

кандидат педагогічних наук, в. о. доцента кафедри іноземних мов,

Львівський національний університет природокористування,

м. Дубляни, Львівська область, Україна

Н.Г. ГОРОДЕЦЬКА

кандидат психологічних наук, доцент кафедри іноземних мов,

Львівський національний університет природокористування,

м. Дубляни, Львівська область, Україна

С.Р. ДОБРОВОЛЬСЬКА

кандидат економічних наук, в. о. доцента кафедри іноземних мов,

Львівський національний університет природокористування,

м. Дубляни, Львівська область, Україна

Н. Б. ГАВРИШКІВ

старший викладач кафедри іноземних мов,

Львівський національний університет природокористування,

м. Дубляни, Львівська область, Україна

У статті розглянуто формування іншомовної комунікативної компетентності майбутніх юристів у процесі вивчення англійської мови. Метою нашого дослідження є визначення поняття «іншомовної комунікативної компетентності» та окреслити шляхи її розвитку у майбутніх представників юридичної професії. Результати свідчать про те, що використання відео на юридичну тематику (телешоу, фільми та інші) сприяє засвоєнню нового матеріалу. Відео та аудіозаписи можна використовувати, щоб продемонструвати, як носії мови взаємодіють з іншими у відповідних галузях, беручи до уваги контекст. Інструкції педагогів щодо усного спілкування з людьми з інших країн можуть покращити проведення майбутніх переговорів, зустрічей і дебатів. Можна припустити, що знання різних країн, культури, інших особливостей є корисними для комунікація. Імітаційні судові процеси можна проводити під час уроків англійської мови, щоб заохотити учнів. У формуванні іншомовної комунікативної компетентності продуктивними є діалоги чи монологи на професійні теми. Професійна компетентність майбутніх юристів фундаментально базується на їх здатності впоратися з відповідністю між вербальним і невербальним компонентами комунікації. Учасникам освітнього процесу необхідно звернути увагу на те, що вони спілкуються один з одним за допомогою жестів, міміки, мови тіла. У статті обговорюється культура мовлення юристів, яка є важливою особистісною характеристикою. Ведення юридичних блогів - поширена діяльність і зручний спосіб пошуку інформації з правових питань. Інноваційні способи вибору комунікативних завдань можуть покращити процес навчання.

Ключові слова: іншомовна комунікативна компетентність, юрист, вербальна комунікація, невербальна комунікація, культура, юридичний блог.

Introduction

foreign language communicative competence

The perfect command of the English language is an indispensable part due to current conditions of continuous development. Foreign language proficiency is often advanced by businesspeople, politicians, IT experts, and legal profession members. Law students are aware of the value of using a foreign language practically in both personal and professional contexts. Therefore, a wonderful strategy to become a great lawyer in terms of competitiveness is to constantly acquire new words, grammar rules, and legal topics. It is crucial to have a practical command of a foreign language, which includes the capacity to receive and send information and interact with sources written in that language. Therefore, the development of foreign language communicative competence for future lawyers is one of the major tasks of English university teachers.

Review of the literature. In Ukraine, education is implemented in accordance with the legal framework. Thus the Law of Ukraine «On Education» and the Standard of Higher Education (the specialty «Law») reflect our pedagogical science and international educational trends. Different defi-nitions of communicative competence are found in N. Soroka and T Shchokina's scientific paper [Soroka, Shchokina]. I. Savka and T Yaremko [Savka, Yaremko] and V Bondarenko [Bondarenko] researched teaching a professional foreign language for future law specialists and J-U. Sandal, T Detsiuk, N. Kholiavko - for engineering students within university extracurricular activities [Sandal, Detsiuk, Kholiavko]. The scholar M. Volodarska [Volodarska] points out the importance of educational videos. In the thesis «Training of future masters in foreign philology for the formation of professional communicative competence of students of the Pedagogical University», D. Beheka [Beheka] explains the notions of «competence», «competency», «competence approach», «communication», looks at the problems the formation of professional communicative competence and basic requirements for teaching students. Some studies have attempted to explain nonverbal communication [Bujalkova, Zrnikova; Hartley, Karinch]. One study by V Tym- kova [Tymkova] examined lawyers' speech culture.

Thus, the aims of our research are to provide the definition of foreign language communicative competence and to outline the ways of its development for future legal specialists.

Research results and discussion

The official definitions of «competence» and «learning outcomes» are to be provided so as to research this topic to a full extent. According to the Law of Ukraine «On Education», competence is «a dynamic combination of knowledge, skills, ways of thinking, opinions, values, other personal qualities, which recognizes a person's ability to successfully socialize, perform professional and/or further educational activity». It is of vital importance to understand the meaning of «learning outcomes as knowledge, skills, mindset, values, other personal qualities gained in the process of education, upbringing and development, which may be identified, planned, evaluated and measured, and which a person can demonstrate after having completed an educational program or individual educational components» [The Law of Ukraine]. Considering teaching foreign languages, law students must learn to speak official and foreign languages fluently, using legal terminology as well as provide accessible information to respondents about certain legal issues [The Standard of Higher Education]. Learning outcomes can demonstrate concentrating on knowledge and skills to be beneficial to students.

Acquiring the following general competences (ability to apply knowledge in feasible situations, to communicate in a foreign language and to learn and master relevant issues) is crucial for future lawyers studying foreign languages at establishments of higher education [The Standard of Higher Education].

It is worth mentioning the precise explanation of «foreign language professional compe- tence», provided by J-U. Sandal, T Detsiuk, and N. Kholiavko «foreign language skills, both verbal and non-verbal, which include listening and reading skills, writing and speaking skills, enabling a specialist to carry out their professional duties at a high level in the context of intercultural, inter-ethnic dialogue and mutual understanding» [ Sandal, Detsiuk, Kholiavko : 20]. Some scientists define lawyers' «foreign language professional competence» as the lawyer's professional significant integrative quality, the formation of values of the legal profession, which ensures the decoding of foreign legal texts, legal terminology, its use and the ability to international legal activity [Savka, Yaremko :103].

Future legal experts learn both the professional and everyday vocabulary. Foreign language teachers should choose texts on professional issues in order to show new words, their usage in the context. Future lawyers have to be aware of legal terms, lexical cliches, and grammar, as acquiring professional writing skills will give ample incentives during the upcoming years.

The most relevant finding is that communication is the major task in teaching a foreign language. Students' inability to communicate is caused by errors in grammar and syntactic structures, as well as a lack of understanding of native speakers' culture and traditions. Thus, English teachers should plan communicative activities in advance, predicting stumbling blocks in speaking, and adopting a creative strategy. Background knowledge of different countries, culture, other peculiarities are beneficial for communication.

According to the Brazilian scholar Paulo Freire's theory of «unity in diversity», all participants in the educational process should be aware of other cultures. It concerns teachers who are the mediators in this process. Taking into account multiculturalism, he states that all cultures must coexist on an equal basis [Turchyn]. Learning outcomes based on the multiculturalism principle encompass integrating internationalized content with the educational discipline content, learning cultures of other countries and understanding their importance, awareness about own cultural identity, demonstrating tolerance for cultural values of people from other cultures, and others [Smolikevych, Turchyn : 147].

The fact that there are significant differences between improving students' written and oral com-munication is one of the issues in this paper. Students have time to focus on the content of the written text. In contrast, learners should be quick-seekers of accurate words as well as attentive not to distort the essence of the message. Nevertheless, oral communication allows direct contact and opportunities to agree or disagree [Bondarenko : 23].

Regarding oral communication, English teachers should instruct other participants of the educa-tional process on how to interact orally with people from other countries. Before speaking, they should prepare, find words connected to the law topic, and have a plan for their speeches, which should be short, understandable and meaningful. Students have to take into consideration foreigners' education, aim, and desire. Future lawyers know the general rule to be patient and neutral. They should research words related to the legal topic, develop a plan for their speeches, which should be succinct, clear, and relevant before speaking. Students must examine foreigners' education and goals. Future representatives of law professions should be aware that the general guideline is to be calm and impar-tial. Communicative tasks during English classes may be the following ones: one student is a solicitor while another is a barrister (it is interesting due to the cultural differences, as such professions do not exist in Ukraine) or one learner can speak about the problem while the other one gives legal advice in simple and accessible language. It is imperative to find materials for inciting curiosity during debates, discussions or speeches. Boring tasks or inappropriate approaches to teaching, for example, learning single words without context, can lead to losing motivation.

Taking into account the fact that written communication includes writing informal and formal letters, Curriculum Vitae, application letters, and others, students should be able to begin and end letters as well properly as use formal language and specific phrases. For instance, it is common to write letters of complaint in Britain. Teachers can give homework to write such letters as it is a good illustration of applying skills. Concerning oral communication skills, students can discuss their complaints during English classes. Dialogues or monologues on professional themes are productive in developing foreign language communicative competence. Furthermore, students read about diverse legal professions and it would be appropriate to prepare speeches on them.

Another important aspect is the issue of verbal and nonverbal communication. In the scientific work, D. Beheka considers the concept of communication as «a process that involves the use of both verbal and nonverbal communication channels for training, pedagogical and educational communica-tion, interaction and mutual influence of individuals, exchange of information, international relations in a foreign language» [Beheka : 26].

Future lawyers' professional competency is fundamentally based on their ability to cope with compliance between verbal and nonverbal components of communication. Some studies show that students do not focus on nonverbal communication enough. As a result, it is crucial to integrate professional nonverbal behavior training into the teaching of foreign languages [Bujalkova, Zrnikova]. Every culture has acceptable behaviour standards. People lose the ability to perceive the true message when they understand a gesture considering its meaning in their culture. Indians frequently use head movements that Americans might misunderstand for other things. In addition, regardless of culture, all humans share some movements [Hartley, Karinch]. Lawyers' speech culture is an important quality that include such elements as correct pronunciation, avoidance of vulgarisms, provincialisms, archaisms, dialecticisms, parasitic words, phonetic expressiveness, intonation, clear diction, correct use of logical accents and psychological pauses, correspondence between words, gestures and facial expressions [Tymkova : 512]. Participants in the educational process have to pay attention to the fact that they communicate with one another by employing gestures, facial expressions, and body language.

In addition, it is necessary to note that videos and audio recordings can be used to demonstrate how native speakers interact with others in their respective fields while taking into account the context. To add more, teachers should pay attention to speakers' pronunciation and intonation. The scholar M. Volodarska made deep research on using educational videos in order to develop future lawyers' English professional communicative competence. She states that it is an incredible strategy for adapting to negotiations in the professional sphere. To make watching and understanding films easier, the teacher should introduce new words while using a variety of tasks. The demonstration and post-viewing phases can involve a lot of tasks [Volodarska : 15-16].

TV shows, films and others foster grasping new material. Teachers and students have a great oppor-tunity to watch short legal videos on LexisNexis platform. They provide legal content, analytics, impactful decisions which can be used during English classes. In addition, students can read the information on Halsbury's laws of England, all England law reports, and others [LexisNexis]. We also want to pay attention to the reality court show The People's Court, which won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program several times. Students can watch hearings in simulated courtrooms or listen to the official podcast. Teachers can select a few scenarios from courtroom shows; assign students the roles of a judge, an attorney, a prosecutor, witnesses and others to perform a mock trial. Such role-play can motivate students. Both university and school teachers prefer conducting mock trials. For example, it is popular to have such trials on politicians or literary heroes during classes.

In the case of law blogging, which is a common activity and a convenient way to find information on legal issues, teachers can ask students to speak about their favourite bloggers or become law bloggers during English classes. They can make videos of themselves on certain legal topics at home and demonstrate them at university. They can create live streams speaking on legal topics.

Conclusions

The main aim of the current scientific paper was to determine the importance of foreign language communicative competence of the students of the specialty «Law». Future legal professionals should be competent in the foreign language taking into account speaking and writing skills. Successful completion of the discipline requires active engagement in learning English that will help students to develop foreign language communicative competence. Teachers of English should give other students lessons on oral communication with people from diverse cultures. Innovative and compelling ways of choosing communicative tasks can better the educational process. The educators encourage students to improve their listening skills, reading comprehension of adapted and original texts, writing a diversity of official and informal letters as well as communication skills. More insight into the development of foreign language communicative competence would help us to establish a higher level of accuracy on this matter.

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11. Sandal, J-U., Detsiuk, T., & Kholiavko, N. (2020). Developing foreign language communicative competence of engineering students within university extracurricular activities. Advanced education, Vol. 14, 19-28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.192411

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14. Volodarska, M. (2022). The Role of Educational Video in the Development of Future Lawyers' English Professional Communicative Competence. Humanitarian Studios: Pedagogics, Psychology, Philosophy, Vol. 13 (2), 12-25.

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