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GAZETTE
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
1994
Teaching App l i ed Languages in a Legal-
Comme r c i al Env i ronment: t he
Law/French Exper i ence
by Sofie M. Cacciaguidi MA*
"In a world which is becoming
increasingly internationalised,
the
lawyer who is incapable of speaking
a foreign language, often appears
today as a specialist struck down by
some handicap. The illiterate of the
twenty first century will be the one
who only speaks one language. "
(Patrick Maistre du Chambon)
Introduction
In 1994, the Law Faculty at
University College Galway launched
an undergraduate degree in Corporate
Law (B. Corp Law). The three-year
degree programme is designed to
provide a foundation course in law
with particular emphasis on business
and commercial law. The degree is
interdisciplinary in nature involving
business and language options. The
programme is intended to provide
students with an academic foundation
for entry to the legal profession as
corporate lawyers with particular
emphasis on international mobility.
The courses included on the
programme include, among others,
contract, European Community law,
commercial and company law, legal
and business ethics, international trade
; law, banking law, etc... In addition
students are required to take a
substantial number of courses in the
business area including finance,
economics, accounting, marketing etc.
A substantial part of the syllabus is
also devoted to a modern language
area with the emphasis on preparing
students for work in an increasingly
pan-European and global business
environment.
For the first year of this programme
our students were offered the
opportunity of pursuing an advanced
course in legal and commercial
French and so far, over 60% of the
students embarked on the three year
legal French stream. As with many
binary programmes involving applied
Sofie M. Cacciaguidi MA
languages, the Bachelor of Corporate
Law, with its emphasis on legal French
presented to a linguist the challenge to
balance the time constraint on teaching
applied languages as part of a binary
programme with the demands of
traditional language teaching. It also
offered the challenge to develop work
methods to teach exclusively a
language for special purpose, bearing
in mind that two different systems of
laws in this case are applied: common
law in Ireland and civil law in France:
here lay the traps and ambiguities of
operating not only in two different
languages but also from a legal system
to another.
The Role of Modern Language
Teaching
In recent years, there has been an
increased realisation of the importance
of applied languages in maintaining
our competitiveness. In the past,
language teaching has played only a
minor role in professional and
vocationally-oriented third level
programmes. Languages have
remained the domain of the
humanities with the emphasis on the
study of literature, culture and the
arts.
1
The growing recognition of the
importance of languages in the
curriculum has led to a dramatic
growth in new binary programmes
combining business/legal degrees with
modern languages. Many of these
programmes have been developed in
response to the demands,
opportunities and challenges of the
single European market and the
increased globalisation of markets.
The role of modern language teaching
came under scrutiny in a report
submitted to the Minister for
Education in June 1993.
:
In their
report the authors highlight the aim of
the Green Paper on Education to "set a
target of placing Ireland on a par with
its EC partners in terms of its ability
to communicate in other languages in
the Community." They also found that
the "levels of foreign language
proficiency in Ireland are very low by
European standards" and they go on to
question the quality of the language
learnt by two-thirds of students sitting
the Leaving Certificate. Furthermore
they point out the Irish complacency,
particularly in the area of business,
regarding the use of the English
language:
"less than 10% of the world's
population speaks English as a
native language, and less than 20%
of EC citizens do so. [...]. While
English is the main language of
International commerce, the
significance of this can be easily
exaggerated, especially below the
level of the top world business elite.
Consequently, rather than resting
on our linguistic laurels we must
built on them. '
n
Today, it is increasingly apparent that
a lack of at least a second language
will narrow the choice of destination
of Irish graduates looking to broaden
their experience to English-speaking
countries and will render them unable
to take advantage of market
opportunities now existing in the
European Union. The low level of our
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