engleski

Legal English in an Advanced Business English Course in Croatia: Identifying and Resolving Ambiguities

Legal English (LE) plays a significant role in the syllabi of advanced courses in Business English (BE), underlining the growing need for teachers to make their students aware of nuances of meaning in three interrelated disciplines: language, business and law. This calls for a teaching approach characterised by Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) supported by the interdisciplinary co-operation of the teacher with experts in business and law.The paper discusses possible sources of terminological confusion and misinterpretation in elements of BE syllabi that clearly show overlaps between the language of business and that of law: the establishment of a business (company formation) and company capitalisation, management and corporate governance, and fundamental changes in a company (mergers and acquisitions). It presents reasons for current ambiguities, i.e. the impact of different legal traditions and systems (continental law vs. common law), differences in business and legal interpretations, and terminological ambiguities in Croatian (legal interpretation vs. general language, and ambiguities within national legislation). Specific examples of terminological difficulties in the above-mentioned fields are accompanied by suggestions on how to resolve common dilemmas.

Legal English, Business English, terminology, ambiguities

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