PowerPointPrsentation

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Teaching Legal English to the Taxman Addressing
the Needs of Public Administration
Dugald Sturges, Bundessprachenamt, Hürth, Germany
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• The Needs    
•     Contract Language,
• -    Tax Law terminology,
• -    Trade Law terminology,
• -    The language of criminal procedure, and
• - Language skills needed for mutual assistance
  requests and liaising with foreign authorities.

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NFA brought forward x Z (? FA long x Z1) - (?
FA short x Z2) 360
C
x CR
The arms length principal when dealing with
the Taxman
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• Document-based case studies,
• Tasks using genuine and authentic documents,
  which in the first instance address problems of
  language, then in the second use the texts to
  solve a real-life problem,
• Providing specialist glossary material tailored
  to the students particular field, and
• Simulation exercises which build on the work
  experience of the officers

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BSprA S 3 1 Hürth

• 11 Instructors of English
• Ca. 60 courses per year (1-18 weeks)
• Ca. 50 SLP (NATO Standard Language Profile), 50
  ESP
• ESP Component
• Military English
• Preparation for Deployment (UN Observers,
  Multinational Staff Officers, Patrol leaders -
  Hammelburg)
• NATO-Internships
• BAWV Travel Management
• Aviation English (BPol FG)
• English for Police Officers (PFA Münster)
• English for Customs Auditors and Investigators
• English for Tax Auditors and Investigators
• Legal English (BGH, BVG, BA - Karlsruhe, BVerG -
  Leipzig, Bundeswehr Legal Advisors)

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English for Tax Auditors and Investigators Course
objective To develop professional language
skills in order to enable tax auditors and
investigators to function successfully in
English. Skills enabling Vocabulary building
and improvement of competence in speaking,
listening, reading writing and structures based
on authentic Material in the target language
English Concentration on language functions
required in the workplace, such as -
Telephoning and correspondence - Meetings
and negotiations - Final audit conferences -
Questioning Expanding and activating specialist
vocabulary in the fields of - Tax law
- Accounting Guest speakers on the UK and US Tax
regimes and authorities Case studies based on
authentic documentary material Special language
requirements of individual course members (to be
determined through individual needs analysis)
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A Typology of ESP Students
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• Why legal English?
• Not for its own sake.
• Not primarily for production.
• For very specialized tasks a VAT auditor
  requires different skills than an investigator
• Precise needs analysis is essential
• Flexibility in choosing teaching material
• Need to aim as close as possible to the
  students particular field EVSP

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Document-based case studies
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Tasks using genuine and authentic documents
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the law applies is valid
to apply
to apply force use
to apply for an extention request
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• Both of party A and party B has agreed for
  signing of the co-operation contract in according
  to articles as follows
• 2.2 Party A shall arrange a person in charges for
  marketing executive for all manufactures.

3.6 Providing receipts for amount of business
costs and confirm the commission which Party B
will be benefited.
.6 3.6 Party B will provide receipts for the
amount of business costs and claim the commission
to be credited to Party B. Or 3.6 Party B
will provide receipts for the amount of business
costs and Party A will confirm the commission
credited to Party B. Or 3.6 Party B will
provide receipts for the amount of business costs
and will confirm the receipt of the commission
credited to Party B.
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Notice the -ings How would you translate
them?   Commencing on April 1, 20XX and every
twelve (12) months thereafter The interest will
be paid on reducing balance basis The Borrower
shall give the Lender such documents or
certificates relating thereto The Loan will be
for financing working capital purposes The
interest accruing on the principal shall be
calculated...
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Simulation exercises based on the work experience
of the students The language student as Subject
Matter Expert
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Providing specialist glossary material
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Awareness of differences in US/UK/IRL/German tax
law
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Andere Länder, andere Sitten
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Caveat
A course in Legal English for tax officials, not
a course in English on Tax Law!
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Summary
Negotiated Learning - Needs analysis, regular
checks and mid-course corrections
essential Methods which build on the specialist
knowledge of the learners to establish a bridge
to increase linguistic awareness. Task-based
exercises using realia and documentary material
to simulate a working situation Concentration on
the language structures actually encountered in
work Awareness of differences in US/UK/IRL/
German tax law not for their own sake, but as a
key to understanding vocabulary
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Thank you for your attention.