CREATING a CORPUS BASED LEGAL ACADEMIC WORD LIST FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS OF ENGLISH FOR LAW AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION *** GRADUATION PAPER CREATING A CORPUS-BASED LEGAL ACADEMIC WORD LIST FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS OF ENGLISH FOR LAW AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Cấn Thị Chang Duyên, MA Student: Phạm Huyền Trang Course: QH2017.F1.E2.SPCLC HÀ NỘI – 2021 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP XÂY DỰNG SỔ TAY TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN VÀ GIẢNG VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH PHÁP LÝ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LUẬT HÀ NỘI Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Cấn Thị Chang Duyên Sinh viên: Phạm Huyền Trang Khóa: QH2017.F1.E2.SPCLC HÀ NỘI – 2021 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Pham Huyen Trang, class 17E2, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature 4th May 2021 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to send my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Can Thi Chang Duyen for having been the light that guided me throughout the days of completing this research I am extremely grateful for the valuable suggestions, constructive comments and guidance that she has provided me to amend my writing She has shown me the direction and motivated me to finish this research Additionally, this study could have not been done without the support of the teacher from Hanoi Law University (HLU) She has provided me with great insight into the learning and teaching of legal English in general and particularly in HLU since the beginning Thanks to her, I have been more confident with the work I am doing and also with the final product Furthermore, I would like to thank the participants of this research, the lawyers and students, who have made enormous contribution to the completion of the study I am also thankful that I have my family as an invaluable source of encouragement for me during the last few months Especially, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to my brother, who has lent me his laptop and supported me with all the technical issues Last but not least, I would like to express my great appreciation to my beloved friends: Chim, Phu, Thao, Vor, Do and particularly Lan Phuong, who have always been by my side and given me tremendous mental support in this long and challenging journey These incredible individuals have motivated me and raised me up whenever I wanted to give up Had it not been for their accompany along the way and throughout the sleepless nights, I would not have managed to overcome insurmountable difficulties that I encountered along the way i Abstract The present research is conducted with a view to developing an annotated Legal Academic Word List (LAWL) to serve pedagogical purposes for teachers, course designers and students at Hanoi Law University This corpus-based lexical study consists of three phases which began with the creation of a legal corpus compiled from the two textbooks used in the subject Advanced Legal English (ALE) 1, The corpus consists of 42,052 running words belonging to eight topics studied in ALE 1, In the second phase, the LAWL was produced and finally annotated Two softwares namely Anthony’s AntConc (3.5.9) and AntWordProfiler (1.5.0) (Anthony, 2020, 2021) were employed to produce the word list Based on the range and frequency criteria, a word list of 236 lemma forms was created and served as a base for the annotated LAWL From the interviews with HLU’s teachers and students and some legal practitioners, words and aspects of each entry word to be included in the annotated LAWL have been identified The final version of the annotated LAWL contains 100 legal terms of which there are 37 academic terms with specialised meanings, 34 exclusive words (not included in either the AWL or GSL) and 29 additional chunks/phrases The annotated list shows the following features of the words: phonetics, part of speech, definition, collocations, related phrases, sample sentence and topic The availability of this list has significant pedagogical contributions to the learning and teaching of students and teachers at HLU Keywords: ESP, Legal English, LAWL, Corpus-based ii List of figures, tables and abbreviations List of figures Figure Continuum of ELT course type Figure Word list development process 25 Figure Proportion of words in the LAWL 37 Figure Sample of the annotated word list 43 List of tables Table How the textbooks are used in Advanced Legal English 1, 26 Table Interview protocol 32 Table The coverage comparison of the GSL and AWL in the corpus 33 Table The top 40 lemma forms in LAWL 35 Table Summary of main findings 44 List of abbreviations ESP English for Special Purposes LAWL Legal Academic Word List AWL Academic Word List iii GSL General Service List ALE Advanced Legal English HLU Hanoi Law University ILE International Legal English: A course for classroom or self-study use PEIU-L Professional English in Use – Law LE Legal English iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Acknowledgements Abstract List of figures, tables and abbreviations i ii iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Statement of the research problem Research aims & Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Organization of the study 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 English for Specific Purposes 2.1.1 Definition 2.1.2 Classification 2.1.3 Legal English a Definition b Characteristics of English Legal Language 7 10 10 11 2.2 Vocabulary in ESP teaching and learning 2.2.1 Types of vocabulary 2.2.2 Legal terminologies 2.2.3 Selection of the appropriate vocabulary for teaching and learning 12 12 13 14 2.3 The lexical approach 14 2.4 Corpus Linguistics 2.4.1 Definition 2.4.2 Types of corpora 2.4.3 The building of a corpus a Text selection b Criteria of a corpus c The building of a specialised corpus d Procedure of building a corpus 2.4.4 Analysis of a corpus 2.4.5 Evaluation lists of high-frequency words 2.5 Review of previous studies 15 15 16 18 18 19 20 20 221 23 23 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY v 3.1 Research context 25 3.2 Creating a Legal Academic Word List (LAWL) 3.2.1 Corpus design 3.2.2 Data collection for the corpus 3.2.3 Data processing (Analysis of the corpus) 3.2.4 Wordlist annotation 3.2.5 Wordlist validation 26 27 27 28 30 31 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & DISCUSSION 4.1 Results and Findings 35 4.1.1 Research question 1: What are the most frequent academic content words in the corpus of legal english textbooks that are not among the first 2000 words of English as represented in the GSL (West, 1953) based on frequency criteria? 35 4.1.2 Research question 2: What are the most frequently used words that are exclusive to the Legal Academic Word List? 36 4.1.3 Research question 3: What are the words to be included in the annotated Legal Academic Word List? 38 4.1.4 Research question 4: What aspects can be included in the annotation for each word entry from the word list? 40 4.2 Discussions 4.3 Summary of chapter 42 45 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary 5.2 Pedagogical implications 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research References Appendices Appendix A: Legal Academic Word Corpus Appendix B: 236 Words in Legal Academic Word List Appendix C: The annotated Legal Academic Word List (LAWL) 47 49 50 5151 577 57 96 9999 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter is going to provide a brief description of the topic, the research problems, the objectives, four questions that will be addressed, the significance and the scope of this study Furthermore, an overview of this paper is presented in the first chapter 1.1 Statement of the research problem In the context of globalization and international integration, English has been rapidly growing as one of the most popular languages in the world (Graddol, 1997) As an international language, English is used for various purposes, from general to more specific ones focusing on a particular discipline such as medicine, pharmacy, IT, economics, and law With regard to the sections of law, the use of English for legal purposes has become critical in both professional and academic contexts Specifically, the unprecedented rise in international business transactions requires legal professionals to get involved in activities conducted in English, such as coming into contact with international clients, dealing with exotic documents, and doing translations (Snyder, 2004) Therefore, English has become a vital requirement in law firms as well as national and international organisations For law students, it can be seen that the ability to understand and use English in legal contexts plays a crucial role in helping them not only extend their legal knowledge and improve academic performances but also prepare for their future careers Such a high demand for language use in the legal field has highlighted the need for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) ESP refers to the teaching and learning of English as a second language where learners aim at using English in a particular domain (Coxhead, 2003) It has been a prominent area reflected in the rising number of ESP courses around the world In Vietnam, ESP has gained greater attention, especially in the field of law As a leading law school in the country, Hanoi Law University has offered a program for students majoring in English for Law in the Department of English since 2014 The students are obliged to complete four subjects relating to Basic and Advanced 61 appeal 62 appeal 63 court of appeal /əˈpiːl/ /əˈpiːl/ noun verb /kɔːt/ /əv/ /əˈpiːl/ a proceeding undertaken to have a decision reconsidered by a higher authority; esp., the submission of a lower court's or agency's decision to a higher court for review and possible reversal Intellectual Property Law on appeal; take an appeal to The case is on appeal Company Law a request to a law court or other official organization to change a previous decision They're appealing to the High Court to reduce the fine appellate court (also court of appeal, appeals court) is court which reviews judgments held by lower courts Now, unless an appeal court overturns the judgment, the Company Law company will be split in two person or company who is owed a financial obligation There are also preferential creditors, such as the company's own employees, for example in cases Competition Law SECTION B: ACADEMIC WORDS creditor /ˈkred.ɪ.tər/ noun Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up 19 where wages haven't been paid, and occupational pension schemes preferential creditor secured creditor unsecured creditor /ˌpref.ərˈen.ʃə l/ /ˈkred.ɪ.tər/ one of the people, businesses, etc to which a bankrupt company owes money that must be paid back before others /sɪˈkjʊəd/ /ˈkred.ɪ.tər/ an organization that has lent money under an agreement that they can take particular assets from the borrower if the money is not paid back /ˌʌn.sɪˈkjʊəd/ /ˈkred.ɪ.tər/ a person or organization that has lent money and has no right to the property or other assets of the borrower if the money is not paid back Barclays Bank and the preferential creditors will be repaid in full, while unsecured creditors will receive 'substantial' payments The plan is designed to satisfy its secured creditors, mostly banks and investment funds that made loans to the company in the past year Following the bankruptcy, it's too early to say if anything will be left for unsecured creditors Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up 20 Competition Law legislation /ledʒ.ɪˈsleɪ.ʃən noun / At present, UK domestic legislation only allows for claims against employers on the grounds of race, sex and disability rules or laws relating to a particular activity that are made by a government Employment Law Company Law Insolvency and Winding up Intellectual Property Law issue /ˈɪʃ.uː/ verb produce or provide something official shares of a company that are held by shareholders issued share capital corporate As you may know, a board meeting was held to determine whether new shares could be issued to certain existing shareholders in the company /ˈkɔː.pər.ət/ noun a company, especially a large one Company Law Intellectual Property Law Corporate Tax More than 47.3% of its issued capital is Company Law tied up with three strategic shareholders two tier corporate manageme corporate nt system; opportunit corporate y doctrine structure; corporate transaction; Company Law It is not uncommon for a company or a group of companies to undergo changes in corporate structure Corporate Tax Competition Law 21 corporate tax rate; corporate scandal; corporate contracts and loans; corporate finance; corporate counsel; corporate director; corporate governance corporate veil 10 authority /ˈkɔː.pər.ət/ /veɪl/ separation between the corporation and its shareholders such that the shareholders will not be held personally liable for corporate debts /ɔːˈθɒr.ə.ti/ the official power to make decisions grant for other people or authority to to tell them what they must noun Shareholders may hide behind the corporate veil, assured that their liability does not extend beyond the value of their shares The federal government has the authority to regulate phone service Company Law Competition Law Company Law Corporate Tax 22 provided over the internet 11 proceedings /prəˈsiː.dɪŋz/ 12 illegal 13 principle /ɪˈliː.ɡəl/ /ˈprɪn.sə.pəl/ noun adjective noun legal action not allowed by law A basic rule, law, or doctrine Intellectual Property Law Competition Law proceeding s against; public proceeding s; initiate proceeding s; take/defend proceeding s Allegations of sexual harassment have led to disciplinary proceedings being taken against three naval officers Information Technology and Cybercrime Employment Law Company Law Competition Law illegal cartel; illegal use; illegal money; illegal tiein sale; illegal drug The technology necessary to access the Internet has also enabled innovative illegal activities Information Technology and Cybercrime Intellectual Property Law codeterminat ion principle; precaution ary principle; sustainabl If you evaluate the suitability and implications of the planned development of land, this is known as the environment impact assessment principle Employment Law Company Law Corporate Tax Competition Law 23 e developm ent principle; impact assessmen t principle 14 arbitration 15 procedure /ˌɑː.bɪˈtreɪ.ʃən noun / /prəˈsiː.dʒər/ noun Intellectual Property Law form of dispute resolution (an alternative to litigation through the court system) in which disputes are heard and decided by an impartial arbitrator or arbitrators, chosen by the parties to the dispute The Texas high court said they had to go to arbitration because that's what the signed contract required A specific method or course of action A voluntary arbitration procedure in unfair dismissal cases is available to employers and employees as an alternative to the traditional way of resolving such cases via employment tribunals arbitration procedure Competition Law Company Law Intellectual Property Law Employment Law 24 Competition Law 16 access /ˈæk.ses/ noun the right or opportunity to use or receive something The technology necessary to access the Internet has also enabled innovative illegal activities access to Information Technology and Cybercrime Employment Law 17 regulation /reɡ.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/ noun order controlling through rules or restrictions statutory regulation; merger regulation Competition law concerns itself with the regulation of business activities which are anticompetitive Competition Law Employment Law Intellectual Property Law Company Law 18 benefit /ˈben.ɪ.fɪt/ noun Advantage; privilege Profit or gain; esp., the consideration that moves to the promisee Company Law accrue benefits; financial benefit; tangible benefit Any one small shareholder investing in the information needed to monitor management will bear all of the costs, whereas shareholders accrue benefits as a group Corporate Tax Competition Law Intellectual Property Law Information Technology and Cybercrime 25 ## tax benefit 20 document 21 file /tæks/ /ˈben.ɪ.fɪt/ a reduction in the amount of tax that a person or organization would normally have to pay in a particular situation, for doing something that the government is trying to encourage /ˈdɒk.jə.mənt/ noun Something tangible on which words, symbols, or marks are recorded (pl.) The deeds, agreements, title papers, letters, receipts, and other written instruments used to prove a fact /faɪl/ verb officially record (e.g in a court of law) There are some very attractive tax benefits to investing in these bonds Corporate Tax Company Law Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up file with; file a complaint/f ine/notice/a n The Secretary was instructed to prepare and file with the Registrar of Companies Competition Law Intellectual Property Law Company Law 26 application /action 22 compensati on 23 policy public 24 policy /kɒm.penˈseɪ ʃən/ /ˈpɒl.ə.si/ /ˌpʌb.lɪk/ /ˈpɒl.ə.si/ noun noun Remuneration and other benefits received in return for services rendered; esp., salary or wages Payment of damages, or any other act that a court orders to be done by a person who has caused injury to another The general principles by which a government is guided in its management of public affairs a government policy that affects everyone in a country or state, compensati on for employme nt policy; anticompetitiv e policy; general policy; competitio n policy Insolvency and Winding up If the tribunal decides that the law has been broken, it can award compensation for financial loss, as well as for injury to feelings or health which has been suffered as a result of the discriminatory treatment Competition Law Employment Law Intellectual Property Law Mergers and Acquisitions Intellectual Property Law Another important area of anticompetitive policy is merger control Information Technology and Cybercrime Company Law Competition Law Many people question Intellectual a public policy that Property Law continues to encourage an 27 or these policies in general: 25 contract 26 27 /ˈkɒn.trækt/ noun administrati /ədˌmɪn.ɪˈstreɪ noun ʃən/ on administrati on order /ədˌmɪn.ɪˈstreɪ ʃən/ /ˈɔː.dər/ a formal agreement between two people or companies, or a legal document that explains the details of this agreement a situation in which an independent administrator takes control of a company that cannot pay its debts in order to try to improve the company's financial situation and keep it operating an order by a court for a economically turbulent industry employme nt contracts; corporate contracts; terminate a contract; trick somebody into a contract ; make a contract Company Law Employment Law Employers are bound by the employment contract and statutory regulation Competition Law Information Technology and Cybercrime Company Law go into administrat ion; in administrat ion The company has gone into administration, which was required if any money was to be returned to creditors The company had applied to the Court Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up Insolvency and Winding up 28 company that cannot pay its debts to be managed by an independent administrator who will try to improve the company's financial situation and to keep it operating administrati /ədˈmɪn.ɪ.strə 28 tɪv/ ve relating to the work of managing adjective or organizing a business or business activity of Session for an administration order and put the business into the hands of the accountants Competition Law administrat ive matter; administrat ive obligation administra tive receiver; administra tive receiversh ip Company Law We will provide financial and administrative support to member companies Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up Company Law 29 transfer 30 grant /trænsˈfɜːr/ /ɡrɑːnt/ verb verb the act of conveying or passing property or a right to another by any method Internet users can also be tricked into money laundering activities which aid the transfer of illegal or stolen money Intellectual Property Law Employment Law Information Technology and Cybercrime Company Law 29 31 grant /ɡrɑːnt/ noun To give or confer (something), with or without compensation To formally transfer (real property) by deed or other writing To permit or agree to To approve, warrant, or order (a request, motion, etc.) Competition Law These laws grant employees the right to unionise and allow employers and employees to engage Employment in certain activities Law An agreement that creates a right or interest in favor of a person or that The grant of security for a loan by giving the creditor the right to recover his capital Intellectual Property Law Company Law Competition Law 30 affects a transfer of a right or interest from one person to another Examples include leases, easements, charges, patents, franchises, powers, and licenses The formal transfer of real property 'Ihe document by which a transfer is effected; esp., The property or property right is transferred 32 regulatory relating to the activity of checking whether /reɡ.jəˈleɪ.tər.i a business is adjective / working according to official rules or laws sum from specific assets is termed a fixed charge Intellectual Property Law Employment Law regulatory authorities; regulatory body; regulatory framework; regulatory mechanism ; regulatory objections Mergers and Acquisitions It is time to develop a new regulatory framework to ensure the safety of investors Employment Law Corporate Tax Company Law Competition Law 31 33 financial institution 34 practitioner 35 36 a company that provides financial services, for example, a bank, an insurance company, or an investment fund enforcemen t pension scheme /prækˈtɪʃ.ən.ər noun / /ɪnˈfɔːs.mənt/ /ˈpen.ʃən/ /skiːm/ noun someone who works in a job that involves long training and high levels of skill How credit unions differ from banks and other financial institutions? legal practitioner ; insolvency practitioner Picter den Bieman, a legal practitioner specialising in information technology, is speaking at a Chamber of Commerce lunch Company Law Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up Information Technology and Cybercrime the process of making sure that people obey something such as a law or rule Firms in member states where enforcement of regulations is weaker could have an unfair competitive advantage Intellectual Property Law a system for saving money for your retirement (= the period in your life when you have finished working) There are also preferential creditors, such as the company's own employees, for example in cases where wages haven't been paid, and Competition Law Employment Law Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up 32 occupational pension scheme 37 secured /sɪˈkjʊəd/ secured loans, debts, etc involve an agreement for the lender to take adjective particular assets from the borrower if the money is not paid back secured financing Her experience in corporate finance includes representing banks and other financial institutions in numerous secured financings including drafting and negotiating credit agreements and security documents in connection therewith Company Law Competition Law Insolvency and Winding up 33 ... corpus- based Legal Academic Word List for students and teachers of English for Law at Hanoi Law University? ?? The LAWL will be annotated to provide the students and teachers with more information on... ESP English for Special Purposes LAWL Legal Academic Word List AWL Academic Word List iii GSL General Service List ALE Advanced Legal English HLU Hanoi Law University ILE International Legal English: ... linguistics: corpusbased and corpus- driven A corpus- based approach relies on corpora that are balanced and representative, can be either small or large and are usually annotated Meanwhile, corpus- driven