“Педагогические  науки”/ 5.Современные методы преподавания.

Ella Shustikova

Kostanai State University named after A.Baitursynov,Kazakhstan

Some aspects of ethical-legal standards of training lawyers at practical classes on professionally-orientated English at the Law faculty.

At practical English classes the students of the Law faculty are acquainted not only with the legal norms of doing business, but also with the ethical code of a legal counsel. It is a result of the wrong feed from the TV screens and the media the image of a businessman as a liar, a cheater, a selfish and greedy person who cares only about his own benefit and not about the public interest and the environment. Of course it’s completely wrong.

To destroy the stereotype the students at the early stages of learning English are offered the material that promotes the responsibility of a legal counsel for making decisions based on ethical and legal principles. Working on the articles from the magazines and newspapers “Business Week”, ”Newsweek” ,”People”, ”The Globe” , “The Moscow Times”, ”For a Chance” the students are accustomed to the idea that in the 21^st century the role of ethics and law in international business gets more attention , as corporate executives have discussed the international code of business ethics , and they are concerned about the fact that all ethical decisions should be made on a legal basis. A law student should understand and be guided by the fact that he as a future legal counsel may influence the decision-making by the managers, taking into consideration the needs of producers , consumers , shareholders and ultimately the needs of the whole society .

The duty of a legal counsel is to make sure that businesses are guided by the laws, the violation of which may lead to arrest and imprisonment. On the example of a simple text the students learn about how having reduced the cost of spoiled food products (fruit) and put it on sale, the company was the cause of the disease among the population with some fatalities. As a result of this the company executives were arrested and prosecuted. The company had been closed due to the untimely actions of the lawyer who failed to convince the company management to comply with the ethical and legal standards.

But state laws are not always enough to conduct business within the legal framework. On the analysis of a number of texts the students see how to conduct business within the legal framework, they also get the information that in the United States more than 30% of managers admit they provide inaccurate reports on the activities of the companies.

The students have an opportunity to learn how to conduct business honestly, truthfully, fairly as they answer questions , discuss ethical dilemmas , such as receiving gifts at the conclusion of contracts , the employees’ overtime work without a payment , the increase of the amount of the employee’s work without a payment in connection with the expansion of the company.

In order to instill ethical-legal norms the following objectives are set at the English classes: 1 to introduce and consolidate the glossary necessary to discuss the issues of international legal ethics 2 to create the atmosphere of trust while discussing this important social topic on the basis of interactive communication.

A class consists of the following stages:

1. Motivation – as a preparatory stage.

2. Comprehension – analysis of the ethical issues.

3. Reflection – binding of ethical standards in resolving dilemmas, investigation of criminal cases, the discussion of codes of the business firms, survey and testing.

At the first stage-motivation-the information for the critical evaluation is given to the students on the basis of the introduced glossary. For example: to agree or object convincingly on the topic : “Are enterprises responsible to the society in terms of providing jobs and protecting the environment ?”

For this purpose a multi-variant preparatory work is carried out -questionnaires, students’ resumes on the discussed topics and etc. The teacher focuses the students’ attention on the socially important problems, requiring the use of keywords of the glossary on the topic.

At the second stage it is recommended to divide students into so called problem groups for the discussion of some dilemmas, which have been suggested by the teacher and are read aloud. The groups choose a dilemma for the discussion. The participants express various points of view and make a co-decision on the issue.

The third stage of the lesson – testing for the studied lexical and grammatical material, discussion and making up the codes of business firms. The examples of the codes can be found in the Internet.

At the end of the class the students get convinced that the solution of ethical-legal issues is difficult for managers and for lawyers , and they all have to be interested in observing ethical standards in the legal framework.

References

1Donaldson T.1989 The ethics of international business. Oxford; Oxford University Press.

2“Forum. English Teaching. 2001 №3

3http://onlineethics.org. On line Ethics Centre for Engineering and Science.

4 Кобликов А. Юридическая Этика .М. Изд Гр Норма-Инфра -М.1999.

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