English for Public Administration - Lelija Sočanac, Marijana Javornik Čubrić

PREDGOVOR / PREFACE

English for Public Administration is the first textbook that has been prepared to meet the specific needs of public administration students. Previously, Croatian students of public administration used the same teaching materials as law students for their English language courses, with a few additional chapters on topics related to public administration. The authors hope that the new textbook will provide a more focused approach to the study and teaching of English for specific purposes in the field of public administration.

The book consists of the following four modules, each corresponding to one English for Public Administration course:

1. Introduction to the state and governance;
2. Organization of government;
3. Civil service;
4. European integration and public administration reforms.

Each module consists of six units devoted to different, but interrelated topics. Each unit is divided into two parts.

• The first part provides an introduction to a topic,
• The second comprises an extract from an original text related to public administration.

In this way students can get acquainted with basic terms associated with a particular area relevant for public administration study and practice, as well as with the structure and style of various administrative text types. The texts are accompanied by a range of various exercises enabling a better comprehension of a topic and the appropriate use of legal and administrative terms. Students are strongly encouraged to take an active part in class by preparing presentations and taking part in discussions, which requires doing additional research on their own. Moreover, students are expected to draw parallels between the administrative systems discussed in individual chapters and the Croatian administrative system. In order to provide guidelines for preparing student presentations and seminar papers, sections on presentation skills and academic writing have been included. As supplements to facilitate the understanding of English legal and administrative terms a monolingual English glossary explaining key concepts has been included, as well as a bilingual English-Croatian glossary which comprises relevant terms used in the book. The textbook is primarily aimed at first and second year students of public administration, and it can be used as teaching material for any course of English for public administration. The authors hope that it can also be useful and interesting for administrative professionals employed in state administration, local and regional self-government or public services, as well as translators and everybody interested in the area of public administration and administrative law. The authors of the book are members of the Department of Foreign Languages at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb.