OVERVIEW

The course aims to provide students with the language skills needed to understand and produce basic oral legal discourse. Lectures shall focus mainly on and around reading and listening / watching specialised discourse (e.g. Ted Talks). Each lectures shall include a topic-related discussion/debate space aimed at developing oral fluency. Emphasis will also be placed on lexical families and syntactic aspects of English for Legal Purposes.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Language Skills in Legal English: Fluency and Lexicon

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the course, students shall have practised reading and listening comprehension (especially reading and listening comprehension) of written texts and video/audio footage relevant to the field of Legal English/English for Legal Purposes, thereby including, but not limited to, contract law and the British and US legal systems. Throughout the course students shall have the chance to become familiar with and use elements of legal terminology and lexic in the English language.

PREREQUISITES

A knowledge and understanding of the English language at a B1 Level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL)..

TEACHING METHODS

Face-to-Face Lectures - Classroom-based Lectures. Students are expected to take an active part in each lecture and to contribute through reading aloud, asking and answering questios; working in small groups (two or three people max.), making educated comments, paraphrasing or summarizing, and possibly even translating parts of the text/discourse/topic in hand. Texts and extracts shall also come with practical skills-based work, such as gap-fills, true-or-false, or multiple-choice exercises aimed at providing Students with exposure to and chances to use any sector-specific lexicon and terminology or expressions and syntactic structures. English shall be the language of any classroom interaction, so as to allow for and foster fluency and oral delivery. Some presentation skills shall be explored.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The Practice of Law - Part I: The Legal System: Bodies of Law; Types of Law; Explaining what a Law says; Types of Courts and Persons in Court; Documents in Court; Legal Latin. Part II: A Career in the Law; Legal Education: A Call to the Bar; La Lawyer's CV; Law Firm Structure, Describing a Law Firm , Law Firm Culture - International Legal English, A. Krois-Lindner

The Scope of Law, the Legal System and Legal Professionals: Intro. to Law: basic Terms; Intro to Law: Basic Concepts; The  Sources of Law; The  Subject Matter of the Legal System; The Court Structure; Court Personnel; Legal Professionals; Legal Training; Prepositions at Law - Followed by a Review Test; Test Your Professiona English - Law;

Extracts of Ted Talks under Recommended Reading/ Bibliography.

This syllabus may be supplemented by way of newspaper articles/othher discourse referring to current legal matters and issues. Any addition to this Syllabus, will be duly posted to Aulaweb and listed under the requirements expected for the final examination.   

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Texts and Talks for Reference: 

https://tienganhchuyennganhluat.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/professional-english-law-o.pdf

https://www.giappichelli.it/media/catalog/product/excerpt/9788892143630.pdf

https://law.univ.kiev.ua/images/abook_file/%D0%86nternational_legal_english.pdf

Ted Talks shall be chosen among those mentioned in the first link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6TS95AhYmY; 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td2hfdXQ5x8;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fNt95vAQNY

Any further material shall be duly posted and uploaded to Aulaweb and included in the final Examination Syllabus

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

JUSTIN RAINEY (President)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Lectures shall begin on February 27th 2024 and shall take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 08:00am to 10:00am  for the duration of the course. Any changes to the schedule and syllabus shall be duly posted to aulaweb and, in any case, agreed upon in class and duly reported onto the official Register of Teaching Activities.

Class schedule

LEGAL ENGLISH

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Spoken examinations: questions on and around the topics read about and listened to during class-based lectures.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

If you would like to talk to me in person or online: please make and appointment via my university email address. Please remember that any communication should be in English and please, please avoid translations via Google Translate. Use this opportunity to actually use your English skills.