Objective
This brand-new course is designed to complement the Legal English course that ERA has been running successfully in Trier and Brussels for 20 years.
The Legal English Skills Course is designed with lawyers and legal professionals in mind. There is therefore a focus on legal terminology in the context of areas of law which have not been covered before in ERA’s Intensive Legal English Courses, including subjects such as land law and company law.
The main focus of this new course, however, is on skills development and general legal / business English rather than on subject-specific terminology. The aim is therefore to develop the following skills in contexts designed to suit the needs of legal professionals:
- Speaking
Participants will be encouraged to take part in directed speaking activities, including role-play, to practice and develop their speaking skills
- Writing
The course includes a number of writing exercises, from simple sentence construction drills to drafting letters of advice and memoranda. Participants may choose to do some of the longer exercises in their own time. All work will be looked at by the trainer, during or after the course, and he or she will suggest ways for participants to improve their writing.
- Reading
The course material includes authentic and realistic legal documents,
which participants will be asked to analyse and process.
- Listening
The course includes original listening exercises in realistic settings, such as a law court or a lawyer’s office.
Some time will also be devoted to an examination of the use (or misuse) of English within the context of the EU institutions, exploring the differences between so-called Euro-English and the language used by native English speakers.
This course is not designed along the lines of a series of formal lectures. Rather, participants are encouraged to work collaboratively, with the trainer as a guide, to explore the target language in a way which is both rewarding and enjoyable.
Who should attend?
This course is designed for speakers of English at an intermediate level
or above who have a particular interest in and have already encountered
the language of the law.
Trainer
Stephen Dillon Weston (B.A, L.L.B., R.S.A Cert. TEFL) has a degree in languages from University College, London and a degree in law from City University, London. He is a qualified teacher of English as a foreign language and has wide teaching experience.