Teaching Legal English
While EAP and Business English programs are well established throughout the U.S., fewer programs address the special needs of incoming law students, who need to be able to read legal cases, prepare oral and written case briefs, and write a seminar paper, the conventions of which are unique to the field.
In 1995, the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan introduced a new pre-sessional program for NNS students of law, called English for Legal Studies (ELS). The program grew out of discussions with university law administrators and ELI faculty who were interested in developing a specialized course because they had worked extensively with pre-Master's of Law (LL.M.) students, or had pursued a law degree, or had undertaken legal English research.
ELS is a six and a half week non-credit program of intensive English that meets approximately 18 hours per week. It is designed for NNS who have been accepted into a competitive U.S. law school, most typically for an LL.M. The focus is on language and academic skills needed to succeed in a rigorous law school program. Along with the focus of these skills, the program provides opportunities for students to learn about the American legal system and law school culture. ELS aims to facilitate transition into a Fall law program.
The ELS program consists of the following interrelated courses and a workshop:
- Processing Legal Materials
- Academic Legal Writing
- Interactive Listening and Speaking
- Researching Legal Issues
- Languages of the Law (workshop)
Processing Legal Materials is designed to help students learn reading strategies for processing legal texts, including cases and statutes. Emphasis is on dealing with U.S. common law; however, statutory and constututional law issues are also included. Students learn to orally brief and analyze the assigned cases.
In the Academic Legal Writing course, the emphasis in the class is two-fold: raising students' awareness of good academic writing in general and giving students practice in common law school writing tasks that rely on cases.
Since good speaking and listening skills are essential for law school classes, the Interactive Listening and Speaking course provides students an opportunity to develop their ability to organize and present legal materials in a formal format. The focus is on individual presentations, including choosing relevent content, determining an appropriate method of organization, and developing a clear speaking style. Pronunciation work is provided as necessary. The listening component of the course is aimed at providing students with a variety of listening activities, including law school lectures and discussions, videos on American law, and guest speakers.
The Researching Legal Issues course guides the students through the process of doing legal research and writing a seminar-type paper. Topics covered include using the library and computer legal databases as well as the conventions of the seminar paper including patterns of organization, footnoting, and the hierarchy of legal authority. Students give an oral presentation of their research. In addition to these regular courses, the programs includes a workshop called Languages of the Law. This workshop explores the linguistic features of legal English, and how and why different varieties of legal language have developed. The students compare the effects of common law and civil tradition on legal text and explore the topic of "families of law".
A weekly film series helps familiarize students with law, law school, the legal system and contemporary legal issues. The films also provide an opportunity for informal discusion on law-related topics, such as the death penalty, life behind bars, and the jury system.