030561 KU Cambridge Legal English (ILEC) II (2012S)

Cambridge legal English with a Cambridge lawyer (Part I and II)
This two semester course will develop your competence to work confidently in English in a legal context by improving skills in the four language areas - reading and writing, speaking and listening.
Core of the course is Cambridge University's syllabus for the certificate in international legal English (ILEC); the main (obligatory) textbook is Cambridge's "International Legal English" with additional material drawn from online sources such as The Times law pages, law reports, professional websites etc. Video and audio are used extensively.
Although primarily based on Common Law jurisdictions and Commercial law, the concepts are found in many legal systems. Texts and topics include: company law, contract, sale of goods, employment, intellectual property, competition, debtor-creditor, negotiable instruments, secured transactions and competition law. However, it should be emphasised that this is not a course in substantive law - simply that these subjects areas provide a realistic context for language skills training.
Teaching is in a highly-participative, tutorial format offering maximum opportunities to use the language skills that you have learned in teaching sessions. Programme leader is David Goulden, a Cambridge-qualified barrister, and an experienced ILEC trainer.
The learning objectives are summarised in the course book as:
Reading: improving your ability to read and understand legal texts such as legal journals, legislation, correspondence etc
Writing: to improve your ability to write common legal texts like letters and memoranda
Listening: to increase your understanding of spoken English when it is used to speak about legal topics in meetings, conferences, seminars etc
Speaking: to strengthen your speaking skills and to enable you to engage more effectively in a range of speaking situations typical of legal practice

At the conclusion of each semester, participants will take an assessment examination based on the Cambridge ILEC model as follows: Reading (60mins), Listening (40mins), Writing (30mins).The areas to be tested are described as: Reading: semantic precision, grammatical and lexical knowledge, awareness of text structure and understanding gist, detail, opinion and information. Writing: concise expression, accuracy of language, organisation of content and relevance. Listening: understanding gist, detail, function, opinion and inference; also retrieving specific information, identifying speakers and topics; recognising attitude. The internal assessments can also act as trial runs for those aspiring to qualify for the official Cambridge University certificate by sitting the external ILEC exam, held each in May and November in Vienna. This, of course, is a valuable addition to your CV.