Abstract
Under the influence of a globalized labour market and subsequent to Romania's accession to the EU, the number of jobs available abroad for Romanian law graduates is increasing (including as lawyer linguists in EU institutions). Thus, academics who deliver practical English courses attempt to offer students the possibility to acquire the right language skills for using English in different legal contexts (as public notaries, litigators, in-house counsels, etc.). However, providing the right and efficient methods of teaching legal English cannot be conceived outside the advantages posed by e-learning nowadays.
The present paper approaches a student-oriented manner of teaching legal English through on-line resources with applicability for full time and distance learning students. The e-learning methodology that my paper suggests is student-oriented. Thus, assigned tests are adapted to the students' levels of knowledge (subsequent to a thorough examination, students are organized into work groups and are assigned tasks according to their level of competence) and to their future needs. The assigned tasks rely on on-line resources (students have access to an electronic platform through a personal account). The on-line platform with resources is structured per areas of law (constitutional / administrative / criminal / human rights / international / EU / commercial law, etc.), as well as per types of sources and target texts (legal glossaries, codes and laws organized as parallel texts, templates for contracts, wills, powers of attorney, writs of summons, rulings, etc.). The on-line platform is meant to ensure: flexibility (tasks are assigned depending on the students' level of knowledge); speed (the on-line resources, especially parallel corpora, facilitate fast identification of the unknown words/phrases in both English and Romanian); collaborative attitudes (groups work as teams) and, finally, fluidity of information and progress monitoring (tasks are assigned and monitored on-line and follow an ever increasing level of difficulty).
The legal English course thus organized is a useful tool for students in law, who can simulate potential professional contexts in which they might use legal English after graduation. |