Students will need at least a B2-level knowledge of English, with reference to the CEFR

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

i) describe a criminal or civil case from beginning to end in English

ii) write a formal letter expressing a legal opinion (Letter of Advice) in English

iii) write a formal letter requesting damages (Making a Claim / Issuing a Claim) in English

In each case, students will be expected to reproduce the terminology, stylistic and linguistic features of conventional legal English

Criminal law

Trials, verdicts, sentencing, imprisonment and other punishments

Conventional word order in English

Modal verbs (present / past / future)

Conditional sentences

How to make a convincing PowerPoint presentation

How to give legal advice over the phone

Letters of Advice: how to give legal advice in the form of a letter

Claims: how to make a claim for damages in the form of a letter

(C) Haigh, R. 2015. 'Legal English' (4th ed.). London & New York: Routledge

NB: students must download the relevant PDF file for each lesson from the following website: http://docenti.unimc.it/martin.harper

Here, they will find glossaries, announcements, calendars, timetables and other useful information.

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  Register and Genre Analysis

  Lectures

  Lessons

  Case Studies

  Reading comprehension

  Audio-visual comprension

  Webquests

• To qualify for the final exam, students have to submit two pieces of coursework of the required standard.

  
  

  Written test: at least one week before the final exam, candidates must send two formal letters to the following address: martin.harper@unimc.it (i) a Letter of Advice explaining a legal opinion in English; (ii) a Claim asking for damages or a reimbursement. Each letter should be not less than one page, and not more than two pages, in length. The teacher will explain the conventional format of a formal legal letter, the appropriate rhetorical structure and the details of the case during the course.

  
  

  Speaking test: each student has to prepare a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation explaining a criminal or civil case from beginning to end, describing the crime, the criminal, the evidence, the victim, the suspects, the witnesses, the arrest, the trial, the verdict, the sentence, any appeals etc. Obviously, the case must not be one of those studied during the course.

  
  

  
  

  WRITTEN TEST

  
  

  
  

  Task 1 – (coursework) writing a Letter of Advice

   

  Criteria:

   

  5 points=excellent; 4=good; 3=acceptable; 2=poor; 1=weak; 0=insufficient sample of language

   

  Grammatical accuracy - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Punctuation, spelling, capitalization - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Appropriateness of language - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Relevance and adequacy of content - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Presentation, organization, cohesion and coherence - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Adequacy and range of terminology and lexis - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

  
  

  
  

  Task 2 – (coursework) writing a Claim

   

  Criteria:

   

  5 points=excellent; 4=good; 3=acceptable; 2=poor; 1=weak; 0=insufficient sample of language

   

  Grammatical accuracy - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Punctuation, spelling, capitalization - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Appropriateness of language - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Relevance and adequacy of content - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Presentation, organization, cohesion and coherence - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

  Adequacy and range of terminology and lexis - 0-5 points - (8.5%)

   

   

  
  

  
  

  Oral Test

   

  Criteria

   

  5 points=excellent; 4=good; 3=acceptable; 2=poor; 1=weak; 0=insufficient sample of language

   

   

  Pronunciation and fluency - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

   

  Content - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

   

  Grammatical accuracy - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

   

  Adequacy and range of legal terminology and lexis - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

   

  PowerPoint presentation - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

   

  Communicative effectiveness- 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  
  

   

    

   

   

   

English