Publication details
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN LEGAL ENGLISH SYLLABI
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The presentation offers ideas of why and how to base Legal English courses on methods of experiential learning. It is based on examples of various “Learning Cycles” in the Masaryk University Language Centre (MULC) Legal English courses, which, apart from dealing with the usual and indisputably necessary ESP linguistic issues concentrate also on the development of soft skills related to the legal profession. The soft skills that need attention have been identified as students’ “real needs” through a needs analysis carried out by MULC staff. It is my strategy to pinpoint them to my students and emphasise their importance over the traditional legal topics, facts and vocabulary upon which t we tend to base and structure many ESP courses and syllabi.. Instead, I offer soft skills development as the main learning goal which students should identify from the perspective of their future employability. Experiential learning seems to be a logical and convenient method for my purposes. My experience, which is supported by small-scale action research, indicates that students´ involvement in experiential learning increases their intrinsic motivation to prepare for classes as well as their active involvement in the sessions. In my presentation, I deal particularly with the stage of reflection and self-reflection as a crucial part of experiential learning. This stage boosts student understanding of their own learning process, which seems to be an important issue in adult education and especially relevant and often mentioned with regard to educating Y and Z generation students |