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СОВРЕМЕННОЕ ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСК
ОЕ ОБР
АЗОВАНИЕ
Teaching legal English at a law school, in addition
to solving other general educational tasks, is aimed at
preparing the so-called global lawyers – “lawyers ca-
pable of working in any environment, who can quickly
navigate in situations of changing market connected
with the application of knowledge from various branch-
es of law” [3, p.38]. In this case, English as a language
of international business communication serves as
a guide to competitiveness in the international labor
market, and the comparative law opens doors to the
possibility of self-realization in the process of using
knowledge received at English classes.
Legal communication is built within the framework
of business interaction. The culture of foreign business
language communication should be developed with
respect to the following provisions:
1) “foreign language education” is a means of per-
sonal development; its content is a foreign language
culture in its multicomponent (namely educational,
training, developing and cognitive) composition;
2) a student should master a foreign language cul-
ture in the course of modeling situations of real com-
munication in a foreign language on the topics of pro-
fessional education; in the process of communication
students themselves should make efforts for learning,
developing and creativity;
3) a student must realize the meaning of his/her
participation in communicative activity and in under-
standing a foreign language culture, which will en-
sure his/her personal professional development as
a participant in business foreign language commu-
nication;
4) situations of business communication should be
very close to situations arising in professional activi-
ties, which allows to create a system of relationships
between students when speaking a foreign language;
5) communicative relevance in the choice of mate-
rial for the class is of paramount importance; material
used during classes must be modern and meaningful.
What principles can contribute to the implementa-
tion of multidimensional intercultural tasks in the Eng-
lish language classes at the university? In our opinion,
such principles are:
1) the principle of fostering knowledge about cul-
tural diversity;
2) the principle of comparing cultures, norms of be-
havior, and social relations;
3) the principle of “self-awareness” at the border
of cultures, forming the culture of self-presentation in
a cross- cultural environment.
The first and the second principles can overlap and
integrate in different exercises. They are applied when
students begin to get acquainted with the diversity and
cultural complexity of other countries and peoples.
One of the ways to implement these principles in
practice is to use a form of discussion during classes.
The topics are chosen depending on the purpose of
the lesson, for example, issues of education, peculiar-
ities of the judicial proceedings in different countries,
and human rights. Exercises used to implement these
principles prove to be effective [4]:
Jigsaw activity. Group work.
The class is divided into expert groups. Group
A reads Text (a) “Legal Education in the UK: Struc-
ture and Features of Learning”, Group B reads Text
(b) “Universities in the USA: Legal Universities, Insti-
tutes and Higher Schools”. Then the groups are re-
mixed. Now each expert has to teach his new group
his knowledge on the topic. After exchanging the infor-
mation, students are expected to be ready to answer
the questions.
1. Why is the training in the UK and the USA worth
considering?
2. Are there options for the students to apply for
a grant for study?
3. What are the key requirements of the UK’s legal
universities for entrants?
4. What are the peculiarities of getting legal education
in the USA?
After you read the text and answered the questions,
please specify what the main differences between the
UK and the US legal education systems are. Use Inter-
net sources if necessary [4, pp. 45–46].
Internet Activity.
Study information about stages of criminal proce-
dure and its peculiarities in the USA. Visit the Ameri-
can website specializing in legal information retrieval:
https://www.justia.com/criminal/procedure/stages-
criminal-case/
and official website of the United States govern-
ment: https://www.justice.gov/usao/justice-101/steps-
federal-criminal- process
a) Pair work. Share information with your partner
[4, c.154].
Exercise 31. a) Study information about jury trials in
different countries: https://www.uscourts.gov/services-
forms/jury-service/types- juries
https://www.gov.uk/jury-service
a) Pair work. Speak about jury trials in the USA,
the UK and Russia. Make reports. Use the Internet to
find additional information [4, p. 165].
The first principle can be applied in the following
way: either in class or at home, students are given the
task of conducting research on a certain topic and pre-
senting its results in the classroom orally or in writing
(presentation, wall newspaper, video clip, etc.). The
teacher recommends students to use various sourc-
es of information, such as newspaper and magazine
articles, including those published in Internet resourc-
es, interviews, correspondence with friends from oth-
er countries and cultures, films, and fiction. Project
activities, which traditionally attract students’ interest
and allow them to cultivate a tolerant attitude toward
people and their religious and family values, also have
considerable potential. All these forms and methods of
work allow developing intercultural competence of stu-
dents and getting feedback to the teacher for organiz-
ing the monitoring of the learning process.
The second principle, the principle of making
a comparison between cultures, norms of behavior
and social relations, is used in classes where a teach-
er incorporates a group work, and the participants of
the groups get acquainted with information on the top-
ic in a given aspect and share it with the partners in the
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