Includes glossary and transcripts.

"English for Law is a skills-based course designed specifically for students of law who are about to enter English-medium tertiary level studies. It provides carefully graded practice and progressions in the key academic skills that all students need, such as listening to lectures and speaking in seminars. It also equips students with the specialist legal language they need to participate successfully within a law faculty. Extensive listening exercises come from law lectures, and all reading texts are taken from the same field of study. There is also a focus throughout on the key legal vocabulary that students will need.

Listening: how to understand and take effective notes on extended lectures, including how to follow the argument and identify the speaker's point of view.

Speaking: how to participate effectively in a variety of realistic situations, from seminars to presentations, including how to develop an argument and use stance markers.

Reading: how to understand a wide range of texts, from academic textbooks to Internet articles, including how to analyze complex sentences and identify such things as the writer's stance.

Writing: how to produce coherent and well-structured assignments, including such skills as paraphrasing and the use of the appropriate academic phrases.

Vocabulary: a wide range of activities to develop students' knowledge and use of key vocabulary, both in the field of management and of academic study in general.

Vocabulary and Skills banks: a reference source to provide students with revision of the key words and phrases and skills presented in each unit.

Full transcripts of all listening exercises." (Book Cover).

CONTENTS

UNIT 1 - LAW AND ORDER (Listening - Speaking)

TOPICS
Branches of law
Key features of law

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Words from general English with a special meaning in law
Prefixes and suffixes

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
preparing for a lecture
predicting lecture content from the introduction
understanding lecture organization
choosing an appropriate form of notes
making lecture notes

Speaking:
speaking from notes

UNIT 2 - LANDMARKS IN LAW (Reading - Writing)

TOPICS
Historical landmarks in the development of law
Lord Denning and 20th century English law
Judicial precedent

VOCABULARY FOCUS
English-English dictionaries: headwords - definitions - parts of speech - phonemes - stress markers - countable/uncountable - transitive/intransitive

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
using research questions to focus on relevant information in a text
using topic sentences to get an overview of the text

Writing:
writing topic sentences
summarizing a text

UNIT 3 - CRIMES AND CIVIL WRONGS (Listening - Speaking)

TOPICS
Tort v. crime
Criminal and civil courts
Trespass to the person

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Stress patterns in multi-syllable words
Prefixes

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
preparing for a lecture
predicting lecture content
making lecture notes
using different information sources

Speaking:
reporting research findings
formulating questions

UNIT 4 - COMPUTERS IN LAW (Reading - Writing)

TOPICS
Computers for research
Types of legal information available on the web

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Computer jargon
Abbreviations and acronyms
Discourse and stance markers
Verb and noun suffixes

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
identifying topic development within a paragraph
using the Internet effectively
evaluating Internet search results

Writing:
reporting research findings

UNIT 5 - THEFT 1: THE THEFT ACT (Listening - Speaking)

TOPICS
Definition of theft
Components of theft
Important case law

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Words sets: synonyms, antonyms, etc.
The language of trends
Common lecture language

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
understanding 'signpost language' in lectures
using symbols and abbreviations in note-taking

Speaking
making effective contributions to a seminar

UNIT 6 - THEFT 3: APPROPRIATION (Reading - Writing)

TOPICS
Taking without owner's consent
Differences between: burglary, aggravated burglary and robbery

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Synonyms, replacement subjects, etc., for sentence-level paraphrasing

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
reporting findings from other sources: avoiding plagiarism
locating key information in complex sentences

Writing:
writing complex sentences

UNIT 7 - CONTRACT LAW 1: CONSIDERATION (Listening - Speaking)

TOPICS
Definition of a contract
Doctrine of consideration
Judicial interpretation

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Compound nouns
Fixed phrases from legal English
Fixed phrases from academic English
Common lecture language

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
understanding speaker emphasis

Speaking:
asking for clarification
responding to queries and requests for clarification

UNIT 8 - CONTRACT LAW 2: MISREPRESENTATION (Reading - Writing)

TOPICS
Four types of misrepresentation:
1. fraudulent misrepresentation
2. negligent misrepresentation
3. wholly innocent misrepresentation
4. negligent misrepresentation under statute

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Synonyms
Nouns from verbs
Definitions
Common 'direction' verbs in essay titles (discuss, analyze, evaluate, etc.)

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
understanding dependent clauses with passives

Writing:
paraphrasing
expanding notes into complex sentences
recognizing different essay types/structures: descriptive, analytical, comparison/evaluation, argument
writing essay plans
writing essays

UNIT 9 - EMPLOYMENT LAW (Listening - Speaking)

TOPICS
Fair, unfair and wrongful dismissal
Employment tribunals

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Fixed phrases from legal English
Fixed phrases from academic English

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
using the Cornell note-taking system
recognizing digressions in lectures

Speaking:
making effective contributions to a seminar
referring to other people's ideas in a seminar

UNIT 10 - HOMICIDE (Reading - Writing)

TOPICS
Types of homicide
Defences to homicide
Murder vs. manslaughter

VOCABULARY FOCUS
'Neutral' and 'marked' words
Fixed phrases from legal English
Fixed phrases from academic English

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
recognizing the writer's stance and level of confidence or tentativeness
inferring implicit ideas

Writing:
writing situation-problem-solution-evaluation essays
using direct quotations
compiling a bibliography/reference list

UNIT 11 - INTERNATIONAL LAW (Listening - Speaking)

TOPICS
Origins of international law
Influence of international law on domestic law
International law and the environment

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Words/phrases used to link ideas (moreover, as a result, etc.)
Stress patterns in noun phrases and compounds
Fixed phrases from academic English

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
recognizing the speaker's stance
writing up notes in full

Speaking:
building an argument in a seminar
agreeing/disagreeing

UNIT 12 - HUMAN RIGHTS LAW (Reading - Writing)

TOPICS
UN Charter of Human Rights)
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Equal opportunities

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Verbs used to introduce ideas from other sources (X contends/suggests/asserts that ...)
Linking words/phrases conveying contrast (whereas), result (consequently), reasons (due to), etc.
Words for quantities (a significant minority)

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
understanding how ideas in a text are linked

Writing:
deciding whether to use direct quotation or paraphrase
incorporating quotations
writing research reports
writing effective introductions/conclusions

Intended for students of law who are about to enter English-medium tertiary level studies. Designed for students at the upper-intermediate to proficient level (CEF B2-C2).