THREEFOLD-TASK PATTERN OF SHAPING LEGAL ENGLISH COMPETENCY IN WRITING OPINION ESSAY: BASED ON THE PRACTICE GUIDE “FOREIGN LANGUAGE OF THE SPECIALTY”

Abstract

In a new era of global integration, legal practitioners are in need of Legal English, a subset of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Because of its intricate elements, teaching legal English has been viewed as a challenging yet fascinating task. As a result, a number of cutting-edge teaching strategies are put out to help students improve their legal English proficiency. This empirical study focuses on the perspectives of law students regarding the advantages of possessing opinion essay writing skills; investigates the effectiveness of on students’ development of legal English elements in multitask practicing; and, at the same time, discloses the challenges that students have when engaging in such activities. Accordingly, in the main body of research two questions were formulated to determine the research focus on two main goals. First one is aimed to reveal which skills are necessary to be shaped for university learners in the process of studying legal English within the course “Foreign Language of the Specialty” considering the modern challenges and requirements for future professionals’ preparation? Second one is aimed to argument the importance of mastering essay writing skills enhancing it by means of application of threefold-task pattern provided in the practice guide “Foreign Language of the Specialty”. With the aid of data gathering tools, the study used a mixed-research approach to accomplish these goals. So, a practice guide “Foreign Language of the Specialty” was created for higher education students of specialty 293 “International Law” in order to systematize and diversify educational and pedagogical activities in the process of forming professional foreign language communicative competence of students enrolled in the Bachelor’s degree program of the Faculty of Law and International Relations. The purpose of the 293 “International Law” practice guide on “Foreign Language of the Specialty” for higher education applicants is to provide classroom and individual English language instruction for professional communication for students at the “Bachelor” level, master’s degree program participants, postgraduate students at higher education institutions, teachers, scientists, and anybody else who wants to improve their command of the English language. The fragment of such pattern dedicated to the Module 1. International Space and Maritime Law of the Theme 1.1 Origin and Main Sources of International Space Law based on Course Training Program on “Foreign language of the Specialty” is provided in this research. The findings showed that the university learners had positive opinions on the importance of improving their legal English skills, as evidenced by the high mean values. Despite a number of challenges during the application process, including legal English into the curriculum had a good impact on students’ motivation, research, critical thinking, and other opinion writing skills and, therefore strongly advised to successfully teach students to complete their legal English practice based on Course Training Program on “Foreign language of the Specialty”.