Undergraduate Course: English for the LLM (LLLG07116)
Course Outline
| School | Centre for Open Learning |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 0 |
ECTS Credits | 0 |
| Summary | This four-week full-time course is the final course of our 10-week suite of EAP Pre-sessional courses. It is for international students intending to study on an LLM programme at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh. The focus is on the development of skills and confidence in using English for active participation on an LLM degree programme. Postgraduate legal study in the UK places particular demands on students' ability to read and
comprehend a wide variety of academic and legal texts, including law reports, legislation, law journals and legal textbooks. The course will give students practice in these reading skills in addition to developing speaking and listening skills for seminar participation and writing skills for producing academic assignments. Invited guest speakers from the School of Law will speak on topics relevant to LLM students to develop lecture listening and seminar participation skills. |
| Course description |
1) Academic Description
This pre-sessional EAP course forms the third and final course of the ELE Pre-sessional Programme. It is one of five final English for Specific Academic Purposes courses for international students who have either completed EAP2 or who have already met the English language requirement and hold unconditional offers for a postgraduate degree (normally PGT) programme at the University of Edinburgh. ELLM is the appropriate course for students proceeding to any of the LLM (Law Masters) programmes offered by the School of Law. ELLM provides opportunities to carry out in a supported environment academic tasks typically required in the aforementioned taught masters programmes: reading and summarising law reports, selecting and evaluating academic legal sources in the composition of a short essay, using peer and tutor feedback on a first draft to produce a revised final draft; preparing and delivering a 10-minute individual oral presentation on a legally-related topic at a morning-long conference on the final day of the course, and respond to questions; attending colleagues' presentations and responding with questions and providing peer feedback. There is also a focus on aspects of legal skills development undertaken by students studying law in common law jurisdictions.
All Pre-sessional students undertake three summative assessments during the course: Reading-into-Writing, in the form of an 1800 word source-based written assignment; Speaking, in the form of a ten-minute individual oral presentation to the class followed by Q&A; and Listening in the form of a short dictation test.
Key aims of the Pre-sessional courses are the development of student autonomy and transferability of the skills taught to the students' future study contexts.
2) Outline Content
The course comprises the following components:
- Academic legal reading and writing skills
- Academic legal seminar participation
- Legal vocabulary development based on aspects of UK, EU and international legal systems.
- Legal topic presentation skills
Work on legal academic reading and writing involves classes and materials on structuring the sections of an academic essay, legal citation practices, argumentation and criticality, and documenting references using OSCOLA. Students analyse sample source legal academic texts to identify discipline-specific genre and discourse features. Students produce an essay (from a choice of two essay questions) over three weeks outside class time, and receive formative feedback on a complete first draft before writing up the final draft in semi-exam conditions, supervised by class tutors before submitting it electronically for summative assessment.
Integrated skills-focused vocabulary development sessions are based on a selection of core legal topics (e.g. Criminal & civil law; Contract; Tort/Delict). Oral skills development is both accuracy and fluency based. Seminar skills are developed through a number of interactive legal task-based sessions. Presentation skills are developed throughout the course. Students give short presentations of aspects of different legal systems, give oral reports of a law report they have read and researched and give a final individual presentation at the International Legal Issues for the 21st Century conference. There are also opportunities to participate in a mock trial in the final week of the course and visit the Scottish courts.
3) Student Learning Experience (approx. 100 words)
The course is delivered by a course director who is responsible for the operational management of the course; course tutors, who work with two classes of up to fourteen students; and guest lecturers (principally from the School of Law) who give lectures and run seminars (to introduce students to seminar participation expectations on an LLM programme at Edinburgh) on legal topics of relevance and interest to students embarking on LLM studies.
Students spend most of each teaching day in class groups with tutors and are expected to actively participate in pairwork, groupwork and plenary class sessions. Each class group has two tutors, one for the academic reading and writing component and one for presentation and seminar presentation skills and vocabulary development sessions. There is a Guest Lecture each week.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Students are expected to bring their own laptops or tablets to access materials electronically.
No additional fees; student receive standard allowance of print credit. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2019/20, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Flexible |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Learning and Teaching Activities |
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Feedback |
Detailed written formative feedback given by tutors on an interim submission (partial draft) of Written Assignment. General formative peer and tutor feedback on full first draft. General summative comments on final assessed draft.
Oral peer and tutor formative feedback on presentation practice tasks. General summative comments on assessed Individual Presentations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Research and write an 1800 word legal academic essay drawing on appropriately selected and integrated academic source material, and making effective use of peer and tutor formative feedback on drafts
- Research, prepare and effectively deliver a 10-minute individual oral presentation on a legally-related topic and respond appropriately to questions
- Actively participate in seminar discussion on a variety of legal topics
- Appropriately use a range of general legal vocabulary
- Progress onto their Edinburgh degree programme with confidence in their EAP skills.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Enquiry and lifelong learning; aspiration and personal development; outlook and engagement; research and enquiry; personal and intellectual autonomy; personal effectiveness; communication |
| Keywords | Pre-sessional,English,EAP,postgraduate,legal,academic,language,writing,reading,lectures,research |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Anthony Elloway
Tel: (0131 6)50 6200
Email: Anton.Elloway@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Kameliya Skerleva
Tel: (0131 6)51 1855
Email: Kameliya.Skerleva@ed.ac.uk |
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