“That’s not relevant in your case: teaching and testing the linguistic skill of mediation in Legal English courses”

HRADILOVÁ, Alena and Barbora CHOVANCOVÁ. “That’s not relevant in your case: teaching and testing the linguistic skill of mediation in Legal English courses”. In EULETA Legal English Workshop 2022. 2022.

Basic information

• Original name: “That’s not relevant in your case: teaching and testing the linguistic skill of mediation in Legal English courses”
• Name (in English): “That’s not relevant in your case: teaching and testing the linguistic skill of mediation in Legal English courses”
• Authors: HRADILOVÁ, Alena and Barbora CHOVANCOVÁ.
• Edition: EULETA Legal English Workshop 2022, 2022.

Other information

• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Keywords (in Czech): mediation, testing, CEFR

Abstract

Effective communication with lay audiences should be an essential part of any lawyer’s skill set, and due to this fact, it is our goal, as legal English teachers, to train our students in it. Linguistic mediation has become a buzz word among foreign language professionals, and rightly so, as it helps bridge differences between professionals and nonprofessionals. Needless to say, many of us have designed mediation activities tailor-made to our specific Legal English contexts and learners. The question that arises, especially for those of us working at universities, is how to evaluate and maybe even mark mediation activities. The range of texts students produce varies greatly and it makes it difficult to objectively and fairly assess, especially as utterances such as “that’s not relevant in your case” instead of the expected explanation, may be appropriate. In this workshop, several different types of mediation activities made for Law undergraduates will be shown and the participants will be invited to share their views on grading them before our own marking scales will be shown and discussed.

Abstract (in English)

Effective communication with lay audiences should be an essential part of any lawyer’s skill set, and due to this fact, it is our goal, as legal English teachers, to train our students in it. Linguistic mediation has become a buzz word among foreign language professionals, and rightly so, as it helps bridge differences between professionals and nonprofessionals. Needless to say, many of us have designed mediation activities tailor-made to our specific Legal English contexts and learners. The question that arises, especially for those of us working at universities, is how to evaluate and maybe even mark mediation activities. The range of texts students produce varies greatly and it makes it difficult to objectively and fairly assess, especially as utterances such as “that’s not relevant in your case” instead of the expected explanation, may be appropriate. In this workshop, several different types of mediation activities made for Law undergraduates will be shown and the participants will be invited to share their views on grading them before our own marking scales will be shown and discussed.