HRADILOVÁ, Alena and Kirby VINCENT. Pragmatic issues and soft skills in English for law. In Law, Language and Professional Practice, the 2nd International Conference, Napoli. 2012.
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Basic information
Original name Pragmatic issues and soft skills in English for law
Authors HRADILOVÁ, Alena (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution) and Kirby VINCENT (124 Canada).
Edition Law, Language and Professional Practice, the 2nd International Conference, Napoli, 2012.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Presentations at conferences
Field of Study 60200 6.2 Languages and Literature
Country of publisher Italy
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
RIV identification code RIV/00216224:14640/12:00060334
Organization unit Language Centre
Keywords in English videoconferencing; soft skills; pragmatics; negotiating; politeness; cultural differences
Changed by Changed by: Mgr. Alena Hradilová, Ph.D., učo 37431. Changed: 21/4/2014 22:14.
Abstract
Language for specific purposes education at university level has experienced a shift from traditional vocabulary and the 4-skill-based (reading-writing-listening-speaking) language teaching towards incorporating pragmatic issues and “soft skills” elements into classroom activities. Such activities aim at preparing students for their future careers in terms of good professional as well as social practices. This paper will offer an insight into a joint international programme for students of law which is run between the University of Helsinki (Finland) and Masaryk University (Czech Republic). The language centres of the two universities cooperate on English for law courses that are partly run together, via videoconferencing, in a virtual classroom. In addition to practicing professional English in an international environment, the students are encouraged to practice negotiating, arguing, persuading, being polite, presenting, video conferencing and intercultural skills. The paper aims at introducing the course structure, giving examples of soft skills and pragmatics based activities, and discussing relevance of such activities in modern language for law training.
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