Legal English Plus

Course Content

General Information

• Students should have an intermediate to advanced level of general English to get maximum benefit from this course
• This is a serious and practical course. We ask you to work hard
• The course includes all study materials, a course book and a trip to the London law courts near the end of the course
• You will recieve a certificate of attendance and personal report upon completion
• The TOLES Advanced examination is included at no extra cost
  

Each group of students we teach on this course is a little different from the others. After meeting a group our teachers will decide in which order to do the lessons and which subjects perhaps need more time than others. The timetable is always flexible according to the academic needs and priorities of our students.

Week 1 is a week of intensive study and provides essential information for making progress in Weeks 2 and 3. We give you a lot of new information about English law and language and we have an informal test session in our final lesson on Friday based on week 1 lessons.

This test is there to help you. You will be able to see what you remember and what you perhaps need to look at again. It is a tool to guide you towards learner independence.

The London Trip

We consider this day in the London law courts an important part of your understanding of authentic legal English.

With one of your trainers on hand to answer questions, students on the Legal English Plus course visit the civil courts ,The Royal Courts of Justice, and the world famous criminal court, The Old Bailey.

We travel to London by private bus and spend the day visiting these famous legal institutions. The group normally has lunch together to discuss the issues raised by the visits to the courts. Very often we end the day with a group dinner and a night out at a west-end theatre. However, you are free to travel back to Cambridge by train at any time.

Academic Entry Requirements

Legal English, especially the style and vocabulary that lawyers use in commercial contracts, is very different from ordinary, general English. We often find that a group of international students have varying levels of general English, but are all starting from the same point when studying legal English.

For this reason we do not insist that any student has any particular formal qualification in English in order to take part in our courses and we do not insist that you pass any formal test as an entry requirement. Many of our students are already working in a pressured legal environment and do not have the time available to study general English at a higher level. Similarly, many of our students have recently been accepted as trainees in international law firms and need a quick, intensive boost to their language skills before starting work. It is therefore part of our mission statement to take a practical approach and to support any lawyer, law student or legal translator who needs an improved level of level of legal English in his or her workplace. All of our teachers and administrative staff have a modern, plain English approach to communicating with you. We will make the course as accessible to you as we possibly can.

If you hold formal qualifications such as IELTS or TOEFL, please tell us about it. It is useful for us to know your academic history before you study with us. If you are worried about your level of English you can ask us to assess it by sending us an email and asking for feedback or arranging to speak to one of our teachers in a telephone assessment. We will tell you if we think you can benefit from our course or not at this stage.

It has been our experience that when you study with us you will find a group of international colleagues with varying levels of general English who are prepared to learn together in an environment of support and co-operation.