Day 1: EULETA Conference, Split, Croatia (28.09.18)
Day 1 – EULETA Conference 2018
Split, Croatia (28th September 2018)
Introduction
The European Legal English Teacher’s Association’s (EULETA) biennial conference took place 27th-29th September 2018, co-organised by the University of Split, the University of Osijek and EULETA, and was held at the Law Faculty of the University of Split. A pre-conference meet and greet took place in an ancient wine cellar – ‘La Bodega’ in the heart of the labyrinth that is Diocletian\’s Palace, giving participants the opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones in an informal setting. The next day, the conference kicked off with an opening speech by EULETA\’s President David Best, whose devotion to the organisation was clear from his reference to EULETA as a ‘big family’ – and by this time, any newcomers already felt warmly welcomed into the clan. The conference was organised so that a few presentations were given simultaneously, and participants chose their preferred option. Below I detail the talks I went to on day 1, read about day 2 here.
Anthony Leone: Using Discourse Analysis Methodology to Teach Legal English
Other talks in this session:
- Tania Blazevic: Academic Discourse in abstracts from a Croatian perspective
- Željko Rišner: The Future of Legal English of judges and justice in post-Brexit Britain
- Tinatin Kbilashvili: Legal English & 21st Century Skills
Alison Wiebalck: Testing of legal English for professional purposes
Focusing on the Test of Legal English Skills (TOLES) Advanced, Alison stated that a well-made test can reveal, from a minimal amount of questions, the underlying knowledge of the testee and predict their future performance in the workplace. In her analysis of whether TOLES lives up to its claims of using authentic materials, testing grammatical accuracy and testing the appropriate register Alison found TOLES to be a valid, but not perfect, test. Whilst the materials are largely authentic, the legal writing tested is limited in scope and with regards to grammar, certain elements which are important for lawyers to know, including linking words, were omitted. With that said, a number of problems stand in the way of test producers –
- Law is not a universal discipline, each country has its own system;
- There is a lack of a centralised testing body; and
- There is little research in this area.
It was an absolute joy to hear her talk, not just for the content but also because of her ability to condense and present vast amounts of information simply, clearly and concisely. Evidently, her research is much needed and this is certainly an area for further development.
- Oksana Babiy & Yuliya Yulinetskaya: “English-Ukrainian international case-law dictionary”, gLAWssary in the process of Ukraine and EU legislation harmonisation
- Anton Osminkin: Obligation in legal discourse: SHALL, MUST and the Present Simple
- Anna Wasilewska: Mastering Legal English vocabulary –power of collocations, synonyms and fixed phrases
László Szabó: Coming to terms with terminology in practice areas
- Alena Hradilová: Peer review your negotiating skills
- Gary Potter: Simplifying the new U.S. Tax Reform Implications for U.S. Businesses and Foreign Investments
- Olga Voytsekhovskaya: Legal English for Legal Students: improper use of legal terms (The most challenging cases)
Federico Pio Gentile: Legal Discourse and On-screen Transposition – The “How to Get away with Murder” Case Study
- Aleksandra Łuczak: The Pustulka Project. Developing Online Testing Software for English for Specific Purposes
- Barbora Chovancova: Mediation and Motivation in Legal English Classes
Prof. Dr. Lelija Socanac: Law and Multilingualism in 19th-century Habsburg Monarchy – Voices from the Past, Lessons for the Future?
Obviously, I was unable to attend a session here as I was presenting!
My talk focused on introducing the Study Legal English Podcast and a number of exercises which teachers can use in their classes with the podcast. You can watch the presentation here and find the free PDF download of exercises here.
All of the exercises are free to use, so please use them, edit them, share them! Please cite the Study Legal English Podcast when you do so.
- Neda Radosavlevikj: Enhancing Learning Autonomy in an ESP class by using LMS Google classroom
- Štěpánka Bilová: Using Technology to Facilitate Students’ Learning
Natasha Costello: Teaching legal English: practical activities for the classroom
Natasha’s response to having the most difficult speaker slot of the day (the last one after a full-conference day) was perfect – she managed to get all the worn-out participants talking and laughing, which showed that she is a highly skilled teacher. In this session she talked us through some practical activities she does to make Legal English contract drafting courses fun and then we actually tried them out. This included:
Role Play
- Teacher splits students into pairs and gives a slip of paper to each – one is ‘client’ one is ‘lawyer’;
- Students work in pairs to role play scenario.
Cut and Paste
- Teacher prepares cut up pieces paper which state either headings of contract sections (e.g. Boilerplate, Termination, Recitals) or content of clauses (e.g. Parties may terminate this contract ……);
- Students must match the headings to the correct clauses.
Hot seat
- 1 student comes to front of class and sits in the ‘hot seat’;
- Teacher writes a legal word on board;
- Other students have to explain the word to the ‘hot seat’ student, ‘hot seat’ student has to guess the word.
- Ljubica Kordić & Dubravka Papa: Cooperation Between LE and Content Teachers at Croatian Law Faculties: a Comparative Study
- Anila R. Scott-Monkhouse: Lawyers in the age of social media: LinkedIn as an educational and a professional tool
Conclusion
Day 1 ended with the EULETA AGM, where I’m happy to announce that I was elected to the board as ‘communications officer’. Following this there was a gala dinner in a beautiful restaurant \’Bajamonti\’ in the historical centre, where we sampled some ‘authentic materials’ of Croatian cuisine and music!
EULETA board (from left): Franz Heidinger, myself (Louise Kulbicki), David Best, Sofi Parastatidou, Sophia Barinova, Mark Brophy.
Ancient architecture
EULETA Gala Dinner 2018
🥇 Ways to Learn Legal English
- Take a legal English class
- Take a legal English course
- Buy my book: Practical English Language Skills for Lawyers
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Note: Legal information changes and develops, so please note that information may have become out of date. For content which is updated regularly, check out my courses.
