IL1ALWN-Academic Skills and Language for Law $£ Part 1

Module Provider: International Study and Language Institute
Number of credits: 0 [0 ECTS credits]
Level:4
Terms in which taught: Autumn term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2023/4

Module Convenor: Mr Sebastian Watkins
Email: s.a.watkins@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module focuses on the academic language and writing skills needed to more effectively manage written coursework assignments, principally Essays and Problem Questions, on part 1 Law modules. It is primarily designed for undergraduate Law students at part 1 whose first language is not English.  

The module is non-credit-bearing and designed to support students’ disciplinary study, the expectation being that students will apply the skills they have learnt on IL1ALWN in their credit-bearing work. Therefore, for the module itself there is no assessment or expectation of independent study hours.

Aims:

This module aims to support first year undergraduate Law students with their transition to the UK HE context and academic culture. It focuses on the key academic language and skills needed to successfully complete undergraduate written Law coursework assignments, primarily in the Essay and Problem Question genres. 

By the end of the module, students will be better able to:

• understand the expectations of the key written coursework assignment genres in undergraduate Law, the Essay and the Problem Question


• accurately interpret coursework assignment instructions/briefs


• employ task-appropriate organisational patterns at paragraph, section and whole-text level


• use a variety of task-appropriate techniques to incorporate and comment on the views of others in their writing


• accurately use the referencing conventions for their discipline


• employ task-appropriate language (grammar and lexis) 


• critically evaluate their own and others’ writing

Assessable learning outcomes:

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Additional outcomes:

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Outline content:

Classes will have the following foci:

• Understanding the key written coursework assignment genres in Law, Essays & Problem Questions, including:
  
  
  
  • expected structural & argumentation patterns and how these differ according to genre and question type 
  
  
  • reading-to-write processes and the centrality of source use and synthesis to successful writing in Law
  
  
  • how ‘voice’ and ‘stance’ are realised linguistically within Law assignment texts
  
  
  
  


• Key skills for academic writing within Law:
  
  
  
  • incorporating sources using paraphrasing, summarising and direct quotation
  
  
  • ‘information flow’ in English-language texts
  
  
  • employing linguistic features of textual cohesion to clearly signal relationships between parts of a text
  
  
  
  

Global context:

This module supports internationalisation at Reading by facilitating successful and equal inclusion of students whose first language is not English in UK degree programme study.  

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

The module will adopt an overall ‘genre’ approach, taking the social purpose of texts as the starting point to explicate organisation/structure and key discourse and language features.

It takes a discipline-specific approach to language and literacy development using example student texts and published  Law-specific sources in classroom tasks. 

Teaching will be learner-centred, taking a task-based approach to analysis of example te xts from the target genres, guided ‘noticing’ of key organisational, argumentative and linguistic features in context, and scaffolded practice exercises.

Summative assessment- Examinations:

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Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

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Formative assessment methods:

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Penalties for late submission:

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Assessment requirements for a pass:

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Reassessment arrangements:

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Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

1) Required text books: 

2) Specialist equipment or materials: 

3) Specialist clothing, footwear or headgear: 

4) Printing and binding: 

5) Computers and devices with a particular specification: 

6) Travel, accommodation and subsistence: 

Last updated: 30 March 2023