Teaching ESP for law students at universities in Russia and abroad

Abstract

The authors present the results of the comparative analysis of the practice of teaching ESP for law students at universities in Russia and abroad. We studied the key documents on the issue and analyzed the actual state, content, goals, approaches, methods of teaching ESP. In the study, the authors relied on the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education currently being implemented in Russian universities, 40.03.01 "Jurisprudence" and on the European competencies within the framework of the key provisions of the system of language proficiency levels adopted in 2001 by the European Union, since they are fundamental when teaching ESP for law students. Nowadays, when integration into the international educational space with the simultaneous existence in the context of the implementation of the European policy of sanctions against Russia and the policy of import-substitution, teaching the language of the specialty of future lawyers, however, remains one of the key tasks in achieving the strategic goal of language education at the university, namely, the training of highly qualified lawyers in the field of international law, able to work with the latest regulatory framework both in the domestic labor market and in the international arena. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of the latest trends in teaching ESP for law students, studying international legal direction of training in higher education institutions in Russia and Europe. Furthermore we viewed the language portfolios of European countries, materials and documents of UNESCO, the Council of Europe and current Internet resources on the topic of the study in order to study the experience of teaching and monitoring the results of teaching the specialty language. We analyzed the prospects for the development of the language higher education system, which is traditionally based on domestic socio-cultural realities and foundations. From the point of view of the historical retrospective of teaching the language of the specialty in Russian universities today, it is necessary to observe and maintain a certain balance between the relevant historically established priorities and trends in the development of Russian pedagogy and methods of teaching the language of the specialty and the national education system. It is established that the current state policy in the field of active and accelerated import substitution (which cannot but affect the development of the specifics of teaching the language of the specialty at the university), as well as the prolongation of the sanctions policy, the COVID-19 pandemic and the actual state's bet on Russian self-sufficiency and reliance on its own potential and strength (which is recognized as traditional for our education and culture), obviously actualizes the dynamic development of domestic higher education, and integration into the international space with a parallel detailed study of the accumulated methodological experience in the field of teaching the specialty language both in Russia and abroad. It is revealed that the issues of studying a foreign language specialty (ESP) in Russian and foreign universities, theoretical scientists and practical teachers began to deal with relatively recently. The analysis of scientific literature and federal standards and work programs allowed us to record that only at the beginning of the XXI century (approximately in 2015-2018) an independent discipline began to appear, aimed at learning the language of the specialty, the content of which was based on and partially reflected other disciplines of the professional block. Previously, in the course of studying a foreign language in universities, only the general foreign language (General English) was studied, in which the topics of professional orientation were studied in fragments. The European Community somewhat earlier turned to the issues of studying the specialty language at the professional B2-C1 levels, when in 2005 the University of Cambridge (with the support of the European Union) developed and implemented the international ILEC and TOLES exams. This was the historical impetus for the development of a new direction in the methods of teaching a foreign language and was the birth of an independent discipline-the specialty language (ESP). It is proved that in 2018, the European documents introduce a new type of speech activity for Russian pedagogy and didactics: language mediation, aimed at solving applied issues of multi-level (pre- A-C2) multicultural and bilingual language education. The study of European competencies and the works of Russian scientists allowed us to establish uniformity in the understanding of the types of language mediation: interactive (involves the transfer of information from the communicator to the recipient and back);non-interactive (semantic transmission-periphrasis, adaptation of the text, etc., information from the communicator (i.e., the primary source) to the recipient (i.e., the recipient), when feedback is not important), and hybrid (mixed). Today, a general range of forms of mediation is recorded: mediation in negotiations, translation, conversation, ing, ing, writing letters, reviewing, conducting correspondence, retelling, etc. The development of language mediation of law students is recognized as a professionally important aspect in the process of mastering the future profession. The study of European competencies and the works of Russian scientists allowed us to establish uniformity in the understanding of the types of language mediation: interactive (involves the transfer of information from the communicator to the recipient and back);non-interactive (semantic transmission-periphrasis, adaptation of the text, etc., information from the communicator (i.e., the primary source) to the recipient (i.e., the recipient), when feedback is not important), and hybrid (mixed). Today, a general range of forms of mediation is recorded: mediation in negotiations, translation, conversation, ing, ing, writing letters, reviewing, conducting correspondence, retelling, etc. The development of language mediation of law students is recognized as a professionally important aspect in the process of mastering the future profession. General trends in the field of educational content are established: the study of variable practical and professional-oriented topics;the priority of the dialog form of communication in the language of the specialty;the organization of debates, literary drawing rooms, roleplaying games on the topic, etc. We discussed international legal English exams (ILEC and TOLES) that are crusial for both potential employers and potential applicants for subsequent employment. It is proved that the modern European and domestic pedagogical community is developing in a single direction, which is facilitated by the integration of the international educational space and the permanent exchange of accumulated experience in teaching the specialty language among teaching staff through participation in various international conferences and webinars.