E-Learn Platform to Teach Legal English for Law Professionals

Abstract

Globalization of trade and economy led to a growing demand all over the world for English for Specific Purposes courses. Conscious of this fact, Algeria has incorporated English for Legal Purposes teaching into tertiary studies. In Algeria, Law students receive ELP course aimed to help them in their studies and future careers. However, at the end of their learning process these students still find linguistic and communication difficulties in situations where English is needed as the course received is no more than teaching specific words and phrases and translating some texts following the traditional Grammar Translation Method. Accordingly, this paper aims to presents the current ELP course situation and to measure students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the use of Blended ELP course based on Content Language Integrated Learning model. The course has twofold: to provide students with international legal knowledge and to compare them to the Algerian one, and to expose learners to intensive reading activities and overcome lack of teaching time activities. In this quantitative study, seven teachers were interviewed and fifty seven masters’ students were questioned. The results revealed that the students have comprehension difficulties because the time load for reading activities is not sufficient. Concerning informants readiness to use Blended approach, the teachers present negatively the usefulness of such an approach for their students; on the contrary, students show a positive attitude to have additional English reading comprehension activities online, and they demonstrate a high interest to the proposal to support their English course with extra home tasks.