Designing an English syllabus for first-year law students

Abstract

This study begins by presenting the language problems experienced by first-year law students at the University of North-West (UNW), a typical historically disadvantaged tertiary institution in South Africa It points out that the general English course that the students have been taking does not meet their needs adequately. It then makes an extensive needs analysis. Needs analysis includes the following: learner profile, consultations and interviews with law lecturers, examination of the syllabuses and question papers of first-years' law programme at UNW, a diagnostics test, a questionnaire for first-year students, interviews with senior law students, and a survey of practical English courses in South African university, which aims at finding out how these institutions are addressing their first-years' language problems. The results obtained from the needs analysis are supplemented by a literature review. It (the literature review) explores the teaching and learning of English at tertiary level, Legal English, and models for an ESP syllabus. The insights gained from literature review and the results obtained from needs analysis are then synthesised and used to create a theoretical framework for a content-based ESP course. On the basis of the this framework, a syllabus is proposed and guidelines for implementation are suggested. The proposed syllabus serves as a solution to the target group's language problems.