journal of linguistic studies

merely an opportunity to discuss and explain (in English) what the differences were, the
result of which was communication in English.
The purpose of the ILEC course is to prepare the learners for taking the Cambridge
ILEC exam that is recognised by leading European associations of lawyers so that they
can either gain qualification for international legal work or legal study at university level
in the context of movability within the Bologna reform. As the ILEC exam tests all four
language skills the course aims at developing these skills through specified strategies.
3.1. LISTENING
One of the most important skills for legal professionals is listening as their profession
is related to communicating in real life situations. Their interpretations of the cases will
depend on their listening skill. This skill is important for law students as well. When we
are listening we already have a concept in mind what we are going to hear, either an
answer to our question or a piece of information relevant to the topic we are discussing.
They used expectations or/and context. Every listening exercise was introduced by
instructions that establish the context and learners could use their expectations to help
them listen and comprehend what they hear.
Some of the difficulties that learners experienced were becoming accustomed to the
voices and accents of the speakers they were listening to for the first time. Nevertheless,
they were aware of the purpose of the listening and could focus on the main points by
selecting the most important information, ignore unknown words or phrases irrelevant for
completing the listening comprehension tasks which included multiple choice questions,
completion of sentences or making a note of information they listened to etc.
The learners were encouraged to develop their listening skills out of course by
listening to English broadcast media, surf the Internet websites offering audio contents
(e.g. BBC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/), attending international conferences and
actively taking notes on interesting vocabulary and phrases.
3.2. SPEAKING
General speaking skills were developed and improved during the course through
different activities such as doing role plays, delivering short presentations and 2-minute
speeches, arguing pros and cons, debates, asking opinions on familiar or new topics,
practising pronunciation and stress by demonstrating patterns (falling and rising
intonation indicating their pragmatic meanings). Moreover, they practised interactive
communication like appropriate responding and starting the dialogue, taking part and
turn-taking in order to communicate the meaning.
In this context the learners did not feel very much reluctant or embarrassed to
communicate with one another since they were told the purpose of the exercises.
Additionally, the learners were taught how to manage their utterances (discourse
coherence, relevance and length) by way of link words and connectors.
3.3. READING
The ILEC texts require reading abilities of different kinds from general understanding
to understanding fine details, attitudes and opinions. The learners were taught to apply
reading strategies from paragraphs to whole texts (scanning, skimming or mixed,
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