Articles

Cross-Examining English-Medium Legal Education

Dundon, John Terry

Increasingly, English is being used as a medium of instruction in law schools around the world, even in countries that do not use English in their legal systems. This paper examines three related research questions about this phenomenon. First, it explores why these law schools are choosing to deliver law degrees in English, notwithstanding the discrepancy between the language of instruction and the languages in which local laws are written. Next, it assesses how English is actually being used in law school classrooms, and what other institutional changes appear to be occurring at the same time. Finally, it examines what, if anything, can be said about the effect that English-medium instruction may be having on student content achievement. Many elements of these research questions appear to be unanswered by research in either applied linguistics or legal education, and directions for future empirical research are therefore suggested.

Files

  • thumnail for 3551-Article Text-7382-1-10-20191223.pdf 3551-Article Text-7382-1-10-20191223.pdf application/pdf 188 KB Download File

Also Published In

Title
Studies in Applied Linguistics & TESOL
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7916/salt.v19i2.3551

More About This Work

Academic Units
Applied Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
Published Here
August 11, 2020