Needs Analysis and Legal English Course Design in Pre-Master of Laws Program: A Case Study in a U.S. University Law School

Abstract

Legal English courses for international students in pre-LLM (Pre-Master of Laws) programs in the U.S. are important and require careful design to meet the needs of the students. This paper, taking the legal English course design of pre-LL.M. program in a Midwestern university in the U.S. as a case, discusses a theoretically informed, research-based approach to the design of a pre-LL.M. program emphasizing legal English based on a needs analysis. In the paper, a target situation analysis, present situation analysis, and teaching context analysis are carried out to understand the needs of the law school and needs of the students. According to these multifaceted needs analysis, goals and objectives of the course are established and teaching material are developed by following effective guidelines. These materials guide the suggested development of classroom activities in the lesson plan which integrates the SIOP® model. It is hoped that the analysis of pre-LL.M. legal English courses, its subsequent design in a U.S. context, and application of related theories and practice in this paper can be broadly applied in other institutions or ESP course design settings in global contexts.