Investigating the English needs of law department students in English for specific purposes

Abstract

This present study aims at investigating the students’ target needs in learning ESP Speaking of Law department students. The adapted version of Aliakbari & Boghayeri’s (2014) and Alsamadani’s (2017) questionnaire was used as the main instrument of this study to understand the 45 students’ perception about their needs in learning ESP speaking course. A mixed-method research design was implemented in this present research. Students’ responses were analyzed statistically using SPSS 16.0 by calculating the mean, frequency and percentage. To elicit more understanding on the topic, interview was implemented to senior students in order to get deeper investigation about students’ target needs. The interview data were then analyzed using NVivo 12 Plus. This study reveals that most of the students’ needs are concerned with their professional job in the future so they are able to use English in their fields. Thus, this study provides some highlighting points on what to include in course development. In such a notion, this study suggests lecturers provide specific materials related to law in order to face their professional life either in short- or long-term future needs.
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 HIGHLIGHTS:
 
 This study pinpoints the result of Law students measurement on their self-rating towards their English competences.
 This study highlights on materials related to Law department that are perceived to be strongly needed and less needed.
 This study also reveals that according to students’ interview transcript, their needs in learning ESP are found to attain long-term goal compared to the short-term one.

What Do Law Students Need and What Problems They Experienced in Learning English? Insight From Students and Alumni

“…The research about ESP needs analysis of law students had been universally investigated by previous researchers. Rumalessin and Farah (2021) confirmed that law students expect the ESP learning process, which concerns their future professional job most. Research conducted by Samsudin and Sukarismanti (2020) claimed that most law students considered speaking, the most challenging skill, to be the primary focus of the learning process.…”

“…Thoroughly reading, those previous research only focused on investigating law students' needs in terms of learning materials. This issue can be proven by previous research that analyzed the correlation between gaining work experience and the level of importance attached to areas of Law studied (Rumalessin & Farah, 2021). The study integrated the concepts of English skills and the genuine academic concern of students' learning needs (Nurie, 2017), determining the expected materials and preparing relevant teaching materials to improve the ability to speak English (Samsudin & Sukarismanti, 2020).…”

Evaluating Employers’ Demands for University Graduates’ Legal English Proficiency in Employability

“…In addition, they hopefully believe that their viewpoints can contribute to educational institutions with resourceful reference in redesigning and renovating the ESP curricula, especially legal English curriculum to match theory to practice. Similarly, Rumalessin and Farah (2021) conducted a mix-methods study on legal English necessity of graduates. They emphasize the needs of student access authentic legal materials relating to law cases.…”

“…So, the importance on the right and famous qualifications help recent graduates manage and succeed in their roles at workplace (Velden et al, 2015;Su-Hei et al, 2017;Cheang & Yamashita, 2020). It is advisable for employees to have qualified, professional expertise in their working positions with both good academic degrees and soft skills, specially ESP such as legal English language competence (Oliver, 2011;Rumalessin & Farah, 2021). Shockingly, employers evaluate moderately those graduates who obtain an English certificate or passing corporate English proficiency tests.…”

“…Although there have been many studies (e.g. Clement & Murugavel, 2018;Ilhaamie & Rosmawarni, 2020;Rumalessin & Farah, 2021) investigating employers' perspectives on the importance of English competency, particularly ESP, these studies have focused on ESP in general, not specifically on subject. The paper was conceived to examine employers' viewpoints of recent graduates, major in legal English to assess whether their legal English competency meet the requirements of workability.…”