The teaching programme

Law at Oxford

Lead in

1. What are the oldest and the most prestigious universities in the UK?

2. What degrees do the university graduates get?

Reading

Read the text and answer the questions:

1. How do Course I and Course II differ?

2. Are language requirements very high for Course II students? Why?

3. What kinds of skills are developed at the Oxford Law School? Why?

4. What is your opinion about the choice of topics at Oxford? Do you recognize such a system?

5. Where can the Law School graduates apply the skills they acquired at Oxford?

6. Where can students prepare for classes?

Law at Oxford

There are two Law courses at Oxford: Course I is a three-year course and Course II is a four-year course which follows the same syllabus, with the extra year being spent abroad following a prescribed course at a university within the European Union. Course II students spend their third year of study at a university in France, or Germany, or Spain, or Italy (studying French, or German, or Spanish or Italian law) or the Netherlands (studying European and International law). There are language requirements (normally an A Grade at A-level) for entry to the course for France, Germany, Spain and Italy, but not for the Netherlands since the course there is taught in English.

The Oxford Law degrees aim to develop in their students a high level of skill in comprehension, analysis and presentation. Students are expected to read a good deal, mostly from primary sources, rather than to take other people's word for things. And they are asked to process what they have read, together with their own thoughts about it, into written form (regular essays) and into both prepared and ex tempore oral form (for tutorials and classes).

The Oxford syllabus comprises topics chosen primarily for their intellectual interest, rather than for the frequency with which they arise in practice. But at the same time, the skills of researching, thinking and presentation developed by the Oxford courses are eminently suited to practical application, and employers recognise this. Moreover, the skills can be as well applied outside the law as within it. Oxford is probably the only leading law school in the world where the main means by which teaching is done is through group discussion (tutorials) in groups as small as one, two or three students and a tutor.

The modern, purpose-built Bodleian Law Library holds more than 400,000 law-related items, more than almost any other comparable library in the UK. The library is conveniently located in the same building as the Law Faculty and lecture rooms.

The teaching programme

Colleges have the discretion to teach subjects in different terms, but students learn through a form of directed research into one or more different subjects each term, as well as by going to Faculty lectures and seminars given by some of the world's leading legal scholars. This system is academically demanding, but at the same time very rewarding.

Vocabulary

1. Fill in the proper prepositions

Entry ….. the course, skills …. comprehension, skill ……. researching, to process … written form, …. practice, …. group discussion, learn … a form … research.

2. Find synonyms of the following

Fixed/established course, additional, goal, to read a lot, to work up information/data, unprepared speech, include, very suitable, practical use, appreciate, free choice/right, a well-known professor.

3. Match and translate into Russian

Extra source

Language library

Oxford Law year

primary requirements

group degrees

purpose-built Faculty

Law discussion

4. Explain or paraphrase

Language requirements for entry to the course

Oxford Law degrees/syllabus

Take other people’s word for things

Topics chosen primary for their intellectual interests rather than for the frequency with which they arise in practice,

Skills can be well applied outside the law as within it

Purpose-built library

Law-related items

Comparable library

Learn through a form of direct research

5. Give a word or word combination of the following definitions

1. spoken or done without any previous thought or preparation the subjects studied for a particular course

2. a group that consist of three students

3. a system of education that makes students work hard

4. subjects that you can choose to do or have if you want to

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 536