Page 4 - Klinika Nr 35–36 (40–41)/2023

WPŁYW KLINIK NA PRZYSZŁOŚĆ SPOŁECZNĄ

Preparing students

for the Brown Mosten

International Client
Peter Gee*

Consultation Competition

from the perspective of

an applied linguist

Introduction sistance to the poor and to strengthen the process of educating
The author has had the pleasure of being involved in the Brown future lawyers by enabling them to apply the law in their relations
Mosten ICC national competition in Poland since the inaugural with clients and their real problems, and only with the theory .
2
competition that was held at the Catholic University in Lublin in Direct contact with the client also requires these students to have
2018. Over the years I have been a judge, a coach, and a client. soft skills, which they can practice during courses preparing for
I also have had the honour to be a judge and a client in the na- participation in the competition.
tional competition in Ukraine. However, unlike most of the other
people who have played these roles, I am linguist, who specializes The level of proficiency in English of competitors in
in English for Academic Purposes, and it is from this perspective the national competition in Poland
I offer my analysis. While some lawyers might balk at receiving ad- Not surprisingly, given the complex linguistic challenges that
vice from an interloper, I would assert that as the Brown Mosten competitors face, the minimum level of proficiency I have seen
ICCC is conducted in English, a high level of linguistic competence in the final rounds of the national competition is B2+, with
is an essential element for success, and that therefore a thorough many competitors being C1 or C2. Moreover, an examination of
examination of the language skills required of the participants is the CEFR descriptors germane to the Brown Mosten assessment
also vitally important. Moreover, for Brown Mosten’s potent po- criteria clearly shows the need for B2 and above levels of proficien-
tential as a tool for legal skills training to be realised, then students cy. Unfortunately, there are relatively few Law students in Poland
with lower levels of proficiency in English need to be encouraged with this level of proficiency. While a training course for Brown
to engage with the competition. It is therefore contended in this Mosten would be far from a panacea for this issue, it would be
article that a study informed by an examination of the discreet lan- a small step in the right direction.
guage skills of the assessment criteria of the Brown Mosten ICC
will assist team coaches in their preparation of their universities’ Analysis of the assessment criteria
teams. The article will first discuss the level of proficiency in Eng- In this section I will first present the key features of the assess-
lish required by competitors, then it will present a detailed analysis ment criteria, a brief description of discrete communicative lan-
of the assessment criteria from the perspective of the communica- guage activity, and examples of appropriate language. The exam-
tive language skills required for each criteria. The article will then ples of nonverbal communication have been italicized. For the sake
present a number of practical ways coaches could train students. of brevity, I have tablized this section. For each of the criteria
The basis of the activity of Student Legal Clinics in Poland (also I have included the original title and description from the assess-
known as Law Clinics) is to enable students to broaden their ment criteria, but some of the wording has been shortened and/
knowledge and acquire skills in safe conditions, i.e. under the su- or paraphrased (Brown Mosten ICCC, 2021). I have emboldened
pervision and substantive supervision of academic teachers . certain keywords and, and where appropriate I have subdivided
1
The main objectives of clinical education are to provide legal as- a criteria into stages.

* Peter Gee is a postgraduate from the University of Nottingham, Klinika Prawa
Uczelnia Łazarskiego, ORCID 0000-0002-9160-1762.
1 M. Szewczyk, Refleksja na temat kształcenia prawniczego, [w:] D. Łomowski (red.),
Studencka Poradnia Prawna. Idea, organizacja, metodologia, Warszawa 2005. 2 D.F. Chavkin, Clinical Legal Education. A Textbook for Law School Clinical Pro-
s. XVIII–XX. grams, Anderson Publishing Co. Cincinnati, Ohio 2002, s. 1–2

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