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WPŁYW KLINIK NA PRZYSZŁOŚĆ SPOŁECZNĄ
Analysis and suggestions for teaching pect, the ethical aspect, the non-legal element of case, and which
As can be seen above the assessment criteria 1-8 and 11 are organ- information the client may conceal without suitably rigorous ques-
ized in a chronological order expected in a client consultation, with tioning. Its content is also directly related to the assessment crite-
each focusing on a particular element of a successful client inter- ria. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the informational and
view. Criteria 10 and 11 are holistic in nature. While some over- rhetorical features contained in the fact pattern could really help
lap in the discrete communication skills and language employed is competitors to develop a deeper understanding of skills and under-
to be expected, it is interesting to see the wide range of skills and lying concepts that their interview is assessed on.
concomitant language that is required by the assessment criteria. To this end a coach could write an interview memorandum and
A coach could use the above materials when preparing their teams ask the students to write a fact pattern. The coach could then get
for the competition in various ways. Below are various ways these the students to compare their fact patterns with one that was writ-
materials could be integrated into a possible training programme ten by the coach. This could help the students and the coach to de-
with other resources available. velop a deeper understanding of the rhetorical elements of the fact
pattern and how these are connected with the assessment criteria.
1. Exploiting the resources on the Brown Mosten
website 3. Goldfish bowl
The Brown Mosten website contains some useful resources: the as- The students look at the suggested appropriate language structures
sessment criteria, interview memorandum and videos of the final for each criteria and in a small group brainstorm some more ideas
rounds of the international round of the competition. While it is or variations. Then one pair of student play the role of compet-
clearly a good idea for students and coaches to visit the website, itors, one student plays the role of a client and his partner, and
there is a danger that this becomes a rather passive activity. another team play the role of judges. After each of the three teams
has interviewed the client may give each feedback. However, unlike
Reverse engineering the competition, one judge focuses on the assessment criteria, one
Firstly, the student makes some notes on an interview memoran- judge focuses on the language used and one judge on the interac-
dum in order to prepare to watch the video for this case. Each team tion between the team members and the client.
member then watches the video, but one student focuses on tak-
ing notes in order to recreate the fact pattern for the case, while 4. Translate it, till you make it
the other student uses the assessment criteria to assess the com- Given both the relatively limited number of Law students with
petitors. The students then share their notes and ideas. The stu- B2+ proficiency in English, and the beneficial legal skills that can
dents are thus required to actively focus on the legal and rhetorical gained from participation in client based activities, it would seem
functions of the fact pattern and how these relate to the assess- that one obvious solution would be to create a Polish version.
ment criteria. As the videos from the finals are clearly models of This removal of the language barrier could increase the appeal of
good practice, the students could watch the video a second time, the competition, creating both a feeder competition that could
noting useful language for each criteria as well as any useful strat- lead to participation in the Brown Mosten ICCC, and as a separate
egy the competitors employ. competition in its own right.
Scaffolded Conclusion
To assist students who have lowers levels of proficiency, the coach This article has firstly sought to examine the discrete commu-
could prepare some scaffolded learning materials that are based nicative activities required for each of the assessment criteria of
on the above ideas. Thus, instead of the student watching the Brown Mosten ICCC. I then provided examples of the lan-
the whole video unassisted the student could watch a clip of guage that the students could use. I hope that this could be used
the video that was used in conjunction with integrated into other by coaches to help their students to practice for the competition
learning materials, such as those that pre-teach the key vocabu- and give them insights into the underling aims of each of the as-
lary or concepts For example, the students discuss the concept sessment criteria. I then sought to show coaches how they could
of informed choice, then do a language exercise that focuses on use the videos of previous competitions in more active focused
the benefits and disadvantages of different courses of action, then way, rather than just watch a video. I then provide activities than
role play giving someone different options, and then finally they focus on the fact patterns, which again I hope will encourage
can watch a relevant clip. a deeper understanding of the underlying aims of the Brown Mos-
ten competition. Finally, I know that Brown Mosten can be seen as
2. DIY fact patterns yet another thing to do, and the list of activities I have presented
Despite the fact that the student competitors never see it, the fact here seem time consuming, but with Poland hosting the interna-
pattern is perhaps the most important document for the client tional competition in 2024, I urge you to considered getting a team
consultation competition. This is because it contains the legal as- together.
References
Brown-Mosten International Client Consultation Competition available at: https://www.brownmosten.com/materials.html.
M. Szewczyk, Refleksja na temat kształcenia prawniczego, [w:] D. Łomowski (red.), Studencka Poradnia Prawna.
Idea, organizacja, metodologia, Warszawa 2005. s. XVIII–XX.
D.F. Chavkin, Clinical Legal Education. A Textbook for Law School Clinical Programs, Anderson Publishing Co. Cincinnati, Ohio 2002,
s. 1–2.
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