2020-2021 / LANG3002-1

Reading legal texts in Dutch, S1

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

 Bachelor in law3 crédits 

Lecturer

Doris De Laet, Catherine Peeters

Language(s) of instruction

Dutch language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The aim of this course is to provide 3d year law students  with the reading comprehension strategies needed for understanding legal  documents such as newspaper articles,  legal texts, as well as other law-related documents. It will cover a wide range of legal subjects and will focus on :

  • the acquisition of reading comprehension skills and strategies
  • syntactic and grammatical structures which are particularly relevant in a legal context
  • the acquisition of basic legal vocabulary

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

In order to meet the requirements for the final exam as defined by the Faculty of Law, students will, by the end of the course, be able to :

  • read and understand effectively legal documents, such as newspaper articles, legal texts, as well as other law-related documents of manageable difficulty.
  • translate appropriately extracts from legal texts or other law-related documents.
with the help of a bilingual and/or legal dictionary

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

As a prerequiste for this course students should have sufficient ability to read general texts.
Ideally, their command of general Dutch should correspond to CEFR-level B1.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

  • Reading comprehension exercises of legal documents
  • Study and acquisition of basic legal terms
  • Study of relevant language items (linking words, adverbs, prepositions, verbs, particles, particular sentence structures ...) to enhance students' understanding of legal texts. 
  • Study of various grammatical structures that are relevant to both legal and general Dutch
  • Various translation exercises
  • Activities on how to use a dictionary effectively

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

2 hours/week, second term
Students are required to prepare activities and exercises on a weekly basis as indicated by the teacher. Regular class attendance is mandatory.

Organisational adjustments related to the current health context

Dependent on the sanitary context, face-to-face classes might not remain possible.  In that case, the course will take place live on ZOOM or Collaborate according to the normal schedule.
On-site written examination. If that is impossible, the written examination will be organized via eCampus. 

Recommended or required readings

Syllabus: Lecture de textes juridiques en néerlandais.    
Available on MyULiège and at Intercopy

Assessment methods and criteria

Below you will find information on the evaluation methods planned for in-person and remote exams as well as those planned for hybrid sessions. Depending on how the health crisis evolves, the chosen method will be communicated to you no later than one month before the start of the exam session.

Any session :

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions )

- Remote

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire, open-ended questions )

- If evaluation in "hybrid"

preferred in-person


Additional information:

Written exam: reading comprehension.    The exam  will consist of two parts :

  • Part 1: Multiple choice questions based on the texts/documents covered in class + sight texts
  • Part 2: TRANSLATION based on the texts/documents covered in class + sight texts 
An  exemption exam (LANG 4003-1) will be organised. It will coincide with the second session exam.
Students will be allowed to use a bilingual dictionary and/or legal dictionary. However, they are not allowed to use either electronic media or other written media, such as word lists or glossaries. In case of doubt, students should seek advice from their teacher in order to make sure that they have chosen an appropriate dictionary.
If covid regulations do not allow in-person assessments, the  examination will consist of an online written examination (multiple choice questions + translation)  on eCampus.

 

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

Contacts

Doris De Laet
d.delaet@uliege.be
Peeters Catherine
c.peeters@uliege.be