Selection of foreign language teaching content in Russian Master of Laws (LLM) graduate programs

Abstract

© 2019, RALs. Master's degree was integrated into the system of Russian Higher Education several decades ago, however, teaching foreign languages at this level still needs further analysis including the postgraduate law students training. The article investigates the principal components of foreign language teaching in Master of laws Graduate Programs (considering the case of the English language) on the bases of various methods: the analysis of related regulatory and standard-setting documents, linguistic analysis of legal texts; content analysis of textbooks and other resources; methods of analysis and synthesis, classification and descriptive methods, theoretical analysis of methodological and applied research literature. As a result of the study the basic teaching content components were revealed, including linguistic and speech material; professional, linguistic, intercultural knowledge; the corresponding reproductive and productive skills. The findings reflect the factors of content-setting of LLM graduate programs concerning graduates' professional activity (law making, law enforcement, expert, consulting, organizational, managerial, research and pedagogical issues), professional duties; purposes and teaching duration; requirements as for the training output by federal educational standards.