International Journal of Pedagogics
119
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ijp
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue06 2025
PAGE NO.
119-123
10.37547/ijp/Volume05Issue06-33
Enhancing La
w Students’ Oral Proficiency Through Discursive
Competence In English
Mirgiyazova Munisa
PhD student at Uzbekistan national pedagogical university, Uzbekistan
Received:
14 April 2025;
Accepted:
15 May 2025;
Published:
17 June 2025
Abstract:
The paper investigates the most common English legal phrases, their lexical meaning and usage features
are given. Discursive competence makes a significant part of the professional vocabulary, demonstrates the rich,
original and unique character of the language, therefore, one of the aim of the article is the knowledge of stable
expressions contributes to a significant increase in the vocabulary of law students, thereby contributing to the
formation of their secondary linguistic personality. Furthermore, the article depicts to classify the most popular
English legal languages according to their subject, which makes it much easier for students to find the necessary
lexical units for successful and productive foreign language communication.
Keywords:
Discursive competence, idiom, phraseological unit, legal English language, law students, oral speech,
legal lexical units.
Introduction:
Nowadays, the world is in the process of
globalization, which implies the active interaction of
countries at the economic, political, spiritual and
cultural levels. One of the features of legal globalization
include the formation of a single system of legal norms
for all states, which ensures their global interaction in
all spheres of public life. Another feature of
globalization in the field of law is the creation of a
global legal space [1]. In order to be an active
participant in this process, it is necessary highly
qualified personnel who are fluent in foreign
languages, especially their legal aspect. It is important
to note that O.E.Kutafin promotes the acquisition by
law students of fundamental theoretical knowledge,
practical skills in the field of law, as well as the
formation of their secondary linguistic personality,
which undoubtedly contributes the promotion of our
country on the world stage.
Our country is an integral participant in globalization
processes, and this implies significant changes in all
areas of social life, including education. The knowledge
of English is an integral part of modern education. For
this article, we are especially interested in teaching
Legal English at a university, and in particular the role
of idiomatic expressions in the success of this process.
A foreign language in the field of law is the basic part of
undergraduate programs, which involves, along with
obtaining general cultural, general professional and
professional competencies, the formation and
improvement of the secondary linguistic personality of
a law student [2]. It is facilitated by the development of
communicative competence, the main components of
grammatical competence, formal or linguistic
competence; sociolinguistic competence; discursive
competence; sociocultural competence [3].
LITERATIRE REVIEW
Despite the existing research devoted to the formation
of discursive skills of students in non-linguistic faculties,
the analysis of these publications showed insufficient
knowledge of some issues that remain relevant for
modern foreign language professional training for
future lawyers of a civil law profile: development of a
theory and methodology for the formation of
discursive skills of a civil law lawyer in the field of
intercultural interaction based on the use individual
educational trajectories; organization of the process of
independent work on the basis of individualization and
differentiation.
English in the field of jurisprudence serves a significant
amount of special texts: these are legal documents,
such as decrees, contracts, wills, acts of parliament,
and oral legal advice, court records. Consequently,
International Journal of Pedagogics
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International Journal of Pedagogics (ISSN: 2771-2281)
graduating from high school, the future lawyer should
have a sufficiently high level of formation of discursive
competence, which, in turn,
First of all, it implies the ability to use a variety of
communicative behavioral strategies that are adequate
to
a
particular
situation
of
intercultural
communication, to fully take into account the forms of
interaction used in the course of a communicative act.
Thus, the importance of the problem of forming the
discursive skills of future lawyers is relevant and timely.
Achieving the goal of the study was ensured by solving
a number of tasks:
- to reveal the didactic possibilities and functions of the
intercultural foreign language environment for
teaching a foreign language for special purposes;
- to argue the specifics of the formation of professional
discursive skills of the future lawyer;
- to develop a model for the formation of intercultural
discursive skills of a future lawyer;
- on the basis of the designed model of the formation
of intercultural discursive skills of the future lawyer and
taking into account the development of individual
educational support for students, empirically confirm
its effectiveness.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Setting goals and objectives determines the research
methods: theoretical: critical analysis of foreign and
domestic
pedagogical,
psychological
and
methodological literature; comparison, synthesis,
generalization of the information obtained during the
study; empirical: questioning; diagnosis; experimental
work; statistical data. We understand such an
environment as "an open linguodidactic system of tools
and information and communication technologies that
provide conditions for providing a personal route to
students in the study of language and culture on the
basis of multi-level and differentiated educational
resources" according to the needs, capabilities and
motivation of each student [11]. We believe that the
successful learning depends primarily on the didactic
capabilities of the educational environment and the
competent definition of its functions. Intercultural
educational foreign language environment contributes
to:
- formation of the subject of foreign language activity
as a creative independent and self-organizing
researcher. Performing their official duties in the
context of interpersonal communication, a lawyer must
be able to organize conversations in the foreign
language, give explanations, conduct interrogations of
the accused, plaintiffs and witnesses, advise citizens on
legal issues, participate in collegiate discussions of legal
issues, conduct business negotiations, speak in
collegiums and the media, in court [4];
- ensuring openness of intercultural communication
with foreign colleagues, clients on the basis of the
formed discursive skills of the future civil bachelor, as
in the process [6];
- ensuring openness of intercultural communication
with foreign colleagues, clients on the basis of the
formed discursive skills of the future bachelor of civil
profile, since in the process of professional legal activity
a specialist in the field of law should give advice
including foreign individuals or legal entities, he has to
work in an international team, so he needs to master
the
skills
of
professional
foreign
language
communication;
- formation of a communicative-competent portrait of
a future lawyer as a set of important qualities and
characteristics that allow him to form his
communicative ability for international integration
interaction within the framework of various legal
systems that require the use of adequate strategies for
the speech behavior of a judge/lawyer in the process of
professional foreign language communication, taking
into account certain forms of interaction between
communicants belonging to different cultures, which
implies the knowledge of lawyers in the field of civil law
in various genres of legal discourse on the basis of
formed intercultural discursive skills [8].
The didactic possibilities and functions of the
intercultural foreign language environment contribute
to the formation of the professional skills of a future
lawyer to conduct a conversation with representatives
of a different language. Revealing the essence of
intercultural discursive skills of the discursive
competence of the future lawyer, it is necessary to
consider
the
specifics
of
his
professional
communication,
present
a
professional
communicative-competent portrait of a future
bachelor in the field of "Law". For our study, the
position of N.P.Khomyakova is important, which
introduces the concept of “professional linguistic
personality” in her works [12]. There is no doubt that a
specialist in the field of jurisprudence, being the subject
of public relations, carries out various kinds of
interpersonal contacts and takes an active part in
business communication, manifested in different forms
and types.
EAPankratova, emphasizes the special significance of
the process of formation of a professional linguistic
personality capable of intercultural communication
among students, believes that such a personality,
speaking as a subject of the dialogue of cultures, is
determined by the specifics of the acquired specialty
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International Journal of Pedagogics (ISSN: 2771-2281)
[9]. All communicative intentions of a bachelor in the
process of his teaching legal discourse as a separate
type of professional activity based on intercultural
features of different legal systems should be focused
on the harmonious development of the personality of
the future specialist.
The specifics of the legal profession, which is
socionomic in nature (i.e., carried out in the “person
-
to-
person” plane), predetermines special requirements
for specialists in this profile with regard to knowledge
and skills of professional communication. For example,
these include an understanding of the principles of
group and interpersonal interaction, the personal
responsibility of a lawyer and his responsibilities
towards clients; knowledge of legal strategies such as
negotiation, alternative dispute resolution, client
protection and others [8].
An interesting point of view is G.F.Kirova, who believes
that a lawyer of any specialization must possess
polemical skills, he constantly (especially in the process
of preparing court speeches) needs to use his ability to
argue, convince and defend his position, refute the
opponent’s point of view [5]. The process of formation
of the linguistic personality of the future lawyer is
carried out under the influence of the legal culture and
the legal picture of the world of the country whose
language the students are studying.
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS. We have designed a model for
the formation of intercultural discursive skills of a
future lawyer according to the profile of training, which
is the basis of individual educational support for
students, which allows teaching a specialized
professional discourse of lawyers, different approaches
to teaching preferred the types of legal discourse (oral
or written) in communicative situations of intercultural
interactions; choose the necessary types and form of
intercultural communication depending on the
language picture of the client's world; create individual
educational trajectories for organizing and optimizing
independent work aimed at developing the discursive
skills of a future lawyer. The scientific justification for
the design of this model was an individually
differentiated approach to teaching and educating
students, based on the idea that differentiated learning
is not a goal, but a means of developing the student's
individuality, and also allows you to create the most
favorable conditions for self-development of the
student's personality [10; 11], and the following
principles:
1. completeness and algorithmic;
2. a principle based on taking into account the
individual characteristics of participants in intercultural
communication;
3. the choice of various forms and methods of teaching
legal discourse [12].
Designing a model for the formation of discursive skills
of a future lawyer corresponds to certain stages:
motivational-diagnostic (diagnosing the level of
language proficiency and diagnosing motivation), the
stage of forming linguistic and sociolinguistic skills
(identifying and removing linguistic and linguodidactic
difficulties) [7]; choosing an address card-menu -
determining the types of professional speech activity
preferred by students (reading authentic literature in
the specialty, discussion, the formation of a written
legal discourse); stage of control and self-control
holding the final student conference. The model of
formation of discursive skills makes it possible to
provide personality-oriented training in the specialized
professional discourse of lawyers, to approach the
formation of discursive competence of students with
different levels of English proficiency in different ways,
to create individual educational trajectories for
organizing and optimizing independent work. The
results of the experimental work indicate that, thanks
to the development of individual educational support
for students, the linguistic and professional richness of
their statements has improved. The developed model
made it is possible to increase the levels of quantitative
and qualitative progress, acquire knowledge of legal
discourse and develop the ability to apply discursive
skills in preferred types of professional legal activity;
and develop quality of indicators of mastering the
professional intercultural communicative competence
of a civil lawyer. The results obtained prove the need
for further development of the problem under study in
the direction of improving the technological support of
bachelors of law in individually differentiated training
in intercultural professional communication, in
particular through the introduction of new educational
technologies, which will be based on the interaction of
students that are interested in young competitive
specialists in the legal field.
It should be noted that law students in theory can learn
Legal English while avoiding legal idioms, because they
are
inappropriate
in
situations
of
formal
communication, writing official documents. At this
stage it is important to know basic legal vocabulary,
features of its use, as well as knowledge of grammar.
For shallow communication at the household level, as
a rule, it is quite ordinary vocabulary without fixed
expressions is enough. However, not knowing the
idioms, it will not be possible to achieve a high level of
knowledge of the language, because it is they who are
able to make speech lively, bright, emotional,
expressive. Here are some guidelines for learning legal
English idioms:
International Journal of Pedagogics
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International Journal of Pedagogics (ISSN: 2771-2281)
- memorize idioms should be in context, paying
attention to the situation and conditions in which one
or another stable phrase is used;
- find information about the etymology of this
expression, it is significant to facilitate the
memorization process;
- memorize the idiom as a whole, do not split it into
separate words;
- try to make up your own sentences using the new
phrases;
- try to use idioms in seminars as often as possible.
As a result, to emphasize that lexemes are used in
speech to give it imagery, brightness. They not only
convey information, but also show the attitude of the
speakers towards it. Legal English idioms, as mentioned
earlier, make up an essential part of professional
vocabulary, which indicates their important role in the
process of teaching English to law students. Thus, we
can conclude that the intercultural educational foreign
language environment contributes to the creation of
conditions for the formation of a successful specialist in
the field of civil law. This environment allows you to
create individual routes for training a future lawyer in
interaction with representatives of different cultures in
the
framework
of
business
professional
communication. We can state that the future civil
lawyer must possess discursive skills that allow him to
increase the effectiveness of interaction and adequate
understanding between subjects in the process of
intercultural
foreign
language
communication.
Discursive skills of a future lawyer, which develop in a
foreign language educational environment, make the
mental activity of undergraduate students more
efficient due to the diversity forms of work in
accordance with the set educational objectives by
involving each student in the educational process and
providing students with the opportunity to make the
most of their personal experience.
CONCLUSION
The developed model for the formation of discursive
skills prepares a lawyer to interact with clients, taking
into account their linguistic, linguistic and cultural
characteristics. This model makes it possible to provide
personality-oriented training in the specialized
professional discourse of lawyers, to approach the
formation of the discursive competence of students
with different levels of English proficiency in different
ways, to create individual educational trajectories of
organizing and optimizing independent work on all
types of legal discourse (oral and written). Conducted
research made it is possible to come to important
theoretical conclusions and practical results, which can
significantly improve the level of English language
proficiency in the specialty (law profile).
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