Forming an innovative professional linguistic personality of law school students on the basis of the synergetic approach

The article considers the problems of forming and developing a professional linguistic personality of students in the educational environment of the law school. It focuses on ways and principles of forming a professional linguistic personality of law students on the basis of synergetic approach at a tertiary institution of professional education in Russia. The formation of a professional linguistic personality of a lawyer involves acquisition of a professional language of legal discourse, which in its turn implies acquisition of the professional thesaurus and target competencies not only in L1 (which is a native language), but also in L2, L3, etc. Now that the modern international legal education is facing challenges caused by internationalization and integration of legal systems, the conception of developing professional linguistic personality of law students - with the use of axiological, competency-based and learner-centered approaches - seems to be of major significance. The article focuses mainly on the synergetic model of educational space development that has been actively developed recently and combines main methodological approaches in teaching foreign language discourse at higher schools, including professional focused teaching and the Content and Language Integrated Learning. The article gives the theoretical background as to the definition of the language of professional communication, the definition of linguistic personality and the importance of the concept. The authors also pay special attention to the concept "Foreign Language for Specific Purposes" by the example of the ESP phenomenon (English for Specific Purposes), the main goals and target audience, the specificity of its methodology and conditions for successful ESP learning, parameters and criteria for evaluating the relevant textbooks. The results of some ESP textbooks analysis presented in the article show that at the initial (propaedeutic) stage the teaching methods offered in foreign language textbooks for specific purposes are based on the traditional system of professional focused teaching foreign languages, and the principles and methods of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) widely used in the European educational science and practice are applied at the advanced stage. We suggest the ways how this theoretical linguistic concept is related to legal education in practice, using the Ural State Law University, which is a prestigious law school in Russia, as an example. The Department of Russian, Foreign Languages and the Culture of Speech of the Ural State Law University has developed a number of innovative programs, courses (involving teaching legal skills, among others), coursebooks and multi-lingual dictionaries of legal terms which help form the innovative professional linguistic personality of law students possessing language competences and such personality traits of students as creativity, critical thinking, reflexivity, assertiveness, responsibility, tolerance, self-actualization. The authors' conception of the coursebook "English for Lawyers" (the level of academic bachelor's degree) reflects the current synergetic approach and is based on the concept of the innovative professional linguistic personality, that implies dialogue of culture and the interactivity of learning process. The content and structure of this textbook is affected by a limited number of academic hours in the bachelor's program and the target audience. Therefore, the structure of the textbook content may be roughly divided into two unequal parts corresponding to two stages of language training: the initial (propaedeutic) stage with its specific methodology of the introductory course and the advanced stage of the CLIL approach. The authors assign primary importance to the issues of selecting language and speech material for the textbook and its didactic arrangement that relies on students' participation and activation, and critical thinking development. The methodology of the research is based on theoretical (analysis, synthesis, comparison and evaluation) methods. It is concluded that the textbook as a universal tool of foreign language teaching and learning, which is based on the specific pedagogical approach and / or the methodological conception of teaching foreign language of profession, their professional motivation, the students' level of foreign language proficiency, current needs of students and society, as well as linguodidactic models of the linguistic personality, provides the framework that teachers and students have to follow in order to develop an innovative professional linguistic personality of law school students.

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