Introduction to training and testing

Overview of training

Training methods

Comparison of products and methods

Descriptions of training products

Descriptions of testing products

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Legal English Testing

Cambridge International Legal English Certificate (ILEC)

The International Legal English Certificate is a high-level Cambridge ESOL examination produced in cooperation with the TransLegal Group designed to determine whether candidates whose first language is not English have an adequate level of English to function efficiently, in terms of language ability, in the international legal environment. The exam is set at CEFR levels B2-C1 and takes place twice a year in May and November.

The examination is based on realistic tasks of the kind commercial practitioners would be expected to encounter in their daily working lives. Successful candidates are able to use the language in practical situations, to participate in meetings and discussions of a legal nature, express opinions clearly and are able to understand and to produce texts of various types.

The ILEC examination is recognized by leading associations of lawyers including the European Company Lawyers Association, the International Association of Young Lawyers, the European Law Students Association, and the European Young Bar Association as well as leading law firms, corporations, universities and government bodies throughout the world. For more information regarding the ILEC examination please visit www.legalenglishtest.org.

Language Audit by TransLegal

The Legal English Audit is a diagnostic test of Legal English in a commercial law context set at an intermediate to advanced level covering levels B1-C1 of the Council of Europe’s CEFR scale (see www.coe.int/T/DG4/Linguistic/CADRE_EN.asp). An advanced level of English is deemed necessary to be able to work in an international legal context. The results can be conveniently used by the employer’s to assist in determining whether their staff is at an appropriate level to take the Cambridge International Legal English Certificate (ILEC) or whether study is required and, if so, what courses are best suited for this task.

The test is based on realistic tasks of the kind legal practitioners face on a daily basis. The test covers the full range of communication skills required by legal practitioners: reading, writing, listening and speaking.

• Test of Reading (approx. 30 min.): tests skills such as semantic precision, collocations, fixed phrases and linking words and phrases, shades of meaning, prepositions, pronouns, qualifiers, and reading for detail, gist, opinion and implication.
• Test of Writing (approx. 15 min.): tests skills such as explaining, refuting, presenting and developing arguments and well as suggesting solutions.
• Test of Listening (approx. 20 min.): tests skills such as understanding specific information, gist, attitude, opinion, inference, main points and detail.
• Test of Speaking (approx. 10 min.): tests skills such as discourse management in relation to providing information and expressing and justifying opinions, agreeing and disagreeing, suggesting, speculating, comparing and contrasting, and decision-making.

The complete test takes approximately one hour and 15 minutes. The Reading and Writing tests are taken at the employer and sent electronically to TransLegal for grading. The Listening and Speaking tests are administered by TransLegal examiners at the employer’s premises or other location designated by the employer. After all tests are received, they are graded by TransLegal examiners and an easily comprehensible Audit Report, containing test results and recommendations for training, is provided within three days. This Legal English Audit is offered to groups of 12 or more.