Legal English- Supporting your Arguments
A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS
Students ask questions to get more support for arguments they are listening to such as examples and personal experiences, brainstorm useful phrases for supporting arguments with other sources etc, then can use that language in freer speaking about law.
Lesson Plan Content:
Legal English supporting your arguments in different ways practice
Choose one of the topics below and share your ideas, using as many different kinds of support for them as you can. Your partner will ask you to support your opinions using questions like those on the next page, and then give their own views.
- Solving the problem of bribery by domestic companies abroad
- Solving the problem of politicians and public officials accepting bribes
- What to do about false forced confessions
- Getting rid of tax evasion
- What to do about people whose reputation is ruined by being taken in for questioning by the police but who are not prosecuted or are found innocent
- Dealing with street crime (bag snatching, mugging, pickpocketing, etc)
- Dealing with (genuine and fake) asylum seekers
- Dealing with bullying/ cyber-bullying
- A sensible government policy on soft drugs like marihuana
- The correct use of capital punishment
- Physical punishments (= corporal punishments) at home and school
- Dealing with people who have served their time in prison (= released prisoners/ ex-prisoners)
- Cutting down on online piracy
- Punishing fraudsters/ scammers/ conmen
- How much of a problem human trafficking is
- Conditions in prisons
- Rehabilitation of criminals
- The self-defence defence
- How to deal with persistent reoffenders
- How to control prostitution
- How to deal with whistleblowers
- Dealing with labour disputes such as wrongful dismissal cases
- Tackling monopolistic practises/ More effective competition rules (stopping price fixing etc)
- Alternatives to prison sentences
- A more up-to-date copyright law
- Ensuring proper data protection
- Tackling discrimination
- Dealing with offshore shell companies
Suggested questions to get (more) support for your partner’s arguments
Advantages
Why would… be a good thing? What would be the advantage(s) of…?
I can’t see any merit in...
Certainty/Strong opinions
Are you sure about…? You don’t sound very certain about...
How confident are you that…?
Changes/ Predictions/ Trends
Do you expect… to continue? How might… change?
What are your predictions for the next…?
Clarifying/ Paraphrasing/ Restating
Can you explain what you mean (by…)? Is there another way to say…?
What does… mean? So, overall, are you saying…?
(I understand what you are saying, but) I don’t get your point.
Comparing/ Contrasting
Isn’t that basically the same as…? How is that different to…?
I can’t understand the difference between… and… How similar is… to…?
Conceding points/ Considering possible arguments against/ Looking at both sides
But isn’t it also true that…? But don’t you accept that…?
But if you look at it another way,… But don’t some people also believe that…?
Consequences/ Effects/ Results
What could be the effects of…? Does… matter (much)?
How do you think… would affect…?
Data/ Figures/ Generalising/ Statistics
How big a… is that? Can you give me a rough idea of…?/ Roughly,…?
Can you put any figures on…? How common is…?
Examples
Can you give me an example (of…)? For instance?
Expert opinion/ Other people’s experience/ Quoting/ Things read or heard/ Sources
What do the experts think about…? Does anyone else think the same way?
Where did you get the idea that… from? Do most academics agree on…?
What is your source for…?
Personal experiences
What is your own experience of…? Have you experienced… yourself?
Do you generally find that…? Have you personally found that…?
What phrases can you use to support your arguments in these ways? Brainstorm at least three phrases for each. It might help to look at the questions above to give you ideas.
Advantages
Certainty/ Emphasising/ Importance/ Strong opinions
Changes/ Predictions/ Trends
Clarifying/ Paraphrasing/ Restating
Comparing/ Contrasting
Conceding points/ Considering possible arguments against/ Looking at both sides
Consequences/ Effects/ Results
Data/ Figures/ Generalising/ Statistics
Examples
Expert opinion/ Other people’s experience/ Quoting/ Things read or heard/ Sources
Personal experiences
Use the key words on the next page to help check and expand your ideas.
Key words
Use these words to help you with the brainstorming task above.
Advantages
positive main great
Certainty/ Emphasising/ Importance/ Strong opinions
doubt denied obvious clear
Changes/ Predictions/ Trends
up de- pl- out
re- -ly
Clarifying/ Paraphrasing/ Restating
another other brief
Comparing/ Contrasting
completely almost very
fairly a little
rather totally a lot
much far
Conceding points/ Destroying possible arguments against/ Looking at both sides
also can accept both
Consequences/ Effects/ Results
leads result because consequence
Data/ Figures/ Generalising/ Statistics
adds total precise
Examples
best good illustrate
give instance
Expert opinion/ Quoting/ Things read or heard/ Sources/ Other people’s experiences
according said
Personal experiences
limited generally personal
Check your phrases as a class or with the suggested answers.
Suggested answers
Many other phrases are possible, so please check if you wrote something different.
Advantages
A positive aspect of this is…The main selling point of this is… A great benefit of this is…
Certainty/ Emphasising/ Importance/ Strong opinions
There is no doubt that… It cannot be denied that…
It should be obvious that… It seems clear to me that…
Changes/ Predictions/ Trends
go up/ grow/ increase/ climb/ rise shoot up/ boom/ accelerate/ rocket/ explode
decline/ decrease/ shrink/ drop/ fall plummet/ plunge/ crash/ dive
flatten out/ bottom out/ plateau/ level off rebound/ recover/ bounce back/ pick up
will definitely/ will almost certainly/ will probably/ could possibly
rapidly/ dramatically/ slowly/ considerably/ slightly
Clarifying/ Paraphrasing/ Restating
To put that another way,… In other words,…/ That is to say,… In brief,…
Comparing/ Contrasting
completely identical/ almost identical almost the same
very similar/ fairly similar quite a lot/ a little … er than…
a little different/ rather different/ very different/ almost totally different/ completely different much more… than… far less… than…
Conceding points/ Destroying possible arguments against/ Looking at both sides
It is also true that… Nevertheless,… Although you can argue that…
I accept that…, but… While there are both pros and cons,…
Consequences/ Effects/ Results
…leads to… As a result of,… Because of…,… A consequence of… is…
Data/ Figures/ Generalising/ Statistics
which adds up to… In total,… To be precise,…
Examples
The best example of this is… A good illustration of this is…
I can illustrate this with an example. To give an example of what I’m talking about…
For instance,…
Expert opinion/ Quoting/ Things read or heard/ Sources/ Other people’s experiences
According to most experts…
… (once) said that…/ As… said,…./ I read something which said that…
Personal experiences
In my limited experience,…I have generally found that…I have personal experience of this.
Freer speaking: Legal topics debates
Choose one line below and take opposite sides of the argument. Use as many different ways of supporting your argument in the box as you can, using different language if you use the same kind of support again. Use the key words above to help with the first debate, then try to do the other debates with just the list of kinds of support below to help.
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Suggested kinds of support for your arguments Ø Advantages Ø Certainty/ Emphasising/ Importance/ Strong opinions Ø Changes/ Predictions/ Trends Ø Clarifying/ Paraphrasing/ Restating Ø Comparing/ Contrasting Ø Conceding points/ Destroying possible arguments against/ Looking at both sides Ø Consequences/ Effects/ Results Ø Data/ Figures/ Generalising/ Statistics Ø Examples Ø Expert opinion/ Other people’s experience/ Quoting/ Things read or heard/ Sources Ø Personal experiences |
- Arguments for longer jail sentences/ Arguments for shorter jail sentences
- Decriminalising prostitution/ Harsher punishments for prostitution
- Punishing prostitutes/ Punishing people who pay for sexual services
- Advantages of a jury system/ Disadvantages of a jury system
- Arguments for making it easier to sue people for libel and slander/ Arguments for making it more difficult to sue people for libel and slander
- Making bankruptcy easier and less serious/ Making bankruptcy more difficult and serious
- More emphasis on punishing criminals/ More emphasis on rehabilitating prisoners
- Taking legal precedent more into account/ Taking legal precedent less into account (or even completely ignoring it)
- Legal immunity for serving politicians/ No legal immunity
- Positive discrimination (= affirmative action)/ Treating all people completely equally (however disadvantaged they are)
- More controls on the rental sector/ Letting market forces control landlords
- More international law/ More freedom for countries to decide their own laws
- Raising basic taxes for the rich/ Only closing tax loopholes
- Making it easier to set up a law firm/ More controls on law firms
- Arguments for a statute of limitations/ Arguments against a statute of limitations
- Emphasising people’s right to privacy/ Emphasising people’s right to free speech and freedom of information
- Making starting litigation easier/ Making starting litigation more difficult
- Encouraging official graffiti/ Discouraging all graffiti
- Making mutually agreed divorce easier/ Making all divorce more difficult
- More controls on gambling/ The legalisation of other forms of gambling such as casinos
- Prosecuting teachers for bullying by students in their classes/ Prosecuting parents for bullying by their children
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