Background: From 2020, the Law faculty has decided to discontinue the five-year Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) stream within the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree for a variety of reasons, including students’ perceptions of stigma, the poor throughput rate of this stream and the identified need to extend academic support to more students in the mainstream class. Objectives: This article argues that we need to gain insight into the struggles experienced by novice writers on the ECP to inform the nature of support that will need to be provided to LLB students going forward. We thus sought to explore the nature of the challenges experienced by two sets of first-year LLB ECP students with acquiring legal writing practices, namely students from high school and postgraduate students with degrees from other faculties. Method: Two semi-structured interviews on students’ perceptions of their challenges experienced with legal writing were conducted with 12 participants. Results: Students’ struggles with legal writing could be traced to difficulties with engaging appropriately with legal concepts and sources, reading effectively and accommodating the discipline’s valuing of conciseness in presenting arguments. We also show how students’ English additional language status and prior degrees inform these struggles. Conclusion: The article shows the value of looking to ECP students’ challenges with literacy practices (legal writing) in their first year to inform support for all first-year LLB students.

中文翻译：

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法学学士（LLB）学生对他们的扫盲实践的看法：变革时代支持的含义

背景：从2020年开始，法学院已决定终止法律学士学位（LLB）学位的五年制扩展课程计划（ECP），原因有多种，包括学生对耻辱感的理解，不合格率的下降。这种趋势以及确定的需要向主流班级的更多学生提供学术支持。目标：本文认为，我们需要深入了解新手作者在ECP上所经历的斗争，以告知需要向未来的法学学士学位学生提供的支持的性质。因此，我们寻求探究两组拥有法律写作实践的法学学士学位的第一年ECP学生所面临的挑战的性质，即高中生和具有其他系学位的研究生。方法：对12名参与者进行了两次半结构化访谈，采访了学生对法律写作所面临挑战的看法。结果：学生在进行法律写作方面的挣扎可以归结为在适当地运用法律概念和资料，有效阅读和适应学科在陈述论据时的简洁性方面的困难。我们还将展示学生的英语其他语言状态和先前学位是如何帮助这些斗争的。结论：本文显示了在第一年通过ELP学生的识字实践（法律写作）挑战挑战的价值，从而为所有第一年LLB学生提供支持。学生在法律写作方面的挣扎可以追溯到适当地参与法律概念和资料来源，有效阅读并适应该学科对陈述的简洁性的重视方面的困难。我们还将展示学生的英语其他语言状态和先前学位是如何帮助这些斗争的。结论：本文显示了在第一年通过ELP学生的识字实践（法律写作）挑战挑战的价值，从而为所有第一年LLB学生提供支持。学生在法律写作方面的挣扎可以追溯到适当地参与法律概念和资料来源，有效阅读并适应该学科对陈述的简洁性的重视方面的困难。我们还将展示学生的英语其他语言状态和先前学位是如何帮助这些斗争的。结论：本文显示了在第一年通过ELP学生的识字实践（法律写作）挑战挑战的价值，从而为所有第一年LLB学生提供支持。