Reading strategies and challenges in case law comprehension for law students
List of Authors
  • Sarimah Shamsudin , Suhaila Abdullah

Keyword
  • Reading Strategies, Challenges, Reading Case Law, Think Aloud Protocol

Abstract
  • Reading is considered one of the most complex skills that any students need to acquire in ensuring their success in the academic world. For law students, the bulk of the reading materials come from legal cases or case law. While law students are duty-bound to read cases, cases are challenging to read. Thus, this paper examines the reading processing strategies used by law students when reading the case law and the challenges that they faced when reading the case law. The study is a case study and qualitative in nature. Think aloud approach was used in collecting the main data as this approach allows the researcher to tap into the minds of the participants in this research. The think aloud data of the participants was transcribed and analysed for reading processing strategies. A post-interview was also conducted to follow up on the challenges that the participants faced while reading the case law. The study revealed that most students predominantly used the default reading strategies with varying emphasis on problematising, rhetorical and other reading strategies. Law students also faced significant challenges in navigating legal terminology, identifying and understanding case principle and statue, and applying background knowledge effectively.

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