Academic integration of law and journalism ESP courses through mock trial

The paper studies academic integration of two ESP courses: Law and Journalism through the common educational setting - a role play Mock Trial. The purpose of this study is to prove that a role play is an advantageous form of making academic integration to master integrated skills while studying ESP. The research is based on integrative approach to incorporate two ESP courses and to single out integrated skills as well as competency approach to develop professional, language and other skills in the role play. After the role play was completed two surveys were conducted among students to get their feedback and to evaluate the academic integration efficiency. Likert scale and ranking method were used. We reviewed literature on ESP teaching and analyzed examples of academic integration. Moreover, we suggested authors’ implication of academic integration and justified that law and journalism can be regarded as adjacent professions as they are both human oriented. Being convinced that the role play Mock Trial is the apt integral educational setting, it was hosted to practice new integrated skill - social justice as an anchor for professional and personal qualities. The results of the study aimed at enhancing integrated skills can also be applicable for other ESP settings. The research might encourage ESP teachers to design valuable educational settings to incorporate different ESP fields which may share common professional purposes to develop integrated skills.