Using Mother Tongue in Teaching and Learning Legal English Terminology in a Vietnamese University: Teachers and Learners’ Voices

Abstract

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach has led to the minimization of the use of the mother tongue (L1) in second (L2/SL)/ foreign (FL) language/ English for Specific Purposes (ESP) settings. Nevertheless, in recent years, there has been an increasingly tendency to use L1 in language teaching and learning, especially in the ESP contexts, for its undeniable efficacy, one of which is terminological standardization (Glušac, 2023, p.100). Accordingly, this paper focuses on investigating the teachers and learners’ perceptions together with their L1 utilization in teaching and learning legal English (LE) terminology in English-for-law classes at a tertiary law education institution. To achieve the aims, a mixed-method approach by dint of a survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with the participation of 164 students and five LE instructors. Classroom observations were also conducted to justify the teachers’ practice of using L1. The findings show that there was congruence between learners and teachers’ supportive views on the benefits of L1 in teaching and learning LE terms. LE majors and law majors share similar attitudes in the choice of either L1 or L2, yet statistically significant differences were witnessed as regards their English language proficiency levels in acquiring LE terms. Such findings are hoped to be worthy to both LE instructors and learners in teaching and learning LE terminology process.