Legal English Research Articles

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ЗАСТОСУВАННЯ МЕТОДУ СОКРАТА У НАВЧАННІ АНГЛІЙСЬКОГО АРГУМЕНТОВАНОГО ПИСЕМНОГО МОВЛЕННЯ СТУДЕНТІВ ЮРИДИЧНОГО ПРОФІЛЮ

Background: Although the Socratic method, in some form or another, has been the dominant teaching tool for teaching legal reasoning and analysis in most U.S. law schools, it is not generally thought of as a tool for the teaching legal English reasoning writing to Ukrainian law students, and relatively little has been written about its use in that context. Purpose: The purpose of the analysis is to determine some features of the Socratic Method application to teaching Legal English reasoning writing to law students. Results: Good writing results from good thinking. It makes sense, then, that tools used to teach good thinking should be combined with tools used to teach good writing when law students are learning how to conduct written legal analysis.Socratic Method is the style of teaching through cases and questions. The professor never explains anything, but instead challenges the student’s explanation by questioning the student. If the professor is doing his job well, the questions will further and further refine the student’s thinking, exploring nuances that the student didn’t initially realize existed. Integrating Socratic Method with the writing process can make the process of teaching legal English reasoning writing the most effective while combines training of both analytical and written communication skills. The teacher can first follow writ­ing process principles and require the students to complete their writing assignments in a series of focused drafts. Next, the teacher can intervene in the students’ thought processes by responding to early drafts with Socratic questions that prompt the students to formulate their thoughts precisely. Discussion: This study reveals some features of the Socratic Method application to teaching Legal English reasoning writing to law students and creates the necessary background for further research, particularly in terms of developing new models of teaching legal English reasoning writing to law students.

From EULETA (the European Legal English Teachers’ Association) News brief: Language & Law – Traditions, Trends and Perspectives The Bialystok Legal English Centre

From EULETA (the European Legal English Teachers’ Association) News brief: Language & Law – Traditions, Trends and Perspectives The Bialystok Legal English Centre

A Study on the Understanding of U.S. Law through Legal Dramas and Learning Legal English based on the Corpus

A Study on the Understanding of U.S. Law through Legal Dramas and Learning Legal English based on the Corpus

Shifting frames to construct a Legal English class

In the last decade or so, EAP courses for international lawyers have proliferated. To date, there has been very little research investigating the teaching and learning that takes place in these classrooms, and the present research seeks to fill this gap. This article examines how an EAP course offered at a U.S. law school may foster international students' socialization into the U.S. legal academic community. Using classroom interaction data, this study centers on how one professor and her students “talk into being” (Heritage, 1984) a Legal English class by frequently shifting between the interactive frames (Bateson, 1972; Goffman, 1986; Tannen & Wallat, 1987) of “law class” and “ESL class,” as cued by linguistic and paralinguistic features produced during classroom talk. Course evaluations and semi-structured interviews with students suggest that repeated shifts between the two frames may play a role in the discursive construction of a class that meets the linguistic and academic needs of students, who seek not only to enhance their “general linguistic competence” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1980), but also to increase their language proficiency for academic tasks they can expect to complete in a U.S. law class.

English as Common Legal Language: Its Expansion and the Effects on Civil Law and Common Law Lawyers

English has become the common language in a globalized legal world. However, the far-reaching consequences of the domination of key areas of the international practice of law by legal English are not yet fully understood and analysed. This article is concerned with an analysis of the expansion of legal English in global legal practice. This area has also been described as the ‘Law Market’, i.e. the area of activities of global lawyers in coping with the regulatory and legal frameworks in which international businesses function.’2 Much of the existing research into legal English as a common language is concerned with the development of legal English as a vehicle language for non-native English speakers in the sense of a lingua franca.3 The discussion is divided into either promoting the use of legal English as global language4 or pointing to its limitations ‘in that its legal terminology is premised on the tools of the (minority) common law system’5. This article aims to assess the interface and dynamics between lawyers using legal English as a common language as well as foreign languages in their legal work. This includes lawyers trained in the common law and/or civil law. Its aim is to gain a better understanding of global lawyering and communication in law and business relationships and to develop strategies for the internationalization of legal education and training in the UK.

Contrastive Analysis of English Nominal Compounds and their Correspondents in Albanian Language: A Case Study with ESP Law Students

Abstract Foreign language teaching applies various methods, approaches and techniques in transmitting the knowledge from instructor to learner which entails the ability to comprehend the similarities and dissimilarities between a learner's mother tongue and the foreign language. Contrastive Analysis (CA) is one of the methods which compares languages by paying attention to differences and similarities between languages being compared. This paper focuses on investigating the identities, differences and similarities of English nominal compounding patterns and their correspondents in Albanian by manner of formation and meaning through CA. Nominal compounds (N + N, V + N, Aj + N, Av + N, and V +Av =N) are the main focus in this paper since these patterns are very productive in Legal English. This paper will also pinpoint the most common errors EFL students make whilst identifying patterns of nominal compounds and translating them from English to Albanian and vice versa. Results from the data collected from English and Albanian grammar books and a test run questionnaire, showed that English and Albanian are similar in terms of N+N, Aj + N, Av + N compounds however they are different in V + N and V+ Av =N compounds by the manner of formation. Regarding meaning, there are dissimilarities between English and Albanian N + N compounds. Consequently, the most common errors made by EFL students whilst translating compounds occur with Aj + N and V + Av=N compounds. All these results give insightful indications regarding implications in teaching and learning nominal compounds in an ELT legal context.

Problems in Translating Legal English Text into Indonesian

Unlike general English text, legal English text is much more difficult to translate because legal English translation is not only about transferring the meaning but it also deals with finding the appropriate legal expressions in target language (Indonesian). This article discusses some problems encountered by Indonesian students in translating legal English text. A translation test was given to 30 Binus University students, in which they were assigned to translate a legal text consisting of 200 words into Indonesian. They were only allowed to use printed English-Indonesian dictionary. For the analysis, the translations of 10 legal English phrases were chosen. The results showed that the students not only failed to convey the original text message but also could not construct appropriate/ accepted Indonesian expressions in the translation.

A Corpus-based Comparative Study of Ideational Grammatical Metaphor in Marine Engineering and Maritime Legal Regulation English

Grammatical metaphor is one of the language phenomena introduced by Halliday (2004) in the framework of functional grammar. This paper used Halliday’s metafunctional framework in marine engineering and maritime legal regulation English discourses under Prichard’s category (2003) of English for occupational purposes and English for academic purposes respectively. The analysis of data was conducted through a description of English occupational and academic texts, based on grammatical metaphor. The researcher conducted some statistical analysis, including frequency and percentage of ideational grammatical metaphor and its different processes of transitivity in both genres. Finally, two genres of English texts were compared statistically to show in what aspect they are significantly different or similar. The results obtained indicate that the two genres bear more similarities than differences in terms of using the nominalization of ideational grammatical metaphor. In other words, while indicating genre differences, the study proves their functional similarities in using the material process types more than other process types to convey meaning, however marine engineering English applies a little less frequency of material and relational process. Some behavior process types were found in marine engineering English texts but no behavior processes were found in marine legal English. Maritime legal English applies small amount of existential process and mental process while in marine engineering English these two types of process were not found. Both genres apply ideational metaphor to condense the information and increase the complexity of sentence structure.

Development and Use of a Corpus Tailored for Legal English Learning

Development and Use of a Corpus Tailored for Legal English Learning

Mediation in Legal English Teaching

Abstract Mediation is a language activity that has been unjustly neglected when preparing law students for their future professional careers. When trained in a professional context, students need to develop and improve complex communicative skills. These include not only the traditional language skills such as reading, writing, listening and speaking, but also more advanced skills such as summarizing, providing definitions, changing registers etc. All these are involved in the students’ acquisition of ‘soft skills’ that are particularly important for students of law since much of their future work involves interpersonal lawyer-client interaction. This article argues that mediation is a crucial (though previously underestimated) skill and that law-oriented ESP instruction should provide training aimed at developing this skill. Showing a practical application of this approach, the paper demonstrates that mediation can be successfully integrated in the legal English syllabus and make the learning of legal English more effective.

Legal English Through Movies: Development of Professional Communicative Competence

Abstract Legal English (LE) has evolved as a distinct, highly demanded part of ESP in the recent years of globalisation. Many specialised textbooks have been published lately, but the professional communication aspect lacks sufficient coverage. This article presents a project, which is a teaching manual entitled Legal English through Movies, that has grown from the author’s experience using video in the LE classroom. A general methodology of using authentic video in language teaching is briefly covered to explain why and how feature films were initially used by the author. The idea of using movies for developing law students’ professional communicative competence has shifted the emphasis from pure language training to forming professional communication skills. The applied method takes into consideration both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors of professional communication. Special attention is paid to language patterns typical of different communicative situations within various areas of legal practice along with peculiarities of cross-cultural communication. Not covering all spheres of LE teaching the results enhance education kits for such course topics as Criminal Law, Tort Law, and Civil Procedure as well as provide training materials for mastering professional skills in typical communicative situations (lawyer - client, lawyer - lawyer, etc.). The approach introduced here can be expanded to different ESP fields as well.

Case Briefs in Legal English Classes

Abstract A case brief can be described as a succinct summary of a case which specifies the facts, procedural history, legal issue(s), court decision and legal reasoning supporting the judgment, even though exact formats may vary. Case briefing is a demanding activity which is required from students during their law studies. The goal is to teach students to focus on the essential parts of the case and to obtain a thorough understanding of the case and the reasoning, which means the students need to employ their analytical and critical thinking skills. The course of English for academic legal purposes (as part of English for specific purposes) can also benefit from implementing case briefs. Students are exposed to useful legal vocabulary while the cases themselves bring real life examples of the law, which can increase students’ interest and motivation. The paper briefly introduces the literature on the methodology of teaching case briefing and on case briefs within the linguistics research and then describes a sample activity on case briefs from legal English classes. My experience shows that it is important to provide students with sufficient scaffolding for completing the task successfully. Even though the students feel they are easily and quickly acquainted with the format and the language used, they encounter problems when preparing particular cases. The activity combines both individual and collaborative work, oral and written outputs and peer reviewing. Case briefing is a valuable learning activity; nevertheless, some students may find it difficult as they need not only language skills, but also general critical thinking skills. The teacher should therefore facilitate their work, help them practice the ability to find relevant information, identify the issue, and comprehend the reasoning behind.

Action Research in Designing and Implementing Courses of English for Legal Purposes

Abstract English for Legal Purposes (ELP) appears to be gaining popularity and acquiring a new dimension in many countries. An increasing number of legal professionals (i.e. law students and legal practitioners) consider their General English satisfactory but desire to learn the language of their professional domain, as they believe it will bring them improved job prospects in the future. There are some aspects of ELP teaching that can be both a hindrance and a challenge for ELP teachers. These include the lack of curricula for teaching Legal English at tertiary level institutions and the restricted number of teaching resources and guidelines with reference to teaching Legal English available on the market. This article draws on the outcomes of a three-year research project, which was undertaken to design, implement, and evaluate an ELP programme for adult professionals. The research project was conducted among 293 legal professionals in Poland and took the form of an action research model - a research tool that is not often exploited by scholars despite its unquestionable value

Intersections between Law and Language: Disciplinary Concepts in Second Language Legal Literacy

Abstract International mobility among graduate students of law presents unique challenges for the teaching and learning of Legal English. Master of Laws (LL.M.) students, for example, often bring both prior legal training and professional experience from their home jurisdiction to their graduate studies abroad. Taking a closer look at the experience of these students as they engage with genres associated with another legal system provides insight into broader issues of intersections between language and content in English for Legal Purposes. This article draws on case studies of four LL.M students from China and Saudi Arabia, a civil law jurisdiction and an Islamic law jurisdiction, respectively, as they learn to read and write common law genres in the United States. Considering students’ experiences with these texts, the article outlines a potential framework for understanding the role of disciplinary concepts in second language legal literacy development. Specifically, the article elaborates a tentative taxonomy for disciplinary concepts that distinguishes between discourse-relevant concepts and discourse-structuring concepts in considering the interaction between language and content in ESP and CLIL for law.

The Effect of Nunan's Six Elements of Task to Improve Students Competencies in Legal English

This paper is to study the effect of the six elements of task put forward by Nunan on the improvement of students' competencies in legal English, hoping to provide an important glimpse of how current legal English teaching in Chinese universities meets the requirements of the curriculum and the needs of the learners. Based on a case study of college students in China University of Political Science and Law, classes incorporating the six elements to teach both content and language are valid to offer students more exposure to practical extra-linguistic skill building instead of mechanical drills of the linguistic features and translation of legal English.

Increasing Metaphor Awareness in Legal English Teaching

Increasing Metaphor Awareness in Legal English Teaching

Teaching Legal English for Company Law: A Guide to Specialism and ELP Teaching Practices and Reference Books

This article discusses one of the less mainstream areas of ESP teaching, that of legal English for students of company law. The author begins by analysing the approach used by subject-domain specialists themselves and the current criticism regarding the conservative textbook approach which continues to dominate teaching theory in this area. To this effect, she presents the results of a study carried out from October 2014 to March 2015 regarding subject-domain textbooks most used in Law Schools in Australia, Britain, Canada and the USA. The paper then addresses the question of teaching legal English to students of company law. After a brief outline of the three main theories underlying language teaching –behaviourist, cognitive and communicative– the author provides a critical guide to the main course books available to teachers in this rarefied area of specialised language learning, listing the types of exercises proposed, and evoking their overall strengths and weaknesses. To conclude, she suggests means of supplementing course book material.

Plain English in Legal Language: A Comparative Study of Two UK Acts of Parliament

The history of England has left its mark on legal English, a language for specific purposes well known for its complexity and conservatism throughout the world, thanks to the widespread reach of the British Empire. According to many scholars, today legal language is excessively entrenched in the past and has remained the same through years. As a consequence, criticism against traditional legal drafting started to arise in the second half of the 20th century introduced by the Plain English Movement, first in the UK and then, with more momentum, in the US. Its supporters fight for the simplification of the language used in legal documents and subsequently, all official documents and propose a series of writing techniques to achieve their purpose of making “legalese” more accessible to the lay public. The aim of this paper is to see whether the drafting of Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom (UK) has evolved towards a more modern style of writing leaving behind the conservatism that characterises legal language. In order to carry out the study, two Acts of Parliament of the UK on the same topic, but with a time span of 41 years of difference since their enactment, have been selected for comparison in order to see whether the principles upheld by the Plain English defenders have been applied in the most recent Act.

An analysis of legal speech acts in English Contract Law. 'It is hereby performed'

This paper is concerned with the language used in legal speech acts in legislative texts in the field of English Contract Law as the object of study. It points to a division of legal English in subdomains with 'the language of the law' as a particular sublanguage. Interest centers on regulative and constitutive functions, and an analysis of realization patterns of directive acts is reported. The findings show that the language of the law characteristically selects patterns of directives which differ in level of directness from the patterns typically selected in everyday conversational English. This difference can be explained with reference to 'felicity conditions'.

Problems in Translating Legal English Text into Indonesian

Unlike general English text, legal English text is much more difficult to translate because legal English translation is not only about transferring the meaning but it also deals with finding the appropriate legal expressions in target language (Indonesian). This article discusses some problems encountered by Indonesian students in translating legal English text. A translation test was given to 30 Binus University students, in which they were assigned to translate a legal text consisting of 200 words into Indonesian. They were only allowed to use printed English-Indonesian dictionary. For the analysis, the translations of 10 legal English phrases were chosen. The results showed that the students not only failed to convey the original text message but also could not construct appropriate/ accepted Indonesian expressions in the translation.