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Tretyakovskii · Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 462 Location: Cancun, Mexico

I've been asked to teach a group of lawyers. What have you found to be useful materials that are based in American English, as English is used in the practice of law in the USA?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

esl_prof · Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 8:21 pm Post subject:

What level is their English at? And what skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar) do they want to focus on?

If they're fairly advanced, I'd use actual legal materials that they're going to have to work with (e.g., books, journal articles, legal documents, etc.) For speaking and listening practice, see if you might track down youtube videos or DVDs of court TV, legal dramas such as Twelve Angry Men or A Few Good Men, transcripts of courtroom proceedings, etc. Have them write their own dialogues and role-plays for situations they might encounter using the above materials as a basis for introducing language. If you're actually in the States, you can also invite guest speakers from the legal profession or take field trips to law offices or courtrooms, so long as you do appropriate preliminary activities to help students take full advantage of those opportunities.

For lower-level students, just go with a standard-ESL curriculum (why reinvent the wheel) but supplement with simplified versions of the materials above. Newspaper articles covering high-profile murder trials, celebrity divorce cases, legal advice (e.g., why you should have a will, when you need power of attorney, how to shop for a divorce lawyer) from ESL or new adult reader websites (or rewritten and simplified by you) would be a good starting point.

Sounds like fun! Not to mention a lot of hard work. Please keep us posted on how it goes.

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

esl_prof · Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 10:34 pm Post subject:

Here's some links to legal vocabulary word lists that might be of use, sort of like legal versions of the AWL we use for college-preparatory ESL.

https://www.google.com/search?q=legal+vocabulary+word+list&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

A very high standard of language competence is required to deal with legal texts. It is very challenging for educated native speakers and doubly so for those using English as a Second Language.

Tretyakovskii · Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 462 Location: Cancun, Mexico

My thanks to those who took the time to offer their comments and suggestions.