Job Discussion Forums

overhere · Joined: 27 Sep 2009 Posts: 86

Hi All,

Some basic information...I am 49 years old, native speaker and a U.S. citizen. I hold a Juris Doctorate (law degree), 20 years experience as a corporate trainer/training director. I do not practice law. I have taught general business courses for a local community college and career school. I also have a few years experience teaching ESL classes for a local non profit (lots of fun!)

I have been looking to join the TEFL world for some time. I plan to obtain a CELTA soon. I am mainly interested in Asia or the Middle East. But I am open to most locations.

Is there a market for teaching legal english out there? if so how difficult is it to tap into?

Are there any good job related web sites for this speciality?

Thanks in advance for your advice. I look forward to it.

Sadebugo · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 524

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

ESP (English for Specific Purposes) is a growing field, and many publishers are now creating textbooks aimed at such fields.
http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/Bookshop/detail.asp?item=100000000073276
http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/ej16/r3.html
http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/June_07_br2.php

Bear in mind that most students you meet may require a lot of basic language training before leaping into any classes you give on litigation.
http://www.esp-world.info/Articles_28/Promoting%20Vocabulary%20Final%20Version.pdf

With your degree (any actual law experience to go with it?), you are better suited than most EFL teachers in the eyes of some employers. That's not to say a teacher without such experience is unable to do the job.

There are a few business English agencies in Japan, but the market here is pretty crowded. Do a search to find the names of the agencies. I've posted them before.

Kofola · Joined: 20 Feb 2009 Posts: 159 Location: Slovakia

My personal opinion is that there is a major untapped market in the (new) EU. It really depends on whether you've ever practised law and if you have a specialist area.

I think the real market is in teaching translators. There is already an issue with the transposition of EU law into domestic law, where if the EU law is transposed in such a way that it does not reflect the intention of the original EU law then the EU law has direct effect ie can be directly applied within the member state bypassing domestic law. Given that in the newer member states there is a real problem with the quality of the translations I suspect this is going to become a big issue. Questions of sovereignty and all that.

The other big area is in contract law.

Probably best approached as a freelancer - you'd have to spend time building up contacts, but lucrative.

FrenchLieutenant'sWoman · Joined: 24 Jan 2010 Posts: 53 Location: France(ish)

I agree ESP is a growing field but also that you will probably need to teach some basic English skills first. My 'ESP' students often need quite basic (yet vital) concepts explaining such as the difference between the simple and continuous aspects and often more complicated things like the passive before I can get started on the specific purpose stuff. 'attack' vs 'attacking' vs 'were attacked' vs 'were attacking' makes a big difference in my current line of work.

If you can get into the EU you could probably find a lot of work. Someone's trying to recruit me at the moment to teach legal English and I have no law degree/experience!

I can't comment on Asia but there's definitely a market out there for legal english and universities might be a good starting point.