Teaching vocabulary in the course of legalese and legal translation

Abstract

The article analyzes and describes special characteristics of vocabulary of legal English and translation courses and ways to teach such lexis. It examines methods of vocabulary selection on the basis of contrastive analysis of the profession-oriented lexical units, terms and other frequent vocabulary of the language of commercial and corporate law. The vocabulary is limited to the lexical units that pose difficulties to Russian speaking students. The paper describes and analyzes the vocabulary which reflects such phenomena as polysemy, homonymy, and paronymy and other lexical phenomena frequent in the language of law and causing learners’ errors. Moreover, the author considers lexical and grammatical problems such as the compatibility of words, the change of the meaning of a noun with a change in the grammatical number, special aspects of word formation etc. The paper describes pedagogical and linguodidactic aspects of teaching applying methods of contrastive and comparative lexicology. They include early prevention techniques, regular monitoring, as well as introduction and drilling of learners` independent analysis and self-control skills. It concludes with the recommendations related to the type of exercises designed for processing and practicing this layer of vocabulary within the framework of the introductory course of legal English.