A Corpus Discovery Approach to Semi-Technical Vocabulary Issues in Teaching

Legal English
Hajime Terauchi,Takachiho University, Tokyo, Japan
Judy Noguchi, Mukogawa Women’s University, Hyogo, Japan
Gregory Poole, Takachiho University, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract
This paper discusses issues related to the teaching of semi-technical vocabulary and
presents tools and techniques for analyzing such terms with the aim at a discovery
learning approach. We focus on legal vocabulary from a corpus of US Constitutional
Cases which was analyzed for word meanings, grammatical features, collocational
patterns and frequently occurring specific discoursal features. An OCHA approach is
used to have students observe the language features of the target genre, classify the
findings, hypothesize about their usage and apply the findings during reading or
writing activities.

In an EFL environment, a smooth transition is necessary from English for General

Purposes (EGP) curricula to field-specific language teaching. In this paper we present
an example of the development of a legal English dictionary for Japanese-speaking
students at the graduate school level. Students are first made to realize that the general
English-Japanese dictionaries which almost all of them use are inadequate for advanced
studies in their disciplinary fields. Of course, there are law dictionaries in Japan offering
definitions of legal technical words and their historical background, but, unfortunately,
they lack examples of how these words are used in context. Also, there are no
explanations as to how general words are used in a legal sense in a legal document.

Such circumstances make acquisition of legal terminology difficult. Furthermore, legal

dictionaries also do not explain how words with general senses are used with legal
senses in legal documents. This can be a problem for law students who are not native
English speakers, as they frequently cannot fully understand the meaning of words used
with a semi-technical sense. The highly technical terms, on the other hand, tend to be
easier to master as their definition is limited. Here we present an approach to
identifying the differences in the usage of words in general and specific contexts as well
as to finding collocations common to field-specific corpora by integrating an
innovative, corpus-based legal dictionary with a pedagogic strategy that helps in making
suitable language choices. Using the sentence-level syntax of the genre text from the
corpus as a key to interpreting the recurring communicative event, steps are introduced
to learners as an aid to help them narrow down semantic choices and arrive at meanings.
After teaching students these steps they are encouraged to apply this same OCHA
approach autonomously in self-study.

This work lays the basis for developing effective teaching materials and involving
students in the examination of a dedicated minicorpus, for a discovery learning
approach. The model should be applicable to other fields of language for
specific/special purposes.

(425 words)