EXPLORING STRATEGIES USED BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS TO OVERCOME CHALLENGES TO IMPROVE LEGAL ENGLISH VOCABULARY COMPETENCE

Abstract

When learning legal English, one of the most challenges to demand learners' considerable efforts to overcome is its lexical competence. As being classified as English for specific purposes, legal English has many distinctive characteristics compared to general English. This study includes 151 representative legal English major students studying courses 45 and 46 at Hanoi Law University, using a quantitative approach to explore some typical strategies to enrich their legal English vocabulary. The results show that the use of archaic words, foreign/borrowed words, the use of reciprocal words, and the lack of equivalence in Vietnamese legal terminology are major obstacles that learners experience. Moreover, the respondents’ viewpoints reveal that the highest frequency turns to social strategies whereas memory strategies were used the least. The findings would help school administrators promulgate legal English innovation policies, teachers reconsider using relevant pedagogical practices for teaching legal English subjects, and those interested in improving their legal English proficiency would confer this paper to better develop their legal English vocabulary.