ESP weblog/Blog zum Rechtsenglisch-Unterricht

Jeremy Day teaches English for Specific Purposes, mainly legal English, in Poland, and has an interesting weblog on the subject. In a post of 20 June, he had a (deliberately) polarizing description of legal English teachers: Samantha Smug has got a law degree and thinks she knows everything about Legal English. She didn’t get a very good law degree, which is why she ended up as an English teacher. Her lessons are pretty dull – lots of explanations and translations, but at least she knows her stuff. She charges a lot for her lessons, and clients are happy to pay for her expertise. Ken Cool, is currently working his way around the world, using income from ELT to support his life as a surfer. One of his classes is with a group of lawyers, but they rarely touch on the subject of law. His lessons are very touchy-feely – lots of jazz chants, self-expression and kinaesthetic group dynamics. He's discovered a new technique is called dogme, which he used to call ‘winging it when you’ve forgotten to plan’. Yes, 'touchy-feely' was exactly the term that occurred to me for many teachers of English as a Foreign Language. That was beginning to open up as a field when I graduated in 1969 and has really taken on a life of its own. I have done a short RSA course and teacher training myself, but because I am not very outgoing, I suspect my teaching was rather like Samantha Smug's, but with more jokes. (I thought dogme was in the cinema, but I seem to be behind the times there). Of course, we were teaching translation. There are many teachers of legal English and English or American law in German university law faculties who know more law…