Thiago recomenda

Nowadays, English has become an indispensable tool for communication in the business world. As a consequence, lawyers have been demanded to be competent users of the language to attend meetings with foreign clients, resolve cross-border litigation and assist clients in international deals. In order to deliver high quality service, we – as an English school specialized in legal English – have to not only keep up with the latest trends in English language teaching but also to understand the contexts in which our students will have to be able to use the language.

For this reason, I have recently attended a course at The London School of English (London, UK), called Legal English: Young Lawyers, where students experienced situations such as meetings with clients, court hearings, negotiating meetings and case studies in order to develop their legal language and use communication strategies as they would use in real life situations with partners and clients. By taking part in these classes, I not only boosted my confidence in the use of language (teachers are always learning, too!) but I also broadened my mind to why my students need the language and how they use it. In this course, I could also have the opportunity to attend lectures of real world legal professionals, such as a practicing solicitor and a practicing barrister, where I had a glimpse of how people can qualify as legal professionals in UK and further my understanding of the legal system in UK, The Common Law.

We were also taken to the Royal Court of Justice of UK (Law of Courts) to observe a civil hearing regarding a breach of contract matter. It was amazing to see all those legal proceedings taking place right before my eyes! It was an important step in my professional development.

It’s my belief that teaching legal English is not only about teaching “legal jargons”, which more often than expected students are already familiar with them, but it is also about teaching the language as a tool for communication in different contexts and helping the students to improve their communicative skills so that they are able to take part in meetings, conference calls and hearings in international jurisdictions or with foreign clients. All in all, Legal English is not only “legal vocabulary”; it is the use of English as a communicative tool in legal contexts.

Attending this course abroad has helped me to understand this and to experience situations in which my students encounter themselves quite often, so now I am able to deliver higher quality service and help them to achieve their aims and be more successful when using the language, always leading them to perfection!

London School of English

Solicitor Regulation Authority

Bar Council

Chambers and Partners

Roll on Friday

Sobre o autor

Thiago Silva é Teacher Developer e colaborador na Winner Idiomas desde 2009