Five mistakes that TOLES and Legal English learners frequntly make.
It is slightly disingenuous to use the word “mistakes” in the headline as we shouldn’t really think of making mistakes in language learning but instead consider them to be part of the overall learning process.
Having a limited vocabulary, a ‘foreign’ accent and confusing tenses might all be considered to be mistakes but they can be improved over time. In this article, I intend to take a look at how students can change their mindsets to help you to improve your skills in English for Law.
1. Stop worrying about making mistakes
Worrying about errors is a huge hindrance to fluency and progression in English and students need to relax about making mistakes as it is not possible to improve without making errors. Author Malcolm Gladwell states in his book Outliers that we need 10,000 hours to master something, so you will have to make many errors along the way.
During class, make sure that your tutor notes down your most common mistakes and look together at how those mistakes keep popping up and how you can eradicate them.
2. You spend too much time on the wrong vocabulary
Occasionally, students will tell us that they have bought books with titles such as ‘1000 Words in Spanish’ or are learning ten words from the dictionary each day. While this studious work is laudable, it makes no sense to try and learn random words that you would never use in your first language.
Write a short essay in your mother tongue which explains your work and what you do. Highlight the key words that you have written and translate them into English. Those are the words that you should be learning first.
3. You should immerse yourself in the language
It is always great to hear about students who speak with their partners in English at home as it is vital to communicate in the language as much as possible and wherever possible.
Some great ways to expose yourself to a language when you are not living in the country is by watching TV and films from the region. Law is an area that has inspired many entertaining dramas on TV and in film as well as books so you have plenty of resources to choose from.
Take an online class to speak with a competent language tutor about Legal English and do this with regularity.
Change your computer, smartphone and Facebook to the English language option and put post-it notes with the English names of everything around your house. Try and be as British as possible!
4. Worrying about listening
Listening well is important for everybody — especially lawyers — and training your ears and brain to understand native speakers does not have to be a frustrating experience.
By watching films and TV programmes with subtitles, you can follow along to what the actors are saying. Podcasts are also excellent as you can slow them down (or speed them up!) and you can listen to something that interests you. We recommend BBC Radio Four’s ‘Law in Action’ programme with Joshua Rozenberg.
5. Stay confident.
To improve in Legal English you will have to maintain a positive attitude as believing that it is too hard or complex will negatively impact your learning. Some easy ways to avoid becoming stressed are by setting short-term goals and rewarding yourself with little presents when you reach specific targets.
Originally published at www.legalenglish.co.uk.