Article published in:
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 16:2 (1993) ► pp. 86–122

Legal English

Subject specific literacy and genre theory

| Write it Right – DSP (Met. East) English Support Unit UNSW
In this paper student Case Notes are analysed to exemplify the degrees of linguistic intricacy that come into play within the context of legal discourse – the ‘target discourse 1 -and to demonstrate that apprenticeship into this particular academic discourse community involves more than familiarisation with content specific material on the one hand and the control of common English structural conventions on the other. The discussion sets out to show that the intricate and often ‘hidden’ (as in ‘not made explicit’) linguistic demands academic discourses impose on NESB students need to be brought out into the open to highlight and clarify the association between specific lexicogrammatical realisations and generic meanings in the discourse. The paper concludes by emphasising the need for linguistically informed assistance for NESB learners at the tertiary level.
Published online: 01 January 1993
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.16.2.05ied
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