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Part of
Instrumentalising Foreign Language Pedagogy in Translator and Interpreter Training: Methods, goals and perspectives
Edited by Olaf Immanuel Seel, Silvia Roiss and Petra Zimmermann-González
[Benjamins Translation Library 161] 2023
► pp. 156–176

Chapter 9
Teaching contrastive legal grammar for translators

| Palacký University , Czech Republic

This chapter instrumentalises an area of foreign language teaching that is often neglected in translation programmes’ curricula, namely the contrastive grammar of specialised languages. More specifically, this chapter addresses the incorporation of the contrastive grammar of legal English and Czech into an English grammar classroom. First, the rationale behind such an approach is presented with reference to the existing legal translation competence models and curricular design. Second, a number of linguistic phenomena encountered in English legal texts, and possibly neglected in English language classes for translators, are discussed from a socio-constructivist training perspective, and a series of exercises is presented that may be used, or adapted for use, by the instructors of such courses to help them cover these specific aspects of English grammar.

Keywords: foreign language teaching for translators, legal English, legal translator training, contrastive grammar, legal translation competence, communicative sub-competence, legal grammar
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Knowledge of legal grammar as part of legal translation competence
  • 3.Teaching considerations
  • 4.Classroom procedures
    • 4.1Reported speech
    • 4.2Subjunctive
    • 4.3Relative clauses
    • 4.4Conditionals
    • 4.5Modality
    • 4.6Locative Subjects
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 1 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.161.09kla
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