A Case Study Of Legal English Teaching-on The Gudie Of ESP Theories

With the trend of globalization and the development of Chinese open-door policy, there is an ever-increasing demand of advanced legal intellects who are skilled with English and law as well. Legal English as the key course has attracted great interest and awareness in China.As a sub-branch of ESP (English for Specific Purpose), LE shares the important elements of ESP, including needs analysis, syllabus design, course design, and materials selection. Therefore seeing Legal English in the overall context of ESP will be of great help in LET improvement.China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) is one of the first group of universities offering Legal English courses. In order to find out the present condition of Legal English Teaching, a case study is conducted in CUPL. On the guide of ESP theory, the author designs questionnaires and distributes them to 300 law students. Through analyzing gathered data, the present condition of LET is revealed and then further suggestions are offered.The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 provides the overview of this case study. In chapter 2, the background knowledge about LE, LET and ESP is reviewed, aiming at stating the author's theoretical orientation and research objectives. Then in chapter 3 and chapter 4, a case study on LET is carried out. Combined with existing knowledge of ESP theories, the present condition of LET is brought to light. Afterwards, existing problems are concluded on the basis of data analysis and proposals as improvement strategies are provided in chapter 5. Chapter 6 concludes this case study, in which the author summarizes the major findings of the study and points out the limitation. Suggestions for future research in this field are also provided.