DIFFICULTIES IN LEGAL ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION TO ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Legal English, a style of ESP (English for Specific Purpose), is an indispensable factor contributing to the development of legal field. It cannot be denied that legal English reading comprehension plays an important role in learning legal English as it sets the basis for other skills. This present research, which makes use of survey questionnaires as the main method, aims to identify difficulties in legal English reading comprehension encountered by English majored students at Hanoi Law University. The results reveal that the majority of the participants have troubles in terms of linguistic aspects of legal English language, background knowledge of law subjects and psychological factors. It is expected that these findings do propose a number of suggestions for teachers in legal English teaching process.