Becoming a Legal English Teacher | Natasha Costello

Natasha Costello, co-author of Practical English Language Skills for Lawyers and a legal English educator, discusses career pathways to teaching legal English. In this episode, Natasha shares insights into learners' needs, lesson content, and suggests resources for anyone interested in exploring teaching legal English as a career.

KEY TALKING POINTS

1. Getting into teaching
Natasha recounts her transition from a solicitor in England to a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she taught law and legal skills. Relocating to France, she discovered a niche in teaching English communication skills to French lawyers, leading to her legal English education career.

2. Relevance of English for lawyers
Natasha explains the growing necessity for French lawyers to use English, mainly when dealing with international clients or counterparts from other countries where English serves as the lingua franca. This necessity is driven by global business interactions and international legal practices.

3. Paths into teaching Legal English
Natasha identifies two main groups of legal English learners: legal professionals and university law students. She explains that educators can come from various backgrounds, including law, business English teaching, linguistics, or even translation.

4. What Legal English teaching involves
For legal professionals, lessons may focus on preparing for client meetings, writing emails, contract drafting, and other specific legal tasks. University students may focus more on vocabulary and grammar, but practical scenarios and elements of legal systems, history, and politics are also integrated. Natasha highlights the TOLES exam, which some programmes prepare students for.

5. Lesson example
Natasha describes a typical lesson focused on contract law. She teaches the vocabulary of contracts and the grammar needed for giving legal advice, using real-life scenarios to help students practice this language.

Learn more about Natasha's work.
Website https://www.natashacostello.com/
LinkedIn   / natasha-costello  

REFERENCES (affiliate links)
1. European Legal English Teachers Association (EULETA)
2. Costello, N. and Kulbicki, L. (2023) Practical English Language Skills for Lawyers Improving Your Legal English. https://amzn.to/4dMG2D43.
Teacher Notes are under the ‘support material’ tab on the Routledge website here: https://www.routledge.com/Practical-E...
3. Haigh, R. (2021) International Legal English. A Practical Introduction for Students and Professionals. https://amzn.to/4azji6C
4. Study Legal English Podcast with Louise Kulbicki
5. Test of Legal English Skills (TOLES)

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CREDITS
Producer Laura Wilkes
Editor Haven Tsang
Thanks to our inspiring guest, Natasha Costello.

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