Prodanovska-Poposka, Vesna (2026) BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE: A POST-LECTURE ANALYSIS OF COMMON-LAW DEFENCES. PALIMPSEST: International Journal for Linguistics, Literary and Cultural Research, 11 (21). pp. 177-185. ISSN 2545-3998
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Abstract
Many academics, trainers and professionals often wonder what happens in the crucial space between a lecture’s end and a lawyer’s first real case. In teaching Legal English, Legal ESP instructors struggle with a persistent dilemma: students can master legal terminology yet not always succeed in correctly applying it. In order to investigate this gap, the author conducted a classroom study with 45 law students learning common-law defences. While students demonstrated excellent command of theoretical definitions (>90% correct), their ability to deal with applied, ambiguous scenarios revealed a significant gap. Most unusual was that only 60% could correctly identify the ‘public duty’ defined in an emergency medical case scenario, often confusing it with moral necessity. These findings do more than quantifying a learning challenge because they expose a critical flaw in assuming that teaching the language of the law equips students to think with the law. The author argues that closing this gap requires a fundamental pedagogical shift in Legal ESP such as from knowledge transmission to the deliberate cultivation of professional reasoning through complex, ambiguous scenarios that mirror the true texture of legal practice. Keywords: Legal English; ESP; Application gap; Scenario-based learning; Usage vs. Use.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Scientific Fields (Frascati) > Humanities > Languages and literature |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Biotechnical Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Prof. d-r Vesna Prodanovska |
| Date Deposited: | 17 Aug 2026 09:48 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Aug 2026 09:48 |
| URI: | https://eprints.uklo.edu.mk/id/eprint/11695 |
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