Abstract
Legal English (LE) has evolved as a distinct, highly demanded part of ESP in the recent years of globalisation. Many specialised textbooks have been published lately, but the professional communication aspect lacks sufficient coverage. This article presents a project, which is a teaching manual entitled Legal English through Movies, that has grown from the author’s experience using video in the LE classroom. A general methodology of using authentic video in language teaching is briefly covered to explain why and how feature films were initially used by the author. The idea of using movies for developing law students’ professional communicative competence has shifted the emphasis from pure language training to forming professional communication skills. The applied method takes into consideration both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors of professional communication. Special attention is paid to language patterns typical of different communicative situations within various areas of legal practice along with peculiarities of cross-cultural communication. Not covering all spheres of LE teaching the results enhance education kits for such course topics as Criminal Law, Tort Law, and Civil Procedure as well as provide training materials for mastering professional skills in typical communicative situations (lawyer – client, lawyer – lawyer, etc.). The approach introduced here can be expanded to different ESP fields as well.
