Pedagogy: Colleges and Universities

Legal Spanish: The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth⁸⁵

University of Virginia

The presence of Legal Spanish (LS) in the college Spanish curriculum is unclear. There are relatively few materials for teaching courses in LS, especially at the advanced level. Those materials that do exist are targeted for law enforcement and the future bilingual attorney in the courtroom. Business Spanish and Medical Spanish are more common in Spanish programs, and more materials are available for these two areas. This article addresses the plausibility of LS in the Spanish curriculum based on an Independent Study that I gave to two upper-level undergraduates.

A need exists for a LS course designed for advanced students (Spanish majors and minors), especially for those students who plan to pursue a career in law. Many of our undergraduate students of Spanish attend law school after graduating with their Bachelor's degree. There are many native-speaking Hispanics in the United States. The 1980 census reveals that there were 20,000,000 Hispanics in the Southwest alone (Bills). There are those who will argue that students will not be able to use Spanish in the area where they attend school (because there are few Hispanics in the school's area or even in surrounding areas). We must recognize, however, that many of our graduating students relocate to areas where they may utilize their Spanish skills. Students at the University of Virginia, for example, have relatively few immediate needs for Spanish in Charlottesville. While I do not have any specific figures, it is certain that many graduates of the University of Virginia relocate to other areas of the country, areas in which Spanish is more commonly spoken, including the New York metropolitan area and eastern cities such as Philadelphia and Boston, in addition to Florida and the Southwestern states. Of course, many individuals and companies do international business with Spanish-speaking countries.

The inclusion of LS at the undergraduate advanced level (300 and 400 levels in many colleges and universities) is justifiable for various reasons. A principal one is that students at the advanced level are better equipped to master legal terminology and jargon. They have a more adequate preparation in Spanish, including dialectal varieties. Vocabulary is a key component of a specific purposes course; at this level, it may be reinforced both in spoken and written Spanish and through readings and course assignments. Vocabulary building, which is emphasized in the Natural and Communicative Approaches to language instruction (Krashen and Terrell; Littlewood), is of particular importance in a linguistic domain such as law. Lawyers in training need to master the appropriate linguistic terminology and jargon, whatever the language. Students in LS may be introduced to legal terminology in both English and Spanish; such exposure serves as excellent preparation for law school. Crandall and Tucker (188) explain that «... the integration of language and content instruction is of major interest to both foreign language educators and educators of English as a second language». This integration creates a much-needed bridge between two areas of interest for students; e.g. Spanish and law, Spanish and medicine, Spanish and social work, Spanish and business.

Integration or content-based instruction, while still rare in the foreign language classroom, is not new to the teaching of ESL, especially in tertiary

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or specific purposes programs, nor to adult programs that teach vocational language simultaneously with job-related skills. The language/content programs in ESL are found at all grade levels from elementary through college. These programs have their origin in attempts to teach writing across the curriculum and reading skills in content areas (Crandall and Tucker 190). For a more complete discussion of features of a content-based instructional program, cf. Crandall and Tucker (192-95), Cantoni-Harvey, and Mohan.

Kubler defends more focused attention on higher or advanced-level language skills and points out that most attention in foreign language teaching is directed toward lower levels. Specific purposes courses at the 300 and 400 levels may easily fill the gap identified by Kubler combining a content area such as LS or Business Spanish or Medical Spanish with advanced-level language instruction, to provide more practice with language usage and use (grammar, syntax, conversation, vocabulary building, pronunciation, culture, conversation and generally reinforcing the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Kubler states that «there is a great need for developing job-related exercises requiring performance of prescribed tasks within -and, in some cases, outside of- the language classroom... we need to prepare materials to teach students the language of international trade, banking, travel industry management, diplomacy, the health professions, engineering, agriculture, and other fields. We must try harder to tailor instruction to the future job needs of our students» (130). Amen. Spanish for Specific Purposes allows for a combination of language study and specific career areas (e.g. law, medicine, business, social work, advertising).

John points out how undergraduate students enjoy having practical applications of language study to career options. LS is practical because it allows students to head toward mastery of legal terminology in both English and Spanish. It also makes students become more aware of the contexts and people with whom they will deal: law clients, judges, police personnel, etc.

LS in the university curriculum is not an entirely new idea. Feustle, for example, outlines in detail a program at University of Toledo for Spanish and legal assisting. The program is administered under the auspices of the Community and Technical College. The main goal of the program is to offer students a collaborative undergraduate major. This is part of a larger trend toward bridging together two or more disciplines at the university level, as evidenced by many newer applied fields such as Biological Chemistry, Applied Linguistics, Ecology, and Sociolinguistics. The LS course described and proposed in the present article may indeed serve as a core course in a legal Spanish joint program.

Moffett offers many useful suggestions on how to teach career-oriented foreign language classes. He includes a discussion of role-playing, vocabulary, grammar, culture, testing and evaluation, tapes, the role of English, and teaching techniques. He suggests that instructors of career-oriented courses arrange to accompany a Spanish-speaking professional during his or her daily routines. It would be ideal to arrange similar field experiences for students so that they could practice using Spanish in actual career contexts. Perhaps a semester-long internship could be offered as part of the Spanish curriculum so that students could receive academic credit and benefit from supervision by cooperating professionals.

Many studies address the teaching of legal language. O'Barr, Levi, and Crystal, for example, are useful to both students and teachers of specific purposes courses applied to the mastery of LS. Levi discusses linguistics and its applications to legal language interactions, while O'Barr and Crystal are overviews of the language of the law. Black's law dictionary (Campbell) is also a key source for law and language for law courses. These studies include the following issues and topics: the linguistics of legal interactions, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, semantics, and pragmatics; the issue of characterizing legal language or «legalese»; and the comprehension and difficulty of legal language. Danet 1990 surveys language and law research dating 1975 through 1990. Her article is very current and includes references that were in press when the final manuscript was prepared. Danet 1980 discusses language in the courtroom, with an emphasis on five papers presented at Bristol in the Symposium on Language and Law (1979). She explains the two basic functions of law as they relate to language: the facilitative-regulative function and dispute processing. The first provides «recipes for living, for doing, for creating relationships where none existed before» (368). The latter is best described as «fighting with words».

Shuy includes a discussion of language and law and new problems found within the legal profession. He includes psychology, sociology, semantics, pragmatics, language in the courtroom, technological advances in recording law cases, language used as legal evidence, and the role of the linguist in analyzing and interpreting legal evidence and interactions. The more recent use of both audio and video tapes has changed the analysis of law cases and how evidence may be interpreted.

One important issue for legal interactions in the U. S. courtroom is the role of the interpreter in proceedings in which a witness or defendant does not speak English. Included in this issue is the certification of individuals qualified to interpret in the courtroom, as a result of the Court Interpreters Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-539), the newest federal statutory provision. Spanish/English interpreters are in particular demand. Rubin, Arjona, Schweda-Nicholson, and de Jongh address the role of the interpreter, with the last study focusing on Miami and widespread codeswitching -the use of Spanish and English combined or «Spanglish». Research based on analysis of Spanish in the courtroom is found in Berk-Seligson 1987, 1989, and 1990. The last is a book-length treatment of the subject, the contents of which may easily be integrated into the LS course. These studies address the role of register and discourse styles in Spanish testimony.

There are not many texts available for teaching Legal Spanish. The two best known texts are Curry et al. and Jarvis and Oliver. The first is more appropriate for the intermediate level, the second for the beginning level. Both books are oriented toward law enforcement, which is only one domain of legal vocabulary that advanced students require. I chose Curry et al. as a required text, as well as an English-language book about legal terminology by Mellinkoff. In addition, I prepared a course packet containing materials from other texts and journal articles. These materials created a more challenging, advanced-level course, and also allowed for a format that was both a language skills course and a content course. The Curry text includes all aspects of police enforcement and courtroom terminology. Each chapter includes basic vocabulary lists, two dialogs, a reading, language-building exercises, translation exercises, and suggestions for role plays and compositions. The Mellinkoff text includes a comprehensive overview of legal terminology in English. An explanation of Latin and French legal terms in English is included, as is the development of legal terms in both England and the United States. It served as an appropriate point of departure since many students electing a course in LS do not have previous knowledge of legal terminology in English. To bridge the gap between legal terminology in English and Spanish, students also purchased a bilingual legal dictionary (Robó). The two texts and dictionary were used to complete written assignments (see section 6 below).

It would be helpful in the future to develop more pedagogical materials that address the following areas: the bilingual courtroom, bilingual interactions between lawyer and client, the role of the interpreter in the courtroom, the history of legal language (Spanish and English), the applications of linguistics to specific purposes components in the Spanish curriculum, contexts in which legal interactions occur (attorney, consultations, courtroom, police lineups, etc.), and Latin legal terms.

When I was originally asked by two students to offer a course in «Spanish for the Legal Professions», I developed the following objectives: (1) mastery of legal terminology in both English and Spanish (including historical perspectives); (2) mastery of the correct use of newly acquired Spanish vocabulary in context; (3) exposure to legal documents for the purpose of translating, interpreting, and explaining; (4) exposure to professional literature in the legal professions (journals and current newspaper articles); (5) lawyer-client interactive speaking skills; (6) mastery of writing reports and keeping records; and (7) mastery of Latin legal terms. Class meetings, readings, and assignments were planned and designed to meet these seven goals.

I then offered the course as an independent study to two advanced undergraduate students during the Fall 1990 semester at the University of Virginia. One student was a major, the other a minor. Both students had previous coursework in phonetics and grammar and other coursework in composition, conversation, and literature. Both students plan to attend law school after graduating with their Bachelor of Arts degree. These students expressed a concern that is often communicated by many students: it is not possible to

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find LS course matter in courses which are required in Spanish language, literature, and culture. The LS course was offered as a Seminar in Language and met for one hour per week for 13 weeks throughout the semester. The students were required to complete a considerable number of readings and written assignments, among other projects. This was to ensure mastery of the LS material and to satisfy the need for academic rigor.

Because of the fundamental importance of oral-aural skills for specific purposes courses, all class sessions were conducted in Spanish, with the exception of cues for role-plays in English and occasional translation exercises. Reading and writing were also emphasized, especially in terms of reinforcing legal terminology in both Spanish and English. Students completed three exams that included exercises from Curry, essay questions, and questions based on material from Mellinkoff and research articles in the coursepack.

Several homework assignments increased access to related materials. One assignment required students to go to the law bookstore annex and law library at the University to familiarize them with materials available to law professionals. An emphasis was placed on using practical reference materials and gaining an overview of what is available, including law journals. A second assignment required students to phone for information regarding legal aid for Hispanics. The students called and were unfortunately unsuccessful in finding specific agencies that could help legal clients who spoke Spanish. This does not necessarily imply that such agencies do not exist, but simply that the students had difficulty locating them.

Another project, assigned at the beginning of the semester, was one on which they worked throughout the semester. Students collected newspaper articles and two law journal articles and compiled a «journal» in which they wrote summaries of the articles in Spanish. There was a dual purpose for such an assignment: to encourage the mastery of Spanish legal terminology and to keep students abreast of current legal issues. The results were successful, and students reacted favorably to the overall semester-long project since it satisfactorily bridged together legal current events and the Spanish language.

Finally, the students and professor engaged in role-plays twice toward the end of the course. These were videotaped for viewing at a later time. The role-plays included consultations between lawyer and client and simulations of court proceedings. Students prepared the role-play situations in advance and we acted out the scenarios in an impromptu fashion. A follow-up viewing of the videotaped scenarios allowed students to go over problem areas, to identify successful scenes, and to discuss ways to improve real-life legal encounters.

A course in LS for Spanish majors and minors is extremely practical for pre-law students. LS, like other specific purposes courses, permits instructors to provide students with specialized career-oriented instruction in Spanish. This course ensures that law students will be better prepared to provide legal assistance to Hispanic clients in their future practices. This is especially useful when the LS course emphasizes real life contexts in which language and culture are used in lawyer-client encounters.

Many schools have a seminar or independent study slot in their curriculum. This provides the perfect opportunity to try out a course in LS or other specific purposes courses. An informal survey of students will indicate a probable interest in LS. In an earlier article on medical Spanish, I pointed out how many research institutions steer clear of offering career-oriented courses and suggested that this practice needs to be abandoned. A shortage of college and university professors is predicted for the near future, and tuition costs will continue to rise; we must provide a solid justification for the coursework that comprises our students' major and minor degree programs. Specific purposes courses are both academic and practical, and are thus easily justified.

Many colleges and universities offer both law and Spanish programs. LS serves as the perfect bridge between these two disciplines; it allows pre-law students, law students, and Spanish majors or minors to gain mastery of material that deserves more attention in the curriculum. It seems obvious that in the years to come, specific purpose courses such as LS should be more in demand. This does not imply, however, that they are not presently needed.

By including such a course in the Spanish program, it is possible to accommodate many students who need practical, specific guidance in mastering Spanish legal terminology and interaction

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skills that are not to be found in other regularly offered Spanish courses. It would be a pity to deny pre-law and law students a course that could help them provide better legal assistance to Hispanic clients. Indeed, law plays a part in everyone's life within modern society. For this reason, it seems desirable to give more attention to LS in the Spanish curriculum through specific coursework so that students may benefit from skills and material that may not be acquired in their more traditional courses in Spanish literature, linguistics, and culture.

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Hispania [Publicaciones periódicas]. Volume 75, Number 2, May 1992