JALT2025 - Tokyo

Legal Research for Content Teachers: Some ideas on syllabus design and lesson planning

Nov 2, 2025, 2:20 PM

30m

National Olympics Memorial Youth Center / 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター

Practice-oriented Workshop (30-minutes) Teacher and Professional Development Room 507

Speakers

Conan Chi (Bunkyo University) Priscilla Ratna

Description

A content-focused approach is essential to teaching legal concepts in English, yet in practice, this is rarely the case. (Coleman&Albertson, 2021) This workshop will introduce principles for designing a content-focused course on Legal English and showcase how they are applied in practice. Reflecting on the process of syllabus design, we will demonstrate how to fill knowledge gaps in legal concepts using free and paid resources, identify possible issues, and provide respective solutions.

Summary

A content-focused approach is essential to teaching legal concepts in English, yet in practice, this is rarely the case. (Coleman&Albertson, 2021) This workshop will introduce principles for designing a content-focused course on Legal English and showcase how they are applied in practice. Reflecting on the process of syllabus design, we will demonstrate how to fill knowledge gaps in legal concepts using free and paid resources, identify possible issues, and provide respective solutions.