Semi-Technical Vocabulary Issues in ESP: An OCHA Approach and Study Tools

Abstract
This paper discusses issues related to the teaching of semi-technical vocabulary,
presents tools and techniques for analyzing such terms, and offers examples of how the
analyses can aid applications in English for Specific Purposes. As an example, we will
use legal vocabulary from a corpus of US Constitutional Cases which was analyzed for
word meanings, grammatical features, collocational patterns and frequently occurring
specific discoursal features. The theoretical foundations of this research lie in applied
linguistics and corpus linguistics, which are currently being used to prepare general
English-Japanese dictionaries.

Law dictionaries offer definitions of legal technical words and their historical
backgrounds, but unfortunately lack examples of how these legal words should be used
in context. Furthermore, there are no explanations as to how words with general senses
are used with legal senses in legal documents. This can be a problem for non-native
English-speaking law students, leading to difficulties in comprehending cases written in
English because they frequently cannot fully understand the meaning of semi-technical
legal words. The highly technical terms, on the other hand, tend to be easier to master.
Here we present an approach to identifying differences in the usage of words in general
and specific contexts as well as to find collocations common to field-specific corpora.
This work lays the basis for developing effective teaching materials, and the model
developed can be applicable to other fields of language for specific/special purposes.

Rationale
The point of departure for this project is the belief that in order to improve post-
secondary English language teaching in Japan, university language programs must
adopt English for Specific Purposes (ESP) methods. For ESP curricula to be successful
at the university level, however, it is important for there to be a smooth transition from
the English for General Purposes (EGP) curricula that exists at the secondary level in
Japan. In this paper we present an example of the further research into ESP that is
needed to develop effective teaching methods and materials for university English
language teaching.

Our example of ESP methods that we present focuses on English language teaching for
law majors and other students studying legal English. In this research we focus on the
development and implementation based on ESP methodology of a legal English
dictionary. Almost all university students use general English-Japanese dictionaries.
However, although law dictionaries in Japan offer definitions of legal technical words
and their historical background, they lack examples of how these words are used in
context. In addition, there are no explanations as to how general words are used in a
legal sense in a legal document.

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