How collocations are represented and taught in selected legal English textbooks

Abstract

The article deals with an issue which continues to draw increasingly more attention in LSP teaching, i.e., collocations, with a particular focus on legal collocations and legal English. The aim of the text is to offer an overview of the treatment given to specialised legal collocations in legal English textbooks used in tertiary level institutions in Poland. The methodology employed for selecting the textbooks is presented in detail in the Aims and Methodology section. The selected textbooks were then reviewed in terms of their collocation focus and the extent to which they follow pedagogical recommendations regarding teaching phraseology. Bearing in mind the importance of familiarizing students with natural and accurate language in order to help them master the legal genre, it appears that there is still a need to place more focus on phraseology and extend the formats and number of exercises centred on collocations.