O n f e r e n c e

 
The Methodological Problems and Challenges Encountered When Designing, 
Conducting and Reporting Research
One of the major challenges has been the preparation of the program materials and 
activities. The English for lawyers program, designed by one of the researchers, has been 
pioneer in Lebanon. The designer has been working laboriously and diligently since 2009 
to prepare the legal texts, Word Banks, speaking and writing situations, and videos that 
constitute the materials of the 4-level program. Another challenge has been the 
intermittency in sessions due to the status quo of the country. Such intermittency led to 
wasting time and to the repetition of many covered points to enable the participants to 
get refreshed and to catch up.
A third hindrance has been the diagnostic test that yielded writing apprehension in the 
participants who have been French educated.

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-50- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
Above all, the Lebanese law is French-law based, and this fact has rendered major 
challenge to the program designer who has been compelled to conduct a thorough 
research to raise the awareness of the participants to the legal terminology and 
expressions that exist in the British law system that is a non-codified law.
 
Unlike the 
French law that is codified, the American and British laws are based on Common law that 
is generally 
uncodified
. This means that there is no comprehensive compilation of legal 
rules and statutes. While common law does rely on some scattered statutes, which are 
legislative decisions, it is largely based on 
precedent
. The precedents to be applied in the 
decision of each new case are determined by the presiding judge. As a result, judges 
have an enormous role in shaping American and British law. However, the judges don't 
shape mainly the French law that entails four areas of law (civil, criminal, administrative 
and constitutional). As such, not all the legal principles, provisions and jurisprudence are 
common. Consequently, the researcher should be aware of the commonalities and the 
differences that can be applicable in the Lebanese law. 
 
Another major challenge is
 
that
 
faced with an English statute, which is a completely 
different kind of text from those with which Lebanese participants are familiar; the 
participants become novice readers again. Imprecise interpretation results in a lack of 
integrity of the judicial process (AVLIC, 1994; Berk-Seligson, 1990).
In addition, the review of literature conducted by the authors has revealed mixed results 
concerning the extent of the efficiency of instructional videos in enhancing the reading, 
listening, speaking and writing skills of the learners. 
Hill etal (2005), Lewis (1999), and Macdonald et al (2001) argue that the Internet 
provides value for the second language teaching and learning. English, like other 
languages, has a large number of vocabularies that make law students need to acquire. 
Wilkins (1972:111) argues that without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed. Similarly, 
it is noted by Milton (2009: 3) that words are the building blocks of language and without 
them there is no language. Liuolienė and Metiūnienė (2012) argue that traditional English 
language training may not be sufficient to meet lawyers’ English language requirements. 
On the other hand, Wang & Hartley (2003) yielded different results, and they highlighted 
adversely the relationship between video technology and teacher reform. This resulted in 
20 studies that were categorized and reviewed.
 
The researchers' findings also add to the challenges, and they assert that future research 
should conduct studies involving larger populations other than the sample of the 
Lebanese attorneys examined in this article to examine legal English acquisition and 
retention when using legal English videos.