O n f e r e n c e

Ghada Awada, Abir Abdallah 
American University of Beirut and Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon 
[e-mail], [e-mail] 
The Extent of Efficiency of Legal Videos in Enhancing the Writing 
Skills and Vocabulary Acquisition of Lawyers in a Legal English 
Class 
Bio data 
 
Ghada Awada
:
 
I hold Ph.D. in International Relations with the highest distinction from 
HEP 
–CEDS ,Paris. I’m a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of English and German 
Studies in Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain. I taught and gave many workshops and 
different courses at many universities. I acted as AUB Consultant in 2012 and 2013.I 
have an extensive experience in teaching and coordination at Public Secondary Schools. I 
have authored 10 law and English books so far. I was awarded many appreciation 
certificates by the Ministry of Education (2004 ), Lebanese university (2005)and 
Teaching Excellence trophy by LAU (2013).
 
Abir Abdallah
: I’m currently a PHD student in the Department of English and German 
Studies in Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain. I have been teaching English as a first 
foreign language for thirteen years. I’m presently a teacher and a coordinator in a 
secondary public school in Beirut. Moreover, I’m an instructor in the language center of 
the faculty of Sciences in the Lebanese University. I also teach ESP to MA students there. 
I have a teaching diploma in intermediate classes, a teaching diploma in secondary 
classes and a master’s degree in English language and literature.
Abstract 
Lawyers, in Lebanon, are incompetent in using legal English since almost all of the law 
courses in Lebanon are in Arabic, and upon obtaining the practicing license, they are 
requested to use only Arabic at the Lebanese courts. However, due to globalization, the 
Lebanese lawyers started to receive a lot of cases and contracts that demand mastery of 
the legal English needed to negotiate in writing using legal English.
This study aims at investigating the efficiency of legal terminology videos in enhancing 
the writing skills and vocabulary acquisition of lawyers and raising their motivation. The 
subjects of the study (n=16) are Lebanese lawyers whose ages range from 26 to 48 
years old and are randomly assigned to a control group and an experimental one. The 
subjects receive legal English instruction for twelve weeks. The instruction covers the 
listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
The only difference is that the experimental group receives the listening instruction using 
the videos whereas the control receives the listening instruction using the instructor's 
readings of certain texts. The instruments employed in the study are a pretest that 
inspects the subjects’ written performance and use of legal terms in both the control and 
experimental groups before carrying out any instruction, and a posttest that examines 
any significant difference in the subjects’ written performance and acquisition of legal 
terms in both groups after the instruction. Moreover, a questionnaire that investigates 
the subject’s motivation is administered to the subject
s in both groups before and after 
the instructional period.

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-46- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
The SPSS is used in data analysis. Based on a pilot study, the prospective findings of the 
study shall convey that that the experimental group demonstrates a remarkable 
enhancement of the legal writing skills and acquisition of legal terms, and shows great 
motivation to learn legal English writing.