Students' Perception of Barriers in Legal English Translation Learning: A Case at Hanoi Law University

Abstract

Studying legal English translation is considered one of the most challenging subjects due to its distinctive characteristics related to the law field. Because of thesedifferences, English legal majors may encounter many difficulties throughout their learning process. Therefore, this study focuses on analyzing the perceptions of English-major law students regarding the barriers in the process of studying legal English translation at Hanoi Law University (HLU). This study applied both quantitative and qualitative approaches, using survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews as the main data collection instruments to gain a comprehensive insight into the situation. There were 100 questionnaire respondents, together with 10 interviewees, who are enrolled in the courses of K46 and K47 at HLU. This study revealed notable results: students identified the lack of in-depth legal knowledge, limited legal vocabulary, and confusion regarding translation structure as the main barriers. Regarding subjective factors related to students’ ability, students struggled to balance message accuracy with translation naturalness and ensure adequate content transfer between languages. Additionally, the lack of English legal dictionaries, outdated materials, and limited coverage of legal topics hindered their learning. In light of these findings, the researchers offer deeper insights into the difficulties law students face and the factors contributing to these challenges as well as suggesting some viable recommendations with the aim of improving the students’ translation ability.