A Content- Based Instruction Versus Task-Based Approach to Teaching Legal English : An Experimental Study

In the plethora of foreign language teaching two approaches have recently become prominent claiming to be consistent with recent theories of second language acquisition and helping learners master the target language faster, easier and better. These instructional approaches are : The Task-based Approach and the Content-Based Instruction. Despite the claims made in books and journals, few empirical studies especially at advanced levels have been carried out to substantiate these claims .The present study empirically investigates the effects of the Task-Based Approach and the Content-based Instruction on the overall achievement of Iraqi postgraduate students of law studying legal English in the content and language .It is hypothesized that no significant difference will be found between the two methods in having favorable effect on students’ overall achievement in language and legal content; but a difference will be found in developing oral skills in favor of the Task-Based Approach. The study adopts pre-test post-test, controlexperimental group design. The results confirm the first and disconfirm the second hypothesis. No significant difference was found between the two methods in their favorable effects in developing both students’ overall achievement and oral language skills.