La lingua del diritto e il testo letterario: un esperimento glottodidattico

This contribution deals with the complex issue of acquiring an adequate foreign language competence in specific professional domains. Ever increasingly, once their studies are over, foreign language graduates exploit their degrees in professional fields far-removed from the humanities. In view of the variegated professional offers which will doubtless come their way, future language experts may today be increasingly in need of a solid knowledge of the specialized discourses, genre-appropriate terminology, and culture-bound linguistic elements pertaining to areas such as tourism, medicine, economics or law to mention but a few. Those whose task it is to accompany foreign language students towards the competences and discursive practices required to be competitive on the job market, are faced with a particularly arduous task, mainly because the students generally perceive specialized linguistic and cultural domains as uncharted territory above and beyond the reach of their previously acquired skills.The authors illustrate some of the techniques employed when exploiting literary texts within text-based learning paths, and their successful outcome in terms of special language acquisition and functional competence. In this contribution, special attention is granted to the language of law.