Teaching the Use of the Modal Verb Shall in Translating English Legal Texts from English into Arabic

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to cast light on the use of the modal verb shall in legal text of different types. It is understood that modal verbs including the use of shall is the backbone of English language grammar. Nowadays, people use English  language on daily basis for communication, and modal verbs are means of such communication. Learners at university level think that the modal shall is connected to the future tense. Others think that the modal shall is for formality and official uses among governmental departments. As to those interested in legalese, they consider the modal shall is a matter of obligation within the scope of legality. A group of (40) university graduates, interested in legalese, was under this study for a period of (4) weeks as of January 05^th until February 04^th, 2025 via Google Classroom platform. The result disclosed that learners witnessed and touched a redundancy in the use of the modal shall in legal texts, and made a difference between the use of shall in plain daily language use and in legal texts. Learners of this study understood that they could abandon the use of the modal verb shall which is an indication for formality as they are part of this digital small village. However, they absorbed the point that the modal shall cannot be neglected, even when there are some sounds here and there calling for getting back to plain English use.