Dictionaries for learners of English

Abstract

The dictionary has long been a highly regarded resource in language education. A recent study (Levy & Steel 2015) suggests that (digital) dictionaries are still the single most valued tool for additional language learners. Dictionaries support learner autonomy, substituting for the human teacher in addressing 'local' lexical problems. They assist language learners in The Department of Lexicography and Lexicology at Adam Mickiewicz University inPoznań has done extensive research on dictionaries, specifically on how dictionaries are used, and should best be employed in the context of language teaching and learning. The Department forms part of the Faculty of English, which is the largest institution in continental Europe educating teachers of English at the B.A., M.A., and PhD levels. Therefore, it is only natural that the language-teaching potential of dictionaries is the main focus of the studies undertaken in the Department. Below I summarize some of the recent and current research in specific areas of language learner lexicography. Conveying the meaning effectivelyThe role of L1 in teaching additional languages has been the subject of long debate.Interestingly, the lexicographic offerings for language learners -at least for English -can be

Millennials as Dictionary Users: A Study of Dictionary Use Habits of Serbian EFL Students

“…Both the quantitative and the qualitative findings suggest that the students pay far less attention to information other than the meaning of an unknown term (and its spelling and pronunciation). Similar findings have been reported by other authors (Hamouda, 2013; Lew, 2016) who observe that today’s generations of language learners do not take full advantage of dictionary content. Indeed, information on a word’s synonyms, collocational use, or grammatical features does not attract much the attention of Serbian EFL learners.…”

“…This presents an additional challenge for digital dictionary creators to provide more resources that would offer quick and yet accurate information in look-up searches. This is by no means an easy task, as any simplification, as Lew (2016) observes, should be achieved without compromising the content.…”

“…This discrepancy between quantitative and qualitative findings might be explained by the respondents' broad and very general interpretation of the questionnaire items. Writing, as empirically confirmed in Lew (2016), for example, is a challenging context of dictionary use and it might well be the case that the participants, being aware of this, provided the responses that were more of a general kind.…”

Combining user needs, lexicographic data and digital writing environments

“…Promoting better dictionary-consultation skills among writers cannot have much impact if they are not sufficiently aware of their reference needs in the first place. Moreover, in an age where authoritative dictionaries are competing with other types of language tools and resources (Levy & Steel 2015; Lew 2016), the time is ripe for rethinking pedagogical lexicography. In the next section, I propose bringing lexicographic information to writers instead of expecting them to get the information they need from dictionaries.…”

“…Considering this reality, it is widely acknowledged that more needs to be done to teach dictionary-consultation skills. However, in an age where authoritative dictionaries are rapidly losing ground to easily accessible free, online language tools and resources (Levy & Steel 2015; Lew 2016), it would be hard to convince the public in general of the advantages of learning to become better users of dictionaries.…”