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What are the main characteristics of a learner’s dictionary?

In the broad sense of the word the term L’s D might be applied to any word-book designed as an aid to various users, both native and foreign, studying a language from various angles (Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon by Í. Sweet). By tradition the term is confined to dictionaries specially compiled to meet the demands of the learners for whom English is not their mother tongue.

These dictionaries differ essentially from ordinary academic dictionaries and from word-books compiled specially for English and American schoolchildren and college students.

Though foreign language learners and children speaking the same language as their mother tongue have both imperfect command of English, it is obvious that the needs and problems of the two groups of dictionary users are different. À foreign adult student of English even at à moderately advanced stage of learning will have pitfalls and needs of his own: among the other things he may have difficulties with the use of the most "simple" words (such as play, wipe), he may not know the names for commonest things in everyday life (such as towel, rug) and he will experience in this or that degree interference of his mother tongue.

On the one hand, we have users who for the most part have command of the language, who have fluent speech habits, since this language is their mother tongue; they need guidance as to which of the usage they come across is correct. On the other hand, we have users that have à limited vocabulary and nî speech habits or very weak ones and who have stable speech habits in another language which is their native tongue and these native speech habits interfere with the foreign ones. That is why these users must be given thorough instruction in how the words are to be used and this instruction must be given against the background of the learners' native language.

That is why the word-lists and the sort of directions for use for the benefit of the foreign adult learners of English must differ very widely from those given to English or American schoolchildren.

The word-books of this group are characterized by the following features:

1) by their strictly limited word-list, the selection of which is based on carefully thought over scientific principles;

2) the great attention given to the functioning of lexical units in speech;

3) à strong prescriptive, normative character;

4) by their compilation with the native linguistic background in view.

Learner’s dict-ries may be classified in accordance with different principles, the main are

1) the scope/ volume of the word list and 2) the nature of information afforded

(1) fall into 2 groups: a) contain all lexical units that the prospective user may need (Hornby’s Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (50,000 lexical units) and b) the most essential and important words are selected (A Grammar of English Words by H. Palmer (1,000 words).

(2) includes a group of dictionaries presenting different aspects of the vocabulary: showing mainly the semantic structure of words (explanatory), presenting the syntagmatic relations between words (dictionaries of collocations), providing information about the word's structure (derivational), supplying synonymous and antonymous words, etc.



Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English by A. Hornby has achieved international recognition as a most valuable practical reference book to English as a foreign language. It contains 50,000 units and is compiled on the basis of COD to meet the needs of advanced foreign learners of English and language teachers. It aims among other things at giving detailed information about the grammatical and partly lexical valency of words.

Learner’s dict-s differ in many respects: they are either monolingual or polylingual, they provide different information, they differ in the kind of the intended user (learners of the English language who have reached different stages in the course of their studies) and in aim (an aid to oral speech — the development of reading and writing skills) and in other features. However these dictionaries have some traits in common that distinguish them from the other word-books. They all aim at teaching how to speak, write, etc., while the tendency in modern English lexicography is not to prescribe as to usage, but to record what is actually used by speakers.

Selection of entry words. The common purpose of learner’s dictionaries is to give information on what is currently accepted usage, besides most compilers seek to choose the lexical units that foreign learners of English are likely to need. Therefore not only are obsolete, archaic and dialectal words excluded, but also technical and scientific terms, substandard words and phrases, etc. Colloquial and slang words as well as foreign words of common occurrence in English are included only if they are of the sort likely to be met by students either in reading or in conversation. Moreover some of the common words may be omitted if they are not often encountered in books, newspapers, etc. or heard over the radio and in conversation.

Space is further saved by omitting certain derivatives and compounds the meaning of which can be easily inferred.

Alternative spellings and pronunciations are avoided, only the more accepted forms are listed. Various criteria have been employed in choosing words for learner’s dictionaries. In the first place the selection of words is based on the frequency principle.

However many methodologists and compilers of learner’s dictionaries have a tendency to exaggerate the significance of the frequency criterion. The research done in different countries has shown that the frequency tables do not in themselves present the vocabulary minimum. While it is indisputable that every high-frequency word is useful, it is not every useful word that is frequent (e.g. carrots, fork, stamp,etc.). Consequently frequency cannot be the only point to be considered in selecting items for learner’s dictionaries as well as for other teaching materials. It must be complemented by some other principles, such as the words’ collocability, stylistic reference, derivational ability, semantic structure, etc.

Presentation of meanings. The order of arrangement of meanings followed in learner’s dictionaries is usually empiric, that is beginning with the main meaning to minor ones. Besides the following principles of arrangement are considered proper for language learners: literal uses before figurative, general uses before special, common uses before rare and easily understandable uses before difficult.

Compilers of learner’s dictionaries attach great importance to the language in which the definition is given, the goal being to word them in the simplest terms that are consistent with accuracy.

In some learner’s dictionaries pictorial material is widely used as a means of semantisation of the words listed. Pictures cannot only define the meanings of such nouns as domes, columns, brushes,etc., but sometimes also of adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

Setting of the Entry. The structure and content of the entry in learner’s dictionaries also have some peculiar features. Chief among these is marked attention to the ways words are used in speech, e.g. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary points out which nouns, and in which of their meanings, can be used with the indefinite articles (the symbols [C] and [U] stand for “countable” and “uncountable").The dictionary also gives information of a more detailed character about the lexical valency of words. Sets of words with which the head-word may combine as well as illustrative examples taken from everyday language are given.

The supplementary matter in learner’s dictionaries, besides that usually found in general dictionaries, may include other reference material necessary for language learners. For instance, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary includes not only lists of irregular verbs, common abbreviations, geographical names, etc., but also common forenames listed with their pet names, numerical expressions giving help in the reading, speaking and writing of numbers and expressions which contain them, the works of William Shakespeare and even ranks in the Armed Forces of GB and US.

 



Date: 2016-01-03; view: 2742


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