THE-APPLICATION-OF-DICTIONARIES-IN-ENGLISH-LEARNIN

THEAPPLICATIONOFDICTIONARIESINENGLISHLEARNING（1孝感学院外国语学院湖北432000;2湖北大学外国语学院在读硕士武汉430000）【Abstract】DictionariesplayanimportantroleinEnglishlearning.Theycanhelplearnerstocomprehendlexiconsbetter,toenlargevocabularyeffectivelyandtogetusedtothinkinginEnglish,etc.Therefore,morestudiesshouldbeconductedtoprobeintotheapplicationofdictionariesinEnglishlearning.Thispaper,basedontheprevioussurveyofstrategiesofusingdictionariesinEnglishlearning,istofindandanalyzeproblemswithaneyetoprovidingsuggestionsforbetterusingdictionaries.ItishopedthatEnglishlearnerscanbringintofullplaytheroleofdictionariesintheirEnglishlearning.【KeyWords】Dictionaries;Englishlearning;Problems;Strategies.【中图分类号】G623.31【文献标识码】B【文章编号】1001-4128（2011）05-0001-031IntroductionItiswell-knownthatdictionariesplayacrucialroleinEnglishlearningespeciallyintheaspectofvocabularyacquisition.TheyarealsohelpfulinunderstandingwordsandexpressionsbetteraswellasgettingusedtothinkinginEnglish.RecentlytherehasbeenagrowinginterestintheapplicationofdictionariesinEnglishlearning.ButfewinvestigationsconcernabouthowdictionariesinfluenceEnglishlearningorthestrategiesofusingdictionaries.Thispaper,basedontheprevioussurveyofEnglishmajors’strategiesofusingdictionariesinEnglishlearning,istofindandanalyzesomemainproblemswithaneyetoprovidingsuggestionsforbetterusingdictionaries.2Generalinformationofdictionaries2.1Thetypesofdictionaries2.1.1AccordingtothecompilingscaleDictionariescanfallintofourtypesaccordingtothecompilingscale.Unabridgeddictionaries.Thiskindofdictionarycontainsmorethan250,000entrieswithabundanttheoreticalcontent.Everywordinpracticeusecanbefoundinthem.Butinfact,withthefastdevelopmentoflexicons,theyalsohavesomedefects（张镇华,2003）.Thebest-knownunabridgeddictionariesareTheOxfordEnglishDictionaryandWebster’sThirdNewInternationalDictionary.Semi-abridgeddictionaries.Itcontainsabout130,000to250,000entriesmainlytailoredtoundergraduatesandhighschoolstudents.Therefore,theyarealsocalleduniversitydictionaries（张镇华，2003）.TheShorterOxfordDictionaryofCurrentEnglishisthemostfamousone.Pocketdictionaries.Itcontainslessthan130,000entriesinthem.Thiskindofdictionaryisusuallymadebycuttingcertainpartsoftheabovetwotypes.Ithasadvantagesofconvenience.ThePocketOxfordDictionaryisoneofthebest.Electronicdictionaries.Ithasemergedwiththerapiddevelopmentofcomputertechnology.“Thiskindofdictionary,monolingualorbilingual,takestheformofacalculatorbutworkslikeacomputer”（张维友，2004）.Itismuchmoreconvenienttousethanatraditionalpaperdictionary.Theyarewidelyusedespeciallyinhighschoolsoruniversities.Nowadays,popularwithChinesestudentsareWenQuXing,KuaiYiTong,etc.2.1.2AccordingtothecompilinglanguagesBilingualdictionariesinvolvetwolanguages.Wordsandexpressionsaredefinedinanotherlanguage,suchasAnEnglish-ChineseDictionaryandANewEnglish-ChineseDictionary.TheEnglishwordsaredefinedinChineseorratherthewordsaregiventheirChineseequivalents.SuchdictionariesarecompiledbyChinesewiththeChineselearnersinmind,thuseasytouse.AnotherkindofdictionaryistheEnglishmonolingualdictionary.WordsandexpressionsareexplainedinmuchsimplerEnglish.ThemostpopularoneofsuchdictionaryisOxfordseriesandLongmanseries.Ithasawidecoverageofentries,withagreatmanywordsandexpressionsaswellasillustrations.2.1.3AccordingtothecompilingusageDictionariesconcentrateonaparticularareaoflanguageorknowledge,suchasetymology,synonyms,idioms,pronunciation,usagesinlanguage,andspecialsubjectslikearchitecture,engineering,gardeningandliterature,etc.EtymologicalDictionaries.TheOxfordDictionaryofEnglishEtymologyisatypicalone.Ithasacollectionof17,000entries,anddescribestheorigins,thedateofentryintoEnglishandthechangesthathavetakenplaceinthewords.Itisconsideredtobethemostusefulinetymology.DictionariesofIdioms.CambridgeInternationalDictionaryofIdiomsisanexample.Itcontainsaround7,000idioms.Itshowshowidiomsareusedbygivingthousandsofexamplesentences.Inaddition,itdemonstratesclearinformationongrammarandcollocationaswellasetymologicalinformationwhichenablelearnerstounderstandbetter.DictionariesofUsages.Thesedictionariesdealwithcontroversialusages,suchasdifficultgrammaticalpointsandeasily-madelanguageerrors.ADictionaryofCurrentEnglishUsageistheone.Usagesareillustratedbyexamplestakenfromalldifferentsources.OtherSpecializedDictionariessuchasADictionaryofEnglishEuphemisms,OxfordDictionaryofQuotations,OxfordDictionaryofProverbs,etc,focusonaparticularfieldandareusefulinsomeextent.2.2Thefunctionsofdictionaries2.2.1HelpinglearnerstocomprehendlexiconbetterWhenconsultingadictionary,wecanobtaintheinformationofaword’sspelling,pronunciation,definition,grammarusagesaswellasetymologicalinformation.“Thedictionaryisthepoorspeller’sbestfriend”（张维友，2004）.Itgivestheacceptedspellingforallwords.Itisagoodguidanceforusers.Thedictionaryalsoprovidesvariousstandardpronunciations.Itwillleaduserstothecorrectpronunciation.Themainbodyofadictionaryisitsdefinitionsofwords.Asmostwordshavedifferentmeanings,thesenseofwordsisarrangedindifferentways.Wordsaredefinedinphrasalexplanations,synonyms,illustrativesentences,andevenwith