1

Please cite as: Krajka, J. (2004). Computer-mediated dictionaries as teaching and learning

tools. W: M.C. Campoy, P. Safont (red.), Computer-Mediated Lexicography in the Foreign

Language Learning Context. Collecció "Estudis Filològics" 18. Castello: Publicacions de la

Universitat Jaume I, 29-46.

JAROSŁAW KRAJKA

Department of Applied Linguistics,

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University,

Lublin, Poland

[e-mail]

ELECTRONIC DICTIONARIES AS TEACHING AND LEARNING TOOLS –

POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS

Introduction

Dictionaries are an indispensable element of the foreign language teaching and

learning process, present in the instruction of all language skills on all levels of learning. The

most prominent role is played by the dictionary during learning vocabulary, when it means

looking up new lexis, retrieving, practicing and testing its knowledge. The use of the

computer as a medium of delivery has brought about significant, or even revolutionary,

changes in the way dictionaries look and work in comparison with the paper ones.

The purpose of the present paper is to provide exhaustive presentation of EFL

electronic dictionaries available on CD-ROM discs on the Polish market, taking into account

the possibilities they offer to the teacher and students when decoding, encoding, storing,

practicing and testing the knowledge of new words. The author intends to pinpoint important

limitations of the existing software, calling for software manufacturers to introduce new

developments in the future issues of their products, and at the same time tries to propose some

simple solutions enabling English teachers to overcome the problems.

When preparing the paper, the author analysed the majority of electronic dictionaries

available to English teachers at the moment of writing the paper (summer 2003). Many of the

products have already been described extensively and reviewed formally (see Czech, 2001;

Krajka, 2001; Krajka, 2002), and it is not the author's intention to promote or compare any of

the products. On the contrary, it is hoped that thanks to the descriptive, rather than evaluative,

nature of the present paper the readers will get objective information about the possibilities of

2

the following electronic dictionaries (in brackets there are the abbreviations used for reference

throughout the paper):

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2003 (CALD);

Cambridge International Dictionary of English, 2000 (CIDE);

Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary, 2001 (CLD);

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2000 (LDOCE 3);

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2003 (LDOCE 4);

Longman Interactive English Dictionary, 2000 (LIED);

Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, 2002 (MED);

Macmillan Essential Dictionary, 2003 (MEsD);

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2000 (OALD);

Oxford Interactive Study Dictionary of Computing and Business English, 1998

(OCBE);

Oxford Phrasebuilder Genie, 2003 (OPG);

Oxford Picture Dictionary Interactive, 2000 (OPDI);

YDP Collins Słownik Polsko-Angielski Angielsko-Polski, 1996 (YDP).

Dictionary, teacher, computer

In the introduction, the question of why students need a dictionary has been answered

– for decoding, encoding, storing, retrieving, practicing and testing vocabulary. As for the

teacher, one can see certain affinities here – the teacher, just like learners, needs the help of a

dictionary while decoding, with the information on meaning, pronunciation, use of words in

context, illustrative examples, additional information concerning the grammar of the word

(i.e., special behaviour in a sentence, restrictions on use, connotation).

After having got the information on form, meaning and use of a given word, the

teacher needs multiple ways of presenting the word to students, with the most frequent being,

of course, giving a native language equivalent, but some others widely used such as giving a

target language definition, a target language example, longer situational or textual context,

gesture or mimicry (Thornbury, 2002). All of the above can be done, very effectively and

suggestively, using an electronic dictionary, provided the teacher has at their disposal either a

computer lab with a CD-ROM dictionary installed or the Internet access with online reference

tools, or a computer connected to a display device such as a beamer or a TV set.

The next stage of vocabulary use by the teacher is storing words already looked up,

adding one's comments or examples and retrieving them when needed as rapidly as possible.

3

These operations can be easily done with a computer dictionary, which will be exemplified

below, as is using the electronic dictionary to practice and test the knowledge of new lexis.

At this point, it seems justified to investigate the capabilities added to dictionaries by

computer technology. When compared with a traditional paper dictionary, the user gets

incomparably faster access to entries. As all the words in an electronic dictionary are

connected with hyperlinks, one is no longer confined to linear alphabetical order of work, but

it is possible to look up words in definitions or examples without being distracted from the

word in question. In this way, one can escape "the tyranny of print" (Rundell, 2002), and the

user has much greater control over the tool.

Another breakthrough is advanced searching possibilities, where it is possible not only

to specify a keyword to be used when searching, but also the occurrences of a given word in

various components of the dictionary (grammar, tests, examples) or using filters to get more

precise results. Due to huge storage capacities of a CD-ROM disc, it has become possible to

add the multimedia dimension to a dictionary by incorporating pictures, sounds and videos,

which greatly facilitate comprehension and enable better retention of new words.

Finally, it must be observed that electronic dictionaries become more and more often

equipped in testing systems, so that practicing and testing knowledge can also be executed

using the dictionary, with the mechanisms identifying the learner, tracking their use of the

program and giving reports on the progress made.

CD-ROM dictionaries for learners of English – general description

In paper dictionaries, the important issue used to be the amount of defining

vocabulary, or words used in definitions to explain the meaning. In electronic reference tools,

the defining vocabulary reflects the language level of students, with three major groups –

dictionaries for children, suitable for starter, elementary and pre-intermediate levels; learner's

dictionaries, destined for pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper-intermediate learners; and

advanced learner's dictionaries, to be used by most proficient learners. However, owing to the

hypertextuality of all words in a dictionary, decoding definitions should not pose major

problems.

Generally speaking, most dictionaries available can be purchased in either a British

English or American English version, with some giving the choice of the language variety

during the installation process, but in each contemporary electronic dictionary one can benefit

from both AmE and BE pronunciation of each word.

4

CD-ROM dictionaries feature advanced searching, allowing lexical research and

facilitating expressing ideas. The most popular option is word search, or searching the entire

dictionary for the occurrences of a given word, with the option of specifying the keyword,

phrases, collocations, compound expressions. Also, one can use text search (seeking a given

word in definitions, examples or additional information) to receive even more lexical data.

When using both options searching can be narrowed down with AND, OR and NOT

operators, as well as a variety of filters (part of speech, geographical variety, style, register,

frequency of use, number of senses and many more). An interesting tendency for dictionaries

is to enable sound search, where the criterion for searching is a given phoneme, a consonant,

a vowel or diphthong selected from a table (MED, MEsD, LDOCE 4). This option can have

great potential for learners who want to find a variety of words with a given sound to practice

it in different word positions, to find minimal pairs or to get a list of words even if they do not

know their exact pronunciation. A sound search screen can be seen in Picture 1.

Picture 1. Advanced searching capabilities – sound search.

Another noteworthy feature of electronic dictionaries is the process of transformation

they undergo from simple reference tools, giving lexical information and enabling decoding

and encoding of meaning, into versatile teaching and learning instruments, combining

vocabulary information, grammar instruction, language testing and culture information. This

can be seen in that dictionaries encompass, apart from a directory of entries and a search

5

engine enabling advanced searches, also testing systems, grammar books, grammar exercises,

vocabulary exercises, proficiency tests, pronunciation recording systems, language games and

study pages (special documents devoted to some aspects of language or culture).

Another common tendency is giving the user a variety of modes of access, not only

the traditional full screen interface, which may pose heavy demands on computer memory,

but also word-processor integration, which adds a dictionary icon to the word processor and

enables the user to launch the dictionary with quick lookup. Finally, one can use the

dictionary in the "quick access" mode, which is a small window residing in the memory and

when highlighting a word and clicking a given keyboard combination (OALD) or pointing the

word with the mouse (LDOCE 4, MEsD, MED) the dictionary will give an instant definition

of the word in a small window, without any further operations such as switching to a

dictionary and typing a word in a lookup box.

The user interface of dictionaries is usually clear, uncluttered and intuitive, divided

into a few windows, with one giving the content of entries, another where one types in words

to look up and the one with all words and phrases in which a given word exists. Apart from

that, dictionaries use easy-to-understand icons (OALD) or simple menu commands (LDOCE

4, MED).

As the assumption behind contemporary multimedia programs is enabling learners to

use software on one's own, at home, without the need for the teacher helping learners, also

electronic dictionaries must be equipped with well-developed user support systems. They do

not only consist in standard Windows system help or printed manual, but also a demonstration

film (MED), interactive self-study guide or a special website devoted to the dictionary.

Decoding and encoding meaning with CD-ROM dictionaries

Decoding meaning is the most traditional way of using a dictionary. As it has been

said before, due to huge storage capacity it is possible to get entries with large amount of

information and multimedia elements with clarity and user-friendliness at the same time.

Obviously, the extent of detail of entries and reference to metalanguage vary according to the

intended user (a child, an intermediate or an advanced learner). A sample entry from an

advanced learner's dictionary can be seen in Picture 2.

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Picture 2. A sample entry from an advanced learner's dictionary.

Decoding of words and comprehension of entries is aided not only by examples, but

also short videos (OALD) or active clickable pictures, where one can click on relevant

elements of the picture and get the words (OALD, LIED, CLD), which is demonstrated in

Picture 3.

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Picture 3. Clickable pictures from an electronic dictionary.

Combining dictionary entries with grammatical information on a given word (irregular

plural, peculiarities of form when adding endings, etc. – LDOCE 3, LIED) or data on word

frequency (MED, CALD) enables the user to obtain the full range of lexical and grammatical

data at the same time, which greatly facilitates getting full view of a word.

In the encoding process, or searching for words and structures of the target language to

include meanings, electronic dictionaries provide learners with sophisticated systems showing

links and relationships between words of similar meaning, which, according to Nunan (Nunan

1995: 135) is an extremely significant factor when learning vocabulary. This can be done in

the form of a semantic map, displaying automatically a network of interrelationships with all

the words in whose definitions a given word appears (OALD), or a thesaurus giving all the

words belonging to a lexical category automatically detected by the system (CLD, CALD,

LDOCE 4), which is visible in Picture 4. A similar solution is using a picture dictionary,

giving situations from different areas of life with words that can be learnt from pictures.

Picture 4. SMART thesaurus display of the word "head".

Thanks to the availability of "quick access" mode and integration of a collocation

dictionary with a standard dictionary, it is possible to use the dictionary to give words to be

used when writing "on the fly" (OPG, CALD), as demonstrated in Picture 5.

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Picture 5. A quick access window giving collocations "on the fly".

Finally, thanks to special study pages, comprising texts, pictures, words, expressions

and grammatical constructions from a given area of life and culture (traditional festivals,

sports, health, education, government), one can use the materials to create utterances on

similar subjects.

Storing words

The next phase of vocabulary instruction is storing words and phrases that have

already been looked up and need to be used in the future. Here electronic dictionaries offer

some possibilities, although they might definitely be better developed. The basic option is

annotating entries by adding one's comments or examples, which are saved to a computer's

hard disc. Apart from storing additional information, this also helps the learner to get quicker

access to selected words, as dictionaries usually allow searching within annotated entries or

moving from one annotated entry to another (CLD, MED).

Another way of storing words is creating wordlists, where one can add words from the

dictionary and check the knowledge of them by running tests or flashcards (MED, MEsD),

which can be seen in Picture 6. Wordlists, unlike annotations added to entries, can be

accessed automatically, without actually knowing or remembering the word, which greatly

helps in learning vocabulary.

9

Picture 6. Working with a wordlist in Macmillan English Dictionary.

Developing language skills – practicing and testing knowledge of words

Thanks to the introduction of computers, large storage capacities and available

processing power, it has been made possible to create self-study grammatical and lexical

exercises, administered by the computer checking the user's progress and giving feedback.

One can notice a growing tendency to develop the exercise component, which can be in the

form of:

lexical exercises testing the knowledge of words, meanings and collocations;

pronunciation exercises, where the learner listens to the pronunciation recording,

records their own version and then plays it back to compare with the original;

sample tests for international examinations (Cambridge FCE, CAE and Proficiency –

LIED, LDOCE 4);

picture exercises, consisting in dragging and dropping words on given objects in the

picture (CLD);

language games, introducing the element of competition (OALD, OPDI);

a system testing the knowledge of words (YDP).

CD-ROM dictionaries for learning English – problems and limitations

Despite all the advantages mentioned above, the knowledge and use of electronic

dictionaries by English teachers in Poland is not widespread. The most important reason for

that might be the financial barrier, and schools are not able to afford a single program in a

10

multi-site license, and for reasons of cost-effectiveness it is more often for a school to buy a

number of programs in one license for students to use them in a school library reading room

or a multimedia information centre. Even though some schools may not be able to buy any

programs, they are very often connected to the Internet, and learners could benefit from a

number of online dictionaries, which, obviously, are less sophisticated and versatile than their

commercial counterparts, but might be equally effective in quick decoding and encoding of

meaning. Here one can mention a few types of online dictionaries (based on Campoy Cubillo,

2002; Campoy Cubillo, 2003):

•

general dictionaries, giving meanings and examples of use: Cambridge Dictionaries

Online,

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

; Merriam-Webster,

http://www.m-w.com

;

Dictionary.com,

http://www.dictionary.com

; Lookwayup,

http://lookwayup.com

;

•

multi-dictionary search engines, allowing searching for a given word in a number of

dictionaries

from

different

areas

of

life:

OneLook

Dictionary,

http://www.onelook.com/

;

A

Web

on

Online

Dictionaries,

http://www.yourdictionary.com

; iTools.com,

http://www.itools.com/lang/

;

•

multilingual

dictionaries

and

Web

translators:

Foreign

Word,

http://www.foreignword.com/

; Free Translation,

http://www.freetranslation.com/

;

Altavista's Babel Fish translator,

http://world.altavista.com/

; Dictionary.com,

http://dictionary.reference.com/translate/text.html

;

WorldLingo,

http://www.worldlingo.com/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html

;

iTools,

http://www.itools.com/lang/

•

websites

with

links

to

online

dictionary

directories:

AllWords.com,

http://www.allwords.com/

;

A

Web

on

Online

Dictionaries,

http://www.yourdictionary.com

;

One

Look's

links,

http://www.onelook.com/?d=all_gen

;

•

"new

words"

dictionaries:

New

Words

in

English,

http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling215/NewWords/page1.html

;

Wordspy,

http://www.wordspy.com

;

•

thesauruses:

Wordsmyth,

http://www.wordsmyth.net/

;

Visual

Thesaurus,

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/online/index.html

; Roget's II The New Thesaurus,

http://www.bartleby.com/62/

;

Merriam-Webster

Thesaurus,

http://www.m-

w.com/thesaurus.htm

; Wordnet,

http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/

; Rhymezone,

http://www.rhymezone.com/defaults.shtml

;

11

•

dictionaries

with

pictures

and

animations:

Internet

Picture

Dictionary,

www.pdictionary.com

;

ArtLex,

www.artlex.com

;

Techtionary,

www.crosstouch.com/techtionary/upgrade.html

;

•

browser-installable dictionaries: Lookwayup,

http://lookwayup.com

; Cambridge

Dictionaries

Online,

http://dictionary.cambridge.org

;

Voycabulary,

http://www.voycabulary.com

; Dictionary.com,

http://dictionary.reference.com/tools/

.

Another problem when using electronic dictionaries is the issue of enormous amount

of information, variety of senses, multiple examples, which, although necessary, might be

overwhelming for less advanced students. Thus, it seems appropriate to suggest that students

should use not only the main dictionary, but also a personal electronic dictionary, or a small

program storing words, senses and examples copied from the main dictionary module,

allowing creating exercises with selected words, and finally checking their knowledge with a

testing system. It is worth adding that when using such a personal module it would be

possible to add new meanings of words, additional examples, make hyperlinks to existing

resources on the Web, which is virtually impossible with CD-ROM reference tools. Also,

while using a personal electronic dictionary the teacher and students will be able to edit it, add

new entries, modify the program module, save changes and share lexical resources with other

students.

A very serious limitation of the majority of CD-ROM dictionaries available on the

market nowadays (except for Macmillan Essential Dictionary) is having a ready-made

vocabulary exercise inventory, with fixed expressions tested and without the possibility to

input one's words. In such a case, students cannot really practice the words learnt at the

moment, but need to use the lexical material input into the exercise by the dictionary makers.

The exception is MEsD, which allows the teacher to create a wordlist and then to make

exercises using ready-made activity structures. It is hoped that other publishers will follow the

lead, so that learners can really use the activities with relevant words. However, for the time

being, teachers might benefit from authoring software, such as Hot Potatoes

(

http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked

) or Web-based authoring tools, such as Headline Makers

(

http://lang.swarthmore.edu/makers/index.htm

), with a variety of ready-made structures for

making crosswords, multiple-choice tests, cloze tests or picture-matching exercises (more on

Web-based authoring tools can be found in Krajka, 2003a).

As it has been said before, some CD-ROM dictionaries (LIED, LDOCE 3) have

entries hyperlinked with other resources, which give the user grammar-related information

12

from an included grammar book or a dictionary of common errors. However, they still lack

the option of adding links to resources created by the teacher or the class, either on the class

website or on local computers, which might be appropriate given growing computer literacy

and greater number of teachers having their websites.

Contemporary electronic dictionaries are limited in the relatively small amount of

multimedia elements in entries, where meaning is illustrated with pictures or videos. Given

the fact that adding multimedia elements to explain meaning or present a word facilitates

comprehension and retention to a substantial degree, it seems justified to propose to develop

the multimedia component in dictionaries, also by making references to website pictures or

teacher-made resources.

Nowadays, CD-ROM dictionaries give the option of recording the pronunciation of

new words, playing it back and comparing with a model. On the other hand, there is a visible

lack of software saving students' pronunciation, storing the files and comparing them to

analyse the progress made.

Finally, only some dictionaries (MED, MEsD, CALD, CLD) allow the user to code

entries using special signs according to the criteria designed, which should also become the

standard feature of any electronic dictionary.

Summing up the above, it seems that CD-ROM dictionaries should evolve into more

versatile tools, but on the other hand they should provide students and teachers with the

possibility to customize the content, influence the lexical material used in exercises and serve

different purposes in language learning process.

Creating a personal electronic dictionary

The above analysis has tried to prove that electronic dictionaries open up great

opportunities for language learners, but some of their most serious limitations call for the use

of new solutions, either supplementary or alternative to the ones adopted in contemporary

products, hoping that new editions of dictionaries might solve the problems noticed.

Thus, we propose creating a special program, called here a personal electronic

dictionary (Krajka, 2003b), which can be a database storing words and data about them in

records and files, and allowing advanced searching with the use of queries. As most probably

very few English teachers are able to create such a program on their own, then it might be

useful to use ready-made products, such as Multilingual Data Organiser (MDO), (Bajkowski,

2002), an empty multi-purpose database to be filled by inputting entries, meanings,

comprising a dictionary and some other functions (see Picture 7 for an example).

13

Picture 7. The interface of Multilingual Data Organiser (Bajkowski, 2002).

Another, similar but less powerful program is Babylon Builder, a free software used to create

simple glossaries with entries, definitions and examples (

http://www.babylon.com

).

However, the most profitable for students might be creating personal dictionaries

using widely available word-processing packages, such as Microsoft Word. This is so because

learners will largely develop their computer skills and practice language at the same time. It

seems that due to a great number of really sophisticated functions, a word-processor should be

sufficient to make a simple but effective dictionary tool. For that, the following steps could be

taken:

•

creating a table with columns for a word, part of speech, phonetic transcription,

pronunciation recording, definition, native language equivalent, example, etc.;

•

installing phonetic script fonts to properly display phonetic transcription;

•

recording the pronunciation of words by the teacher and passing the files to students

for them to be included as external files inserted in the dictionaries;

•

making hyperlinks from one entry to another by inserting a bookmark in one entry and

inserting a hyperlink to this bookmark in the other;

•

adding pictures and photos from the word processor ClipArt gallery or from the

Internet to illustrate the meaning;

•

making "hot spots" on pictures and adding hyperlinks to word entries;

•

sorting entries alphabetically;

•

using "Find" command to get quick access to a wanted word;

14

•

highlighting words and entries in the way set by the user, by formatting text or shading

table cells;

•

linking entries with related exercises on the hard disc or on the Web by inserting

hyperlinks;

•

linking entries with previously created grammar notes, by inserting hyperlinks to

relevant parts of the grammar and linking word entries to grammatical problems.

Conclusion

The present paper attempted to demonstrate that given a wide choice of varied and

versatile electronic dictionaries, both teachers and learners can benefit from these programs in

a number of ways, not only to provide simple lookup of unknown words. One can notice the

gradual transformation of a dictionary from a simple reference instrument to a multi-purpose

tool combining effectively a number of language learning resources. However, it is not

possible to discard some shortcomings or limitations, which call for new solutions to be

introduced by software manufacturers releasing new versions of software and by teachers

using electronic dictionaries in everyday classroom teaching. One example of this could be

exploiting the almost unlimited potential of widely accessible word-processing packages to let

students create personal electronic dictionaries.

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to Danuta Barszcz (Young Digital Poland), Barbara Górska (Cambridge

University Press), Winicjusz Kosior (Pearson Education Longman), Magdalena Wojdyło (Pearson Education

Longman), Marek Woźniak (Macmillan Polska), Anna Wnuk (Oxford University Press), without whose support

the present article would not have been written. Also, I owe great thanks to Maria Carmen Campoy Cubillo,

Maria Jose Luzon de Marco, Włodzimierz Sobkowiak, Ilan Kernerman and Yukio Tono, whose invaluable

comments have greatly helped the author in composing the paper in its final version.

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