The dictionary as a secondary source in language learning

A survey of foreign language teaching literature of the last twenty years shows relatively little information on dictionary use.1 One could therefore question whether foreign language

The Dictionary as a Secondary Source in Language Learning

Author(s): Joel Walz

Source: The French Review, Vol 64, No 1 (Oct., 1990), pp 79-94

Published by: American Association of Teachers of French

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The Dictionary as a Secondary Source

in Language Learning

by Joel Walz

II y avait des canards sur le'ang qui criaient <Charlatan! Charlatan!>

VERY FEW TEACHERS have never laughed or groaned at student compositions

that contain errors such as the one above Even though we know exactly what the source is-improper use of a dictionary-we nevertheless permit

such errors to recur year after year The problems are polysemy, or a word having more than one meaning, and homonyms, which are different words

that are pronounced or spelled alike When students look up an English

word in a bilingual dictionary, they find most or all of its meanings

sented by French equivalents Since many dictionaries do not give the semantic field of each translation (Al-Kasimi 67; Ianucci), the student cides to guess Even when the dictionary does add fields, students do not understand or do not pay attention and end up choosing the wrong word

Thus, the student quoted above who looked up quack may have found

charlatan; coin-coin and not realized that the semi-colon separated the mantic fields of dubious professions and animal noises

We must ask ourselves whether students have the right abilities to

complish the tasks we demand of them In the first few weeks of

tion, we sometimes ask for totally original compositions for which we provide no structure A survey of foreign language teaching literature of

the last twenty years shows relatively little information on dictionary use.1

One could therefore question whether foreign language teachers consider dictionary use a skill worth teaching The purpose of this article is to examine this question and to determine what teachers can do to improve

the situation

Students associate many negatives with the foreign-language dictionary The very word itself conjures up images of a yellowing, dog-eared back missing about half the words a student wants to know As Heilenman states, it is "a nice place to visit, but no one wants to live there" (43) Dictionary use is synonymous with failure; students use it almost

sively to look up words in a reading passage that they do not know ing) or to find a French equivalent of an English word that they want to use

79

in a composition (encoding) In both cases, the task slows down and

tion increases (Hughes and Chinn) Excessive dictionary use in reading can

cause students to lose sight of the content of the passage (Jones) The very fact of slowing down reading has a negative effect on comprehension

mond) Bensoussan finds that dictionary use made no difference in the results of a reading comprehension test she administered to ESL students

In writing, students will find several translations for each word and not be

inclined to pursue the matter

Indeed, many experts feel that the two principal uses of the dictionary

may be the two worst uses With reading in particular, most agree that dictionary use should be a last resort and that teachers should spend their time teaching students how to guess the meaning of words from context (Hosenfeld et al.) Current theory takes a much more global approach to reading and writing (Omaggio) than the previous audio-lingual period For example, in a review of literature on reading theory, Swaffar found that discursive and thematic relationships are more important than dictionary

definitions and that more time should be spent talking about general types

of vocabulary that relate to students' pre-established schemata than about

individual words (137) The same is true of writing: specialists prefer a

processing approach over one that stresses discrete items (Magnan) thermore, anyone who claims that a dictionary will help increase students' vocabulary must face the argument that words must be learned in context

if the student is to retain them (see Judd 73 and his references) Words arranged in alphabetical order are as devoid of context as possible, and

while many teachers get lost with fascination in a dictionary while looking

up a word, it is unlikely that many of our students do

On the other hand, there are many good reasons to reconsider the

importance dictionaries play in our classrooms The new approaches to

reading and writing may increase their use instead of decrease it Few of the scholars publishing books and articles on reading that stress guessing

words from context (i.e virtually everyone in the last ten years) point out

that guessing depends on students' knowing enough of the other words in

the sentence to create a context Often, this is not the case Lorraine

Strasheim used to tell the story of a Russian student who, after months of

study, thought that Do Svidanya meant "Classed dismissed" because every time the teacher said it, the students got up and left In a survey of ESL classes, Groebel found that while no teachers recommended looking up all unknown words in a reading passage, over half the students thought they should.2 During the audio-lingual period, specialists recommended that

reading passages contain no more than one new word every thirty-five

(Northeast Conference) Now we are supposed to use documents authentiques

that have not been edited The text-processing approach has appeared in

textbooks, including at least one that has no lexicon at the end; the authors

instead encourage students to use cognates, word families, and contextual guessing (Schofer and Rice) Haynes found that students guessed correctly

less than half the time when confronted with a global, as opposed to a local, context Allen et al found that all students in their test understood at least

something from the authentic passages they read However, for many

students "something" is not enough They need a dictionary, and they need

to know how to use it

Perhaps the best argument for dictionary use is that it is the essential

source for information about words in a language (Marckwardt)

gogues have long decried the lack of attention paid to vocabulary in

foreign-language teaching (e.g Nemni, Carter) Proper vocabulary use is

an essential part of communicative interaction While reading experts

stress guessing words from context, many place vocabulary as the most

important element in understanding (see Adams 155 and her references)

Many of the native-speaker reaction studies done several years ago found

that errors in vocabulary had a more profound effect on comprehensibility

and sensitivity than did errors of grammar or pronunciation (Ludwig 276)

Bonin tested advanced undergraduate French majors to see whether they

could understand spoken, colloquial French She found that vocabulary

created more misunderstandings than any other aspect of oral language

More recently, scholars interested in testing oral proficiency have

oped a chart of the relative contribution of each aspect of language to total

production (Higgs and Clifford 711) At the novice level, vocabulary is far

ahead of the other components (grammar, pronunciation, etc.) Since the

vast majority of foreign language students in this country operate at the

novice level, we cannot overlook this aspect of language

A second major reason for teaching dictionary use is that it can be a tool

for lifelong learning Linguists have pointed out that native speakers learn

the syntax of a language in very few years, but they add to their

ies throughout their entire lives (Richards 83) Currently, much of what is

recommended in foreign language pedagogy is based on the false

tion that we can predict what vocabulary our students will need in the

future (Twaddell) A good example of this tendency is the

oriented teaching" that is currently in vogue Proponents specify exactly

what semantic fields should be taught at the early levels (ETS, Omaggio)

Many states are following this advice and repeating the fields in state

curriculum guides Teachers will not object because the topics are generally

those taught in first-year textbooks already (foods, clothing, colors, family

members) However, we should not classify this as responding to student

needs since students themselves may not know what their needs are It is

important to teach the skills needed to continue expanding one's

lary (Rivers, Teaching Foreign 466; Twaddell)

If we are to develop a nation of bilinguals, we need to place more

sis on language learning after traditional instruction has stopped Studies of

loss and maintenance of language skills are in their early stages (Freed and

Lambert) Certainly dictionary use is an essential skill, perhaps the most

important one, for a person who needs to revive language skills, but who

has no human source of information We also need to consider the

traditional student in our language classes (see Joiner) With older learners and returning students we are even less likely to be able to predict their needs Thus, it seems essential to develop students' ability to continue

learning on their own or, at least, to branch out in the directions that their

specific interests take them For example, students may need to know about the availability of and how to use specialized dictionaries, such as

those for business, data processing, medecin, and economics (for a complete listing, see section 03 0.3 Dictionnaires techniques of the subject volume of Les

Livres disponibles) The AATF Commission on Professional Standards states

that every teacher of French should have dictionary skills and should know

how to teach them (AATF 15)

A third reason for teaching the use of the dictionary is that it is not a dull, dry reference book and that it can be used for more than just practicing safe

lex (Those who think dictionaries are boring have never looked up mec or

nana in the Dictionnaire du franfais argotique et populaire!) Some of the new

dictionaries in particular are so fascinating that they can be considered as

documents authentiques in their own right and potentially as interesting as many of the periodicals that teachers use in class If presented in the proper way, many dictionaries will entertain as well as instruct

Dictionaires are useful in two distinct ways in language learning As a secondary source, they help bring about the understanding of a text, the

primary source as received or produced by students, provided that teachers

have developed in their students the skills necessary to use dictionaries

correctly These skills will be the subject of the second part of this article

Many scholars have called for the teaching of these skills (Al-Kasimi 108; Herbst and Stein; Loew; Medley; Rivers, Teaching French 304-08.) I will

attempt to summarize and expand upon their ideas and provide a model for implementation Dictionaries also vary widely in form and content and can

provide learning opportunities in and of themselves Such activities will be

presented in the December issue of The French Review in an article entitled

"The Dictionary as a Primary Source in Language Learning."

Two important questions to consider are how and when to teach ary skills in class The first has several answers In limited cases, teachers can ask students to bring their dictionary with them to class This is not practical very often since there are many basic dictionaries from which students can learn, and few students buy more than one A more able system would be to have a learning area in class (Hammerly 578) or in the library where students have a variety of dictionaries available and where they can work in small groups on the same book At colleges and universities this situation will be less of a problem since they have larger budgets for reference works Faculty will want to verify the possibilities and expand on titles or acquire more recent editions as funding permits High school budgets are smaller, but, in dealing with authorities, teachers

may be able to use the call by the AATF Commission on Professional

Standards for library purchase of reference works as leverage (AATF 20) The when of teaching dictionary use can be quite flexible It can be an

integral part of the language course and include a lecture on the first day of class as to what dictionary students should buy, or at least use The teacher

then continues throughout the course with comments and explanations of competitors' books and other types of dictionary Another approach is to

assign one day a week or every two weeks as "dictionary day." This may be

the day that compositions are due so that students do not have to write a composition and prepare a normal textbook lesson for the same class They concentrate on finishing the composition while the teacher develops the presentation of a dictionary and exercises to complete in class A third approach is to develop learning packets that were popular with

ized instruction of the 1970s (Logan) A packet is a self-contained unit with

explanations and specific directions for student activities The teacher uses the packets in many situations: during absences for professional travel or

illness, in classes of mixed levels that are prevalent at the high school level

(Book), or for independent study or additional assignments for specific students Even at the graduate level, work with dictionaries can prove useful, especially since so few undergraduates receive instruction in this

area Many departments offer research methods, bibliography, or stylistics

courses where this type of work would fit in well Another advantage of

learning dictionary use is flexibility; it can be teacher-directed or dent It can be the focus of the lesson or an addition It can be long or short,

elementary or advanced

The most dramatic use of dictionaries in language learning would be a course in lexicography Since Les Livres disponibles has almost 2000 entries under its subject heading for dictionaries, there is certainly no lack of material for an entire course on dictionaries If the course emphasizes

learning French through the use of these books as a primary source rather than teaching how to compile a dictionary, the course would not be

raphy in the strictest sense It would, however, be a productive learning experience

Before planning lessons based on dictionaries, one should consider three

of the most frequently asked questions concerning their use: whether to

use a monolingual or bilingual dictionary; when to look up a word (and, by

extension, what words) while reading; and what is currently the "best"

dictionary of each type The fact that teachers have debated these questions

for generations without coming to any universally-accepted conclusions

does not bode well for this discussion, but a review of the literature may

prove helpful

Most teachers have probably decided what type of

gual (MD) or bilingual (BD)-students should use; many either order or

recommend a specific title Interestingly, two researchers who have

veyed published opinion concerning the merits of each type reached

site conclusions Ard prefers MDs because BDs do not handle meaning

distinctions of equivalent translations well, and they provide no tion on permissible word combinations, frequency of use, connotations, and opposing choices By studying writing samples, he discovered that

using BDs invariably lead students to specific types of errors Thompson,

on the other hand, concludes that BDs are preferable because to use MDs, the student must know what word to look up, a process not possible while encoding He also believes that students have trouble with MDs because

they must also look up words in the definition They also find the use of

circular definitions: A = B = C = A

Richards states that knowing a word implies knowing its functions, its

uses, its limitations (83), and what words occur with it (79) We could take this as an argument for MDs, since BDs provide none of this information Baxter also prefers MDs since they provide the means to use words, while

lanucci points out that only MDs help with the problem of polysemy

tioned above Lindstrom makes the point that BDs are misleading since

they give the impression that there is a target language equivalent for every word in one's native language (718) By extension, we can conclude that BDs may lead students to believe that communicating in a foreign language is tantamount to substituting one string of words for another

BDs also have more practical problems, such as often being out of date (e.g

Joseph) or translating into a native language dialect not that of the user

(Denoeu)

On the other hand, Nemni points out that the short, frequent words

used in early language instruction are often the hardest to explain (e.g rire,

1030) She wonders how a student who looks up one unknown word will

understand all the words of the definition Hammerly sees BDs as

ble, even necessary, at the elementary and intermediate levels He cites

Dodson's "eureka experience" (572), where the student, upon

ing a definition, immediately converts it to a native-language equivalent

Al-Kasimi presents the same arguments in favor of BD use at all levels of

instruction (103-04; see Ilson also for other arguments) One might

clude that the controversy is not an easy one to solve While decoding

(reading and perhaps listening), students will probably save time by using

BDs to avoid converting the definition to a native equivalent With

ing (writing and perhaps speaking), students could use MDs to reduce

errors and BDs to increase the possibilities of communication The

ties below teach the use of both

The second question concerning dictionaries that teachers often ask is

when a learner should consult a dictionary Most researchers have

mented only on reading in this respect, and the verdict has been nearly

unanimous for over thirty years: only as a last resort (Jones, 1957;

feld et al.; Medley; Rivers, Teaching Foreign 304) "Last resort" has been

variously defined as after reading the entire passage (Jones 128) or at least a

complete sentence (Twaddell 76) The problem reading experts have not

addressed is how students are to know when they have guessed wrong, a problem that occurs not infrequently (see reference to Haynes, above)

When the last resort is reached, students must have the skill to decode the

message properly

The corollary to this question is what words students should verify The facetious answer-words they do not know-is incorrect since faux amis appear obvious but are not Research does not tell us whether certain parts

of speech will help more than others while decoding Intuitively, one would

guess nouns and verbs over all others, but interjections (Chouette!) carry

an enormous amount of information also With current reading research stressing that the whole (meaning) is greater than the sum of its parts (words), it is unlikely that such research would be productive As tioned above, Bensoussan finds that dictionary use does not necessarily improve reading comprehension The problem is equally one of encoding

Given the sentence The children are looking at television, many elementary French students might look up (or at least translate) are, looking, and at, but

use no article with television An exercise that follows will help students

divide sentences into units that they can find in a dictionary

The third question (which dictionary is best) is also difficult, if not

sible, to answer It is important to compare similar dictionaries, making a classification system, such as that of Geeaerts, useful Girardin points out that monolingual French dictionaries fall into three categories: "destine au public cultiv, au grand public aux apprenants" (86-87) Obviously, this does not include many specialized types, such as those for children Teachers would also do well to keep up with the reviews of new ies, which appear in the major professional journals, and with occasional

articles that compare them (Ibrahim) Yorkey provides criteria for

ing dictionaries for ESL students that could be adapted to French rand's article comparing the Petit Robert and the Dictionnaire du francais

contemporain can serve as a model for comparing any two similar

ies, and it will be used in the sequel article as an activity for advanced language classes

Teachers much choose relevant words and then verify that the exercise

is possible with the specific dictionary being used (MD or BD) The

ing examples of learning activities may serve as a guide to teachers who will

want to replace or supplement them with examples more appropriate to their own situation The class textbook proves a better source of lary for any given assignment Student compositions and readings provide

a good beginning for expanding vocabulary Even current events may play

a role in determining the type of work teachers will want students to do Teachers who prepare printed lessons for independent study will have to update them regularly to ensure an interesting and useful vocabulary Above all, the vocabulary and the contexts must be appropriate to the

students' level.

Learning Activities

For suggestions about what to teach I have chosen the two most

tant types of dictionaries available for student use To understand and

produce target language utterances, several scholars recommend

ing dictionaries to students before they begin specific assignments Medley

suggests examining the table of contents, learning abbreviations, and

teaching parts of speech Wallace deals with the problems of alphabetical

order, finding derivatives, determining pronunciation from phonetic

bols, checking spelling, and discovering morphological variants (82-84) For Rivers (Teaching French 305), an introduction should increase students' terest in the dictionary as a learning tool rather than simply build a skill She recommends starting with the encyclopedic second half of the Petit

Larousse, with its maps, historical sketches, and various color plates, so that

students become accustomed to seeking information in a dictionary 06) Rossner's suggestions to have students determine why an author uses

a certain word is applicable only to advanced classes

The most complete introductions are the books published by Longman

(Whitcut) and Oxford UP (Underhill) to accompany their dictionaries for

foreign students For example, Underhill recommends starting with a

ple entry and discussing its various parts, including the significance of

various type faces Without benefit of these workbooks for French

aries, teachers can use a photocopier that enlarges, then transfer a sample

entry to a transparency or a stencil for group analysis in class.3 The

Robert BD has a detailed presentation of its entries in the introduction

xxiv) and the Petit Larousse 1989 a briefer one (24)

Decoding I Monolingual Dictionaries (examples from the Petit Larousse4)

A student decodes while reading or listening Scholfield provides the

most detailed analysis of learning to retrieve the correct meaning of a word

He criticizes the Underhill and Whitcut workbooks for describing in detail

without teaching students to develop strategies The first of his seven steps

involves understanding alphabetical order, which should be no problem for

our students His second step is to remove inflections (186) French

teachers can have students practice this important skill by presenting a list

of words (even if the students do not know them) and asking students to

mark out any inflections that might hinder finding the word Note that the

smaller the dictionary that students use, the more important this skill becomes."

A Rayez les prffixes et les suffixes des mots suivants, s'il y a lieu.

inaccessible preconsonantique

pitoyablement incrtdulith

enrichissons anticonstitutionnel

parlement rtduisant

archifaux anhimoine

(Parlement and antimoine are traps, words that must be looked up in their

entirety.)

Another step in Scholfield's system is to reduce multiple entries by

nation Students must recognize parts of speech, grammatical information

(e.g transitive or intransitive), level of style, word combinations, and

ences The person who composes the exercise should look for words that

students do not know in a context that they will understand

B Cherchez les mots soulignes dans votre dictionnaire et ecrivez la definition qui y

correspond au-dessous de la phrase.

1 I1 faut que j'aille chercher des timbres au bureau de poste.

2 Vous n'avez pas le droit de me dire cela.

3 Son fiance lui a offert un bracelet en argent.

4 Un tel investissement ne vous rapportera rien.

5 Elle est partie acheter des piles pour son walkman.

6 Aprs l'inondation, son champ 6tait couvert de vase.

7 Il est revenu du vin d'honneur compkltement noir.

8 Puisque l'eau avait un goat infect, je I'ai balancie.

Underhill and Whitcut recommend similar exercises based on polysemy,

but since students are all consulting the same dictionary, they can use the

number of the correct definition instead of writing it out Scholfield

phasizes fitting the right definition into the context of the sentence (his

sixth step) Exercise B above can be done with an entire class in order to

find out which word(s) give the key to the correct meaning, or the teacher

can ask students to circle them For example, in sentence eight, the word

infect suggests that the underlined word means to throw out Using words

students know, but in a different sense (argent, noir), or false cognates

(vase, balanc&e), will encourage them to read the complete entry A

tion of exercise B is also possible; Underhill takes one word with several

meanings, gives a sample sentence for each, then asks students to pair

usage and definitions (32-33)

Decoding / Bilingual Dictionaries (examples from Collins-Robert)

The first characteristic of bilingual dictionaries to examine is whether or

not they separate the English equivalents of French entries into semantic

fields BDs will always have many more equivalents than BDs have

tions because the former list synonyms An older dictionary may separate

semantic groups by semi-colons and synonyms within a group by commas

For example, the 1962 edition of Cassell's gives nineteen English verbs for

gener separated by five semi-colons (i.e six semantic groups), before giving

five examples The Collins-Robert (1987) separates four fields

ment, deranger, financierement, and mettre a l'aise) It subdivides the first

two and gives nineteen examples in all

An exercise to practice finding the right native language equivalent