Catch 22: English Dictionaries for Learning English - Essay Example

Academia - Research December 2009 Catch 22: English Dictionaries for Learning English Everyone understands the importance of dictionaries in education: they are a vital tool in a student’s learning process. Dictionaries have always been important, and in today’s education methods, are seen as good references and impossible to do without. Still, there are obstacles when students need to consult a dictionary in the target language. Although the origin and history of words, etymology, is a fascinating study about how words got their meaning, and how meaning changes over time, a new student to English can be easily confused. It might not matter much that the word ‘bouquet’ is originally French, or that it changed a bit, and that sometimes it is used metaphorically, if a student is confused about how to spell it. But looking for ‘bouquet’ in the same place as ‘book’ can be a time-consuming mistake, even though the sound is similar.1‘That’s just the way it is!’ is often the answer. English is a confusing language: it contains words from many origins, such as French, Spanish and Dutch. Problems of pronunciation, inflection and spelling arise at all levels of fluency. And dictionaries do not help much. Inflection, especially, or tone and pitch of voice when pronouncing, is very hard to describe. In English, where inflection is less crucial than in languages such as Chinese - where even a small change in pitch can change the whole meaning of a word - how a word is said is often very important.2 The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary for learners of English is better for distinguishing puzzling aspects of the English language than a static hardcopy version of the Oxford Dictionary. And the excellent website Word-reference.com is a popular site on how to say, and then use, particular words. Words such as ‘project’, ‘recall’, ‘present’, ‘rebel’, ‘permit’, and ‘record’, are inflected differently, depending on their function in a sentence, and are called noun-verb homographs: difficult to master for non-native English speakers.3 These sentences show how (the italicized part is the stressed syllable): He did not permit them to take out a permit. We did not record the data not found on the record. You must have perfect recall to recall something so vague. I’d like to present you with a lovely present. The rebel realized it was not his choice to rebel. Such morphologically altered words can cause a lot of consternation in foreign students.4 Native speakers understand the relationship between the words, and the rules that govern patterns of use and pronunciation (morphology), but learners can be frustrated because sometimes even the best teachers can be flustered about why or how differences and quirks came about, and how on earth to explain them. Derivation is explained well and entertainingly in Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson (1990), who goes into some detail about derivation. History, politics, religion and migration all have their effect on language, but are these details important when one is learning English? It does not help with spelling of such differently pronounced words as rough, though, through, tough, cough, dough, slough, bough, and enough. Even time has affected the way these words are spelled. The Word Reference Online Dictionary has an audio function that puts mystified students out of their misery. It explains why thigh rhymes with lie, and why height does not rhyme with eight. Until the advent of audio aids for learners of English, students often made amusing mistakes, leaving them annoyed and still in the dark. Dictionaries do nothing to eliminate confusion and bewilderment, and often add to it. The difference between a two-language dictionary, such as Collins French / English, and a single-language dictionary such as the Macquarie or the Oxford English dictionaries are seldom taught to students. Even the word ‘dictionary’ and its function needs explaining in this sense: two-language ones translate, single-language ones define. 5 And students need to be conversant with English to understand an entry like: GIFT n alms, bounty, Christmas hamper, Christmas stocking, compliment, contribution, donation, handout, donatives, favor, grant, handsel, keepsake, largesse, manna from heaven, mortuary (Archaic), present, presentation, remembrance, subscription; offering, oblation ... 6 and so on for half a page, with then a second entry giving gift as competence, generosity and talent. What is a student to make of this, when the word they seek (if only they knew it) is listed seventeenth in the list? This does not explain how English has come to be one of the world’s most spoken languages, the lingua franca of the computer and entertainment spheres. The latter is the operative word: entertainment has seen lyrics of songs and lines from movies placed on the lips of the world’s youth, which is what made the English world spin on its powerful axis. It does not matter that entries such as the one below confound and mystify. house n. (pl.pr. -zĭz). 1. Building for human habitation or (usu. with defining prefix); occupation; inn; tavern; building for keeping animals or goods; (place of abode of) religious fraternity; college in university; (boys in boarding house forming part of school; (building used by) legislative or deliberative assembly; (audience in) theatre, cinema etc.; household; family; dynasty; mercantile firm; team of doctors resident in hospital... and so on for three or four pages, depending on the edition.7 It does not matter, because young people know the meaning of house from songs, movies, comics, and the internet. The mysterious -zĭz on the first line is almost invisible - students know how to pronounce ‘houses’ from movies, and never make the mistake of putting down the plural of house as hice. Even though the same cannot be said for ‘mouse’, because of the modern meaning of the computer appliance. The morphological information given for the entry below is not only bewildering, but useless: gŏt: see GET; ~ -up, artificially produced, adorned, etc., with a view to effect or deception.8 If one turns to GET: gĕt (g-) v. (past tense got; past part. got, archaic & US go’tten)...9 The entry goes on for about five pages, and it is not merely the symbols, which is easy to figure are indications of pronunciation, that boggle the mind, but the reaching for interpretations and analysis of this little word in all its possible uses, new and antiquated. Dictionaries help students only if they are taught exactly how to use them, only if instruction is timed well, and expanded with intelligent usage of conversation, example, and most importantly, immersion.10 It is impossible to use dictionaries well without proper tuition, given side-by-side with appropriate oral work. References Bryson, B. 1990 Mother Tongue London: Penguin Macquarie Dictionary New Budget Edition 1999 Sydney: The Macquarie Library Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary < http://www.learnersdictionary.com/> Accessed 12/11/2009 The New Oxford Dictionary 1998 London: Oxford University Press WaPedia English Verbs Accessed 12/11/2009 Word Reference Online Two-Language Dictionary < http://www.wordreference.com/> Accessed 12/11/2009 Read More