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Dictionaries as aids for language learning

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International Handbook of Modern Lexis and Lexicography

Abstract

Research has consistently shown that a few thousand word families can be enough to understand most written or spoken text (e.g., Nation 2006; Van Zeeland and Schmitt 2013). The implication is that these frequent items need to be learned – and to be learned thoroughly. However, diminishing returns set in, and accessible tools are required for the many tens of thousands of other items. Dictionaries are among the most widely-used tools for foreign and second language (L2) learning and can help with both frequent and infrequent items. This chapter begins with a discussion of dictionaries themselves in relation to L2 use and the main issues affecting their development over the last few decades in particular. These include the increasing use of empirical data, especially in the form of corpora, and the appearance of monolingual learner dictionaries in addition to bilingual and other dictionary types. It then moves on to a discussion of research into how dictionaries are used by non-native speakers (NNSs), especially as a reference resource for encoding and decoding, but also their impact on language learning itself.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Atilf, CNRS & Université de Lorraine, BP 13397, 54015 cedex, Nancy, France

    Alex Boulton

  2. Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium

    Sylvie De Cock

Authors
  1. Alex Boulton
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  2. Sylvie De Cock
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Correspondence to Alex Boulton .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bristol Centre for Linguistics, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Patrick Hanks

  2. BantUGent - UGent Centre for Bantu Studies, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Gilles-Maurice de Schryver

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Boulton, A., De Cock, S. (2017). Dictionaries as aids for language learning. In: Hanks, P., de Schryver, GM. (eds) International Handbook of Modern Lexis and Lexicography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45369-4_25-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45369-4_25-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-45369-4

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