Which Desk Dictionary Is Best for Foreign Students of English

Which of the many good desk dictionaries now on the market should we recommend to a foreign student studying in an American college? Or, to put the question another way, should the criteria for choosing a good English dictionary be different for foreign students from those for native speakers? I suggest they should be; I suggest also that, when these special criteria are tested, certain dictionaries turn out to be better than others. First, it might help to know what dictionaries a foreign student is familiar with from his previous education. In his elementary and secondary English classes overseas, he may have used Michael West's New Method Dictionary, which employs a 1490-word vocabulary to define about 24,000 words. This is perhaps followed by A. H. Hornby's Advanced Learner's Dictionary, an excellent dictionary for its limited purpose. (Incidentally, both of these are British. Thus far the United States has not produced an EFL dictionary for any level of instruction.) On the other hand, the student may never have been assigned any dictionary. Left to his own choice, he has perhaps used his parents' out-of-date Chambers, a small pocket Collins, or a paperback reprint with only a Webster name. More likely, instead of these (or possibly in conjunction with them), he has used a native-language-English dictionary. They are not only of minimal value, but they also give the wrong impression that there is a one-for-one word correspondence between his own language and English. In short, it is probable that a foreign student who comes to the United States for his college studies has never before used a good American desk dictionary. Second, it is more probable that he has never been taught how to use any dictionary effectively. Because the use of a dictionary is seldom dignified by being included in a government syllabus of English, each teacher prefers to assume that some previous teacher has taught this skill. Once again, left on his own, the foreign student accepts whatever dictionary he uses as no more than an alphabetical list of words and definitions, occasionally consulted for the meaning or spelling of a word. It seems clear that a foreign student needs to be taught what a desk dictionary contains and how he can get the most value from using it efficiently and regularly. If English is to be the language of his academic future, it is imperative that he be instructed in the use of this single most important reference tool. What should a foreign student want in a desk dictionary? Just as any native speaker, he should want a dictionary that is clear and complete enough

Desk · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Computer Science · Lexicography and Language Studies · Philosophy · Psychology

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