Ten Tips on Using a Dictionary

How a dictionary can be used:

Many people come into a course thinking that the best way to consult a dictionary is to find the equivalent in French or else translate from the French into English. I used to tell people not to translate from one language to the next because that is what I was instructed to do but then after a while I realized that this is generally an impossible feat most people will naturally look for something in their own native language because they would like to retain the same mental image that they had. There is comfort knowing that the new word can generate the same sensation or frame of mind, as there is less fatigue in doing so. Here are ten points for the learner to be aware of when using a language dictionary.

1) Today I think it is less necessary to use negatives in my class and explain to the learner he is better off facing a monolingual dictionary, which will most likely give him a wider meaning of the English word.

2) Compact French-English dictionaries will lack certain forms of the English word or even lack the phonetics of the new word and its variations but the larger dictionary is much more efficient. This still does not address one main issue and that is if the person is a learner he will be better off in reading a definition that is at his comprehension level and that is usually where bilingual dictionaries are weak.

3) There are other means that the learner can take advantage off when looking up a word. He can look a word on an on-line source like dictionary.com, which will give ample definitions as well as the phonetics of the word. On-line dictionaries are especially useful if the learner has a limited budget or is nowhere near a library or language bookshop^.

4) There are dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms or words, which can be used as substitutes, and words that are the opposite of what wants to define. All this is especially useful for the new language writer who does not have an extensive lexicon and needs to be more descriptive in his narrative.

5) Dictionaries are quite useful in providing other pieces of information that the learner might take for granted and which are otherwise contained in atlases or encyclopaedias. A good language dictionary will have a list of measures and their conversions, a list of countries, their populations and capitals and a list of the monetary units of those countries and their equivalences to a standard unit like the American dollar. All this would of course entail information, which is current, an updated before the final publication date.

6) A dictionary should be chosen not only for the number of definitions that it gives but all the number of entries for a word and that would entail how many a word is used together with others to create an phrasal verb, idiomatic expression or general expression besides being listed alone in various grammatical forms. My rule of thumb is that a person should pick up a dictionary and look up some basic verbs like take to see how many entries there are for that. There should be at least several entries for take each with another preposition for the person to consider buying that dictionary.

7) Dictionaries with American and British entries are more valuable than those that do not make any distinctions.

A dictionary, which incorporates jargon, which would be the use of very informal words that one picks on the street or at a club, would be quite useful. One would look out for the mention of formal or informal in the dictionary besides the meaning of the word. It would be up to the teacher to mention what words are standard and which are less formal.

9) Slang words or words which do not follow any particular grammar are also useful especially if one wants to be uninhibited in his speech and not looking to impress his listener by being articulate.

10) It helps for the learner to have an illustrated and labelled dictionary especially when they are starting out as images can take the place of hundreds of words and are an efficient means of communicating a meaning by themselves. I found this particularly useful when teaching the beginning student words that dealt with means of transport, which were too complicated to be described with simple words.