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Five electronic learners’ dictionaries Christopher Tribble
CIED: Cambridge International Dictionary of English on CD - ROM Cambridge University Press 2000 COBUILD: English Dictionary for Advanced Learners CD - ROM Harper Collins 2001 LIED: Longman Interactive English Dictionary CD - ROM Pearson Education 2000 MED: Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners CD - ROM Macmillan 2002 OALD: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary on CD - ROM Oxford University Press 2000 Note: the publication dates given above are for the versions reviewed. Many publishers update their electronic materials from time to time, so the current versions may di¤er from the versions reviewed. For this reason, and because CD - ROM s are sold bundled with dictionaries as well as separately, prices and ISBNs are not given.
1 Review methodology This review is written from a user’s perspective—the perspective of an English language teacher. It is not a critical review of the dictionaries qua dictionaries—I will leave that to the lexicologists, and to those who are considering the paper parents of these particular publications. Rather, it has been undertaken from the point of view of those who use a dictionary from time to time in the hope of finding useful answers to specific questions. These questions may be those a teacher needs to ask about the language they teach, or they may arise from problems that students face when they are trying to understand or produce English. This review is also written on the initial working assumption that, by and large, the information provided by these dictionaries is pretty good. Again, lexicologists will be able to comment on defining styles, choice of headwords, and the philosophy which informs the dictionary more fully than I shall ever be able to. So, unless I find a glaring problem, I see my job in writing this review to be primarily one of o¤ering the reader an overview of what’s special about these electronic reference resources; and of discussing why we might want to use a dictionary on CD rather than (or as a complement to) its paper parent. 182
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In preparing the review, I have considered three main aspects of using an electronic reference source. First, how well does it work as a piece of computer software—i.e. how easy is it to install, what annoying things (if any) does the program do to your computer, how well does it work? Second is the business of learning how to use the dictionary—i.e. how long does it take to find the things you want to find, how helpful is the design in getting you up and running quickly? Finally, I will look at the special features each dictionary has—all other things being equal—what might lead you to buy one rather than another (assuming you decide to buy one at all)?
2 Installation
Part of what follows is a justification for why this review has taken me so long to write. I planned to write it a year ago—and I know that’s what everybody says. This, however, was in the days when I was running a threeyear old laptop with Windows 98SE and a similar vintage desktop machine under Windows 2000. The delays arose from problems either with installing all the dictionaries on the same PC, or from not being able to install some of the dictionaries in one machine or the other (and as I was planning to do some of the writing while on the road, I needed to do this). It was a frustrating and disappointing process. A new laptop, and a desktop rebuild later, I am running both machines under Windows XP Professional, and all my problems are solved—well not all my problems, but at least my computers are working, all the dictionaries run, and nothing falls over! This sorry tale has implications for anyone buying an electronic dictionary. Double check that it’s designed to work with your particular operating system, and check that you have enough RAM and enough hard disk space free before you purchase (and never assume that the ‘minimum’ recommended specification is really going to work—double whatever’s specified if you possibly can). With my current set-up—a laptop (1Ghz AMD Athlon processor / 384 Mb RAM / 30 Gb hard disk) and the desktop (1.6 Ghz AMD Athlon processor / 750 Mb RAM / 60 Gb hard disk)—both running under Windows XP Professional—everything is fine. I have all dictionaries installed to run from the CD drives of each machine, and they all work. To get to this happy state it was necessary to install the dictionaries so that the computer can recognize and work with them. The table below summarizes some of the features of the di¤erent set-up procedures of the respective dictionaries (which will be referred to as follows throughout this review: CIED : Cambridge International Dictionary of English on CD - ROM ; COBUILD : English Dictionary for Advanced Learners; LIED : Longman Interactive English Dictionary; MED : Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners; OALD : Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary on CD - ROM ). Things that I consider annoying are printed in BOLD . Very desirable installation features are marked with an asterisk (*). On the basis of my experience, COBUILD comes out as the easiest and least annoying to install, and also has the best range of desirable install features. CIED has the biggest number of annoying features—but actually comes out well on the positive side. The others are a mix of good and bad news. Survey: Electronic dictionaries
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Feature Confusing messages during install Does things without asking your permission Forces you to add a shortcut to your desktop Requires key entry on first use Requires a reboot after installation Lets you choose the installation folder Lets you chose the start menu location Lets you run the dictionary from the CD * Lets you run the dictionary from the hard disk (no CD ) * Lets you run the dictionary on a network O¤ers Word processor integration O¤ers you a choice of install options Set-up trouble free
CIED
COBUILD
LIED
MED
OALD
yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes
no no no no no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
yes yes yes no no yes no no no no yes no yes
yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes no no yes yes
yes yes yes yes no yes yes no no no yes no yes
This said, as of today, all of the programs work, and this time round none of them froze the computer on which it was being installed, and none of them damaged the existing operating system (although many of them will add unnecessary clutter to your desktop).
3 In use
My experience of computer software users (especially language teachers) is that very few read manuals or instructions, preferring to click on anything that moves or flashes—and giving up in disgust if the program fails to do what they want it to do straight o¤. Having to go back to learning how a program works may be something that socially dysfunctional teenagers do, but grown-ups don’t read computer manuals, do they? I have attempted, therefore, to avoid immature, dysfunctional, behaviour and to behave in an adult way. I have duly clicked away (with a blithe disregard for ‘help’), and blamed the software when things haven’t done what I wanted them to. I have done my clicking around some of the concerns that I feel most users will have. The first two are ‘How easy is it on first use?’ and ‘How long does it take to learn?’ If the answers to these questions are negative, then, whatever the quality of the content, the dictionary is less likely to encourage use, and less likely to justify the investment you have made in buying it. I shall rate each computer on a 4 point ease-of-use ranking, where: = unacceptably diªcult to use = diªcult = easy = encouragingly easy to use The second set of questions focus on finding out to what extent the dictionary o¤ers useful, clear, information. From a teacher’s perspective the dictionary has to help as an adviser (where the dictionary supports their work with students), and as a continuing learner (where the dictionary helps the teacher develop their understanding of the language they teach—and this applies equally to L1 and L2 teachers). In the following section I will give an ease-of-of-use ranking of the five dictionaries under review. I shall do this in relation to two common
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problems: one concerned with decoding—trying to understand language produced by other people—the other with encoding, in this case, writing in English. The two problems are: π Problem 1—decoding A student shows a teacher the words listed below, and asks how they should be used. How useful are the di¤erent dictionaries in helping us to explain how and when the learner might use these words? I’ve deliberately chosen a verb and an adjective. Nouns are usually less of a problem. π —elicit π —simplistic π Problem 2—encoding A student writes the following: We are much afraid that answering this question is more intricate than expected. Clearly, ‘intricate’ is the wrong word. How good will the e-dictionaries be at helping the student improve their text? It is in relation to these three questions that I shall also give a four-level helpfulness ranking, where: = unhelpful = fairly helpful = helpful = very helpful Clearly, the best dictionary from this reviewer’s point of view will be the one that is easiest to use, and appears to be the most helpful. In writing the reviews I decided to work through the dictionaries in alphabetic order. I considered trying to write each review as an independent comment, but subsequently abandoned this approach, since comparisons become inevitable, and will, I feel, help the reader to gain a sense of the dictionaries, as well as making the review more readable.
4 CIED
So, in alphabetical order, we start with CIED . When you begin the program you are presented with a list of words and a write-in box. This is linked to a slightly confusing, but apparently necessary ‘Bookshelf’ program, which also places an icon on the active programs area of the task bar. I found this feature annoying, but the program seems to work OK .
4.1 Task 1
Type in elicit and you are presented with a new window containing: π the word + phonemic transcription π the grammar information that it is a verb [T] (this was nicely glossed by clicking on the [T] grammar code and being informed that [T] means ‘transitive: a verb that has an object’) π two loudspeaker items, one blue and one red—each linking to British and American pronunciations of the words in question—a feature which could be useful for learners, and would certainly be unavailable via paper. Survey: Electronic dictionaries
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π the definition + examples I have to admit that the definition did not strike me as being particularly clear: ‘to obtain (esp. information or a reaction), or produce’ . . . although the examples were helpful: No criticism/explanation/promise/reply could be elicited from her family. They were able to elicit the support/cooperation of the public. The questionnaire was intended to elicit information on eating habits. The parasites that cause malaria elicit an immune response in the body. π A ‘Related Words’ option which produced earning, receiving, and accepting. These again seemed a little strange—how does accept relate to elicit? Wouldn’t gain/obtain be more useful? I know that here I am moving outside my remit perhaps, but as we shall see with later dictionaries, it is possible to o¤er more useful information. So far CIED seems to be easy to use, but not necessarily very helpful. What of our next problem?
4.2 Task 2
Trying to find ‘simplistic’ proved to be a little diªcult at the outset, as the interface seemed to have lost its write-in box. This was only recovered after some serious clicking, and the discovery of a ‘search panel’ icon, which restored the word-list. Once you arrive at the ‘simplistic’ entry, you are again presented with the word, its phonemic transcription, the two pronunciation icons (British and American English) and the somewhat opaque information adjective disapproving. I found this confusing, because it seems to be mixing pragmatic and grammatical information—and appears to be intended to replace a defining statement. What immediately follows is a kind of example + gloss: The scientist’s explanation of the results of the study was considered to be simplistic (= made the results seem simpler than they really were). The related words this time were easiness and simplicity. Again, these don’t seem to help very much, as the notions involved are to do with oversimplification—not simplicity per se.
4.3 Task 3
Although the decoding support o¤ered by CIED was not particularly impressive, it would have been of some assistance. How well would it do when helping with encoding? The problem we are asking the dictionary to help us with is in the sentence: We are much afraid that answering this question is more intricate than expected, with intricate as the word in question. The entry for intricate was easy to access, and the definition seemed useful: having a lot of small parts that are arranged in a complicated way and therefore sometimes diªcult to understand, solve or produce
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The watch mechanism is extremely intricate and very diªcult to repair. The police oªcers who interrogated the suspects were involved in an intricate web of deceit. . . . although to what extent it would help a student to understand that they had used intricate in an unexpected way in this instance is less sure. When I returned to the problem with the task sentence, I felt that the issue was as much one of collocational fit as of definition. An intelligent student might pick up on the idea that it is typically systems such as ‘watch mechanisms’ and ‘webs’ which are intricate—but this is quite a big jump to make. And help is not really forthcoming from the ‘related words’ section, which o¤ers complexity, detailed, and careful.
4.4 CIED –conclusion My assessment of CIED on the basis of these three simple tasks is not particularly favourable. Although it is easy to use (apart from the annoying disappearing search panel) it seems to o¤er rather limited information, some of which might even have the e¤ect of adding to a student’s confusion, rather than clarifying things. π ease of use π helpfulness π pronunciation
BR + AM
5 COBUILD
The opening screen for the COBUILD dictionary o¤ers a choice of five resources—English Dictionary, Thesaurus, English Usage, English Grammar, and Wordbank—plus a window, which someone with computer experience would spot as an invitation to type in a word. Following the software testing procedure outlined above, obvious things were clicked on to see what would happen.
5.1 Task 1
The first task was to type in the first test word—elicit. The results were encouraging. The resource options dropped to two— Dictionary, and Thesaurus, and a previously empty pane now contained two COBUILD -style full sentence definitions of the word + the following features: π an obscure set of 5 diamonds, with only one blacked out ("◊◊◊◊) immediately following the first use of the word. I didn’t know what this was (though I guessed it might be to do with frequency) so I selected the Windows ‘What’s this’ help symbol, but it didn’t help. I next selected ‘Help’, but despite a lot of navigation through hypertext menus couldn’t find anything that explained. I assume that the information is hidden somewhere, but I wasn’t able to find it! π pronunciation icons for all forms of the verb—these produced clear pronunciation for each one clicked. Having all of the forms felt like a nice touch, although only British English is o¤ered. π the grammar information that the word is a VB . Nothing happens when you click on VB , so the dictionary assumes that advanced learners know about this sort of thing—a limitation compared with other dictionaries in this review, where there were hot links from grammar codes to explanatory glosses. Survey: Electronic dictionaries
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Definition 1 itself was easy to understand: If you elicit a response or a reaction, you do or say something which makes other people respond or react. This was followed by two examples: Mr Norris said he was hopeful that his request would elicit a positive response. The crime elicited an outcry against illicit drugs. Definition 2 focused on the role of ‘elicit’ in getting information: If you elicit a piece of information, you get it by asking the right questions. (FORMAL ). The formal marking probably explains the obscure diamonds . . . Compared with those in the first dictionary considered in this review, this pair of definitions felt much more useful. First, the distinction between the two main ways in which ‘elicit’ can be used was drawn very clearly, and second, the COBUILD ‘full sentence’ defining style meant that the explanations were clear and straightforward. Having got an idea of what the word meant, the next obvious thing to click on was the Thesaurus symbol. Nothing magic here, but it does give a useful list of alternatives separated into the two kinds of ‘elicit’ covered in the dictionary: 1 bring about, bring forth, bring out, bring to light, call forth, cause, derive, evolve, give rise to 2 obtain, draw out, evoke, exact, extort, extract, wrest . . . and here, the advantages of this electronic version become immediately apparent, as clicking on any of the words or phrases in a list takes you out to the appropriate definition in the dictionary. This is something that a paper book can’t do, and it is potentially very helpful when it comes to choosing between words in a thesaurus entry.
5.2 Task 2
Typing ‘simplistic’ into the white box again produced a definition with "◊◊◊◊ ranking. A rare word again? Whatever, the definition was helpful and all the main features worked fine. The grammar information was fairly telegraphic: ADJ-GRADED . This time I decided I wanted a bit more information, and selected COBUILD Help and typed in ADJ . . . This took me to a useful essay on adjectives and the grammar information in the dictionary—although it also advised me that: These main adjective patterns are sometimes combined with other patterns, using the abbreviations shown on pp. 00–00. . . . which proved to be a little diªcult to look up. Not discouraged, I also decided to click on a tab next to Entries, called ‘Full text’. This proved to be interesting, as I was now given the opportunity to look at all instances of ‘simplistic’ in Headings, Explanations, and Examples. The Examples section was super, as it not only gave all those that occur in the Dictionary, but also those in the Wordbank (the small corpus which is built into the electronic dictionary). The number of examples here represents the kind of resource to which
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many teachers would like to have access both for materials development and for explanatory use. They can be copied (via the ‘Edit’ button) and then pasted into other applications. Again—this is something the paper version could never provide.
5.3 Task 3
So, for decoding, the dictionary looked fine. It also o¤ered clear British pronunciation, COBUILD style definitions and examples, and additional lexical information via the Wordbank. How about encoding? Using the same problem—the unusual use of intricate in our student sentence— the definition seemed useful: You use intricate to describe something that has many small parts or details. . . . intricate patterns and motifs. By focusing on the physical property of having ‘small parts and details’, the definition indicated a lack of fit between what the student wrote and the common meaning of the word, and would provide a teacher with a basis for explaining the student’s problem. However, COBUILD also o¤ered simple as an antonym—a potentially misleading piece of advice, and worse still, when you click on simple, you are given the synonyms as: uncomplicated, straightforward, and the antonym as complicated. Which takes us back to square one, with the student not able to see why ‘intricate’ is inappropriate in this instance. Similarly, the direct synonym advice for intricate creates more problems than it solves, with complex and complicated heading the list. The only place where COBUILD might help a teacher or student out of this cul-desac is in the Wordbank. Here the examples are almost all related to physical qualities (musical rhythms, dances, machines, carving, etc.) rather than abstract nominalizations. This may help the teacher out of a hole—it’s rather a long way round, but better than no way at all.
5.4 COBUILD – 5.4 conclusion
The COBUILD dictionary was easy to install, and unobtrusive in the way it interacted with the operating system and desktop. The core features of the COBUILD dictionary were easy to access, and suªciently intuitive for a ‘point and click’ approach to take you a long way into the resource. Definitions were clear and helpful for decoding (despite the lack of immediately available glossing of grammar codes), but the encoding task might not have been fully resolved by the entry for ‘intricate’—although the Wordbank examples might have helped in resolving the problem. This said, the combination of quality of definitions and range of resources mean that the COBUILD electronic dictionary o¤ers a powerful tool to students and teachers, and merits a high ranking both in terms of ease of use and helpfulness. π ease of use π helpfulness π pronunciation
6 LIED
BR
Using the Longman Interactive English Dictionary to solve our three problems provided yet another experience. Starting this dictionary leads Survey: Electronic dictionaries
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to an o¤er of four kinds of resource. The first is the dictionary itself, the second invites you to work with your word processor and access the dictionary and grammar information, the third o¤ers to take you to an ‘exercise bank’, and if you have set this up beforehand the fourth invites you to use the ‘quick-access’ system. For the purpose of this review, I focused on the main dictionary, and clicked on the appropriate button. This let me start Task 1.
6.1 Task 1
As with the other dictionaries, you can get to your word by scrolling or typing into a dialogue box. This done, the dictionary entry pops up and the pronunciation (British only) is immediately played. The information received this time includes the headword, pronunciation guide, the grammar information that elicit is a verb [transitive], the definition, and the examples: to succeed in getting information or a reaction from someone, especially when this is diªcult: My attempts at conversation didn’t elicit much response. elicit sth from sb: By patient questioning we managed to elicit enough information from the witnesses. Here the definition gives easy access to the two related senses of the word, and the example o¤ers a useful insight into ways in which the verb is commonly used. Some users may not like the rather brutal abbreviation (sth from sb) but with familiarity this should not present a major obstacle to the advanced learner.
6.2 Task 2
Simplistic was also easy to get to, and the explanation went to the crux of the matter as far as I am concerned: treating diªcult subjects in a way that is too simple: a naive and simplistic approach to economic policy. My one cavil is that the absence of context, and the grammatical incompleteness of the example, make it a little less useful than the examples for elicit. However, there is little chance of misunderstanding, and the absence of explicit links to other words removes another possible risk of misinterpretation.
6.3 Task 3
While the definition for intricate is clear and helpful: containing many small parts or details that all work or fit together: intricate patterns . . . the absence of a full sentence example makes the definition less useful from an encoding point of view. Remember—the student sentence is: We are much afraid that answering this question is more intricate than expected. While a teacher could point to the definition and say: ‘Intricate seems to be related to mechanical things rather than to processes like answering’, the lack of examples makes it harder to demonstrate that this is actually
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the case. The Longman Dictionary appears to o¤er a minimum information set—and thereby avoids the problem of confusing the student with ambiguous information. However, it does not o¤er additional resources which might make it possible to demonstrate why intricate is not the best choice in this context—and to discover which choices might be preferable.
6.3 LIED –conclusion
Focusing on the core dictionary function of LIED it is fair to say that it is easy to use and o¤ers very helpful information. Also, by not o¤ering ‘associated word’ (synonym/antonym) information, the dictionary avoids the pitfalls of presenting misleading thesaurus-like information— especially for students trying to use the dictionary to help with production. We will discuss the other features of the dictionary in the final section of this review, but for the moment we are able to o¤er the following evaluation of the dictionary feature of LIED .
π ease of use π helpfulness π pronunciation
7 MED
BR
MED is straightforward to work with, o¤ering a write-in dialogue box
on start-up—and also (when I started the program for the first time) a rather disturbing direct link to your word processor, so that whenever I double clicked on a word while editing I got the pronunciation played back to me! I suppose this feature is useful, but I was a little annoyed to have been given the ‘Quick-search’ facility without being asked! The good news is that, with a bit of clicking, the feature can be turned o¤ if not wanted, and doesn’t seem to play havoc with the rest of your system.
7.1 Task 1
Looking up elicit produced the following information: the headword, a phonemic transcription, British and American English pronunciation buttons, the grammar information that it is a Verb [transitive], and Formal. The definition was one of the more useful ones, with the two senses being provided and the distinction between them being the clearest of the dictionaries reviewed, although the very low level of contextualization for the second example reduced the overall value of the entry a little. 1 to make someone react in that way: The question elicited a positive response from 60% of voters. 2 to manage to get information from someone: Their research had elicited very little so far.
7.2 Task 2
Simplistic was also clearly treated: treating something in a way that makes it seem much simpler than it really is: a simplistic analysis of the issue
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From the point of view of decoding, this o¤ers an economical account of the word, and an example which provides an idea of how and where the word might typically be used.
7.3 Task 3
The entry at ‘intricate’ is a nice example of how the provision of more information can be confusing for production purposes—at least in relation to our particular problem sentence. Here (alongside the two pronunciation buttons and the usual grammar information) two senses are proposed: 1 very detailed in design or structure: an intricate pattern of birds and flowers an intricate tunnel system 2 very complicated, and diªcult to understand or learn Sense 2—especially because it o¤ers no collocational information— might be seen as permitting our problem sentence: We are much afraid that answering this question is more intricate than expected. We have not yet seen how OALD deals with the word, but can comment that so far we have seen that: π CIED o¤ered a single sense (having a lot of small parts that are arranged in a complicated way, and therefore sometimes diªcult to understand, solve, or produce), concentrating on the idea that ‘intricate’ is connected with a physical property (having lots of small parts arranged in a complicated way) and it is this that lead to diªculties π COBUILD focused on the single sense of having ‘many small parts or details’, and π LIED also took this line, although it usefully added the idea of a successful outcome arising from this combination of small parts (containing many small parts or details that all work or fit together). For the moment, however, MED —with its additional sense for intricate— may confuse the learner in the case of this particular production problem.
7.4 MED –conclusion Despite the comment above re the intricate problem, MED proved to be easy to install and use, and o¤ered clear definitions and examples. Pronunciation in British and American English was neatly implemented, this alone giving the dictionary an edge over its paper equivalent. As a dictionary, MED does its job well, and comes out with a high score for ease of use, but with a slightly lower one for overall helpfulness because of the problem discussed above. π ease of use π helpfulness π pronunciation
BR + AM
8 OALD
And so to the final dictionary in this review. On opening OALD you are immediately struck by an apparent potential for doing lots of clicking, with seven di¤erent tabs being o¤ered for you to play with. Sensibly,
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however, the dictionary’s first o¤er is an A–Z listing, and the now familiar dialogue box.
8.1 Task 1
Typing in elicit brings up the headword, pronunciation guide + British English pronunciation button, and the grammar information that this is a VN (verb + noun phrase) kind of verb (thereby sidestepping the problem of discussion of transitivity). The conventionally worded definition contains lots of code and abbreviations—which should present few diªculties to the target advanced learner—and it does the business. —sth (from sb) (written) to get information or a reaction from sb, often with diªculty: I could elicit no response from him. • Her tears elicited great sympathy from her audience.
8.2 Task 2
Similarly, simplistic can be quickly accessed, and the definition is clear and helpful. making a problem, situation, etc. seem less diªcult or complicated than it really is: a simplistic approach/view/solution • His interpretation of the figures is far too simplistic. This clarity is achieved with the aid of a guidance note disapproving— which is glossed as meaning ‘disapproving expressions show that you feel disapproval, or contempt, e.g. blinkered, faceless, jumped-up’. In my opinion, this gives a much clearer idea of how the word works in discourse than is provided by the other dictionaries in the review.
8.3 Task 3
Our final problem—helping the student deal with intricate—may also be more successfully resolved than is the case with the other dictionaries in this review. First, the definition clearly focuses on the idea of di¤erent parts and small details that fit together, and avoids any reference to diªculty: having a lot of di¤erent parts and small details that fit together: intricate patterns/designs/structures • an intricate network of loyalties and relationships Secondly, the list form in which the examples are presented gives a clearer sense of the close collocates of intricate than that provided by fullsentence examples.
8.4 OALD –conclusion OALD proved to be easy to install and to use, though one annoying feature arose when trying to copy text from a list of definitions or examples. Unlike the other dictionaries, on my system it was impossible to see what text was actually marked for copying to the clipboard. While I was able to copy the examples, it was a frustratingly hit or miss process, and one which could be annoying for teachers using definitions or other features for teaching materials. Despite this cavil I would still give an overall good rating for ease of use. As regards OALD ’s helpfulness, we have seen that it got you to where you needed to be quickly and reliably, did not lead you astray, and o¤ered useful advice through its guidance note. Looked at from a production perspective, OALD also had one of the most helpful entries. Again, a high Survey: Electronic dictionaries
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score, though not a maximum, as some users might be put o¤ by the strongly abbreviated defining style, and disappointed by the lack of North American pronunciation. π ease of use π helpfulness π pronunciation
9 Features
BR
While all of the e-dictionaries o¤er definitions and examples based on the editorial policy of their paper parents, they also o¤er features that conventional books are not able to provide. Electronic features that were common to all included:
9.1 Major common 9.1 features of 9.1 e-dictionaries
π pronunciation—with some o¤ering both British and American English (CIED/MED ) π hyperlinks—the ability to jump from one word to another within the dictionary to clarify the meaning of a definition, or go to associated information. The pronunciation feature alone is probably a suªcient reason to justify the purchase of an electronic dictionary. Certainly, students I have spoken with say that once they have begun to use this feature they find it invaluable, and that for them, whether a dictionary o¤ers both British and American pronunciation might be crucial to their choice between what is on o¤er.
9.2 What unique 9.2 features do the 9.2 dictionaries have, 9.2 and how useful do 9.2 they seem to be?
Despite these common features, the dictionaries also have unique selling points. These range from language practice pages, and essays on aspects of use such as English for Academic Purposes, to an extensive database of examples. I will not comment in detail on all the features o¤ered in all of the dictionaries, as none of them outweigh the evaluations of the core features of the dictionaries given above.
9.3 CIED
CIED o¤ers three features over and above the A–Z dictionary: Exercises,
Pictures, and a Study section. The Exercises are divided into a small number of language practice activities (Adjectives through to Verb Patterns), and a more interesting set of picture-based exercises which allow the matching of items from word-lists with picture library images. These could be of use in a study centre, but would have restricted longterm value for an individual user. The Study section o¤ers guidance on a wide range of language issues—including Netiquette (what does AFAIK mean in an email?—‘As Far As I Know’, apparently!) and Cultural Information in the Titles and forms of address section, such as Can you spare me a pound, chief/guv/squire? (which, in all fairness is flagged as UK , dated, often humorous). Of these three sections, I found the Pictures section the most compelling, with a wide range of illustrations, each o¤ering British and American pop-up labels for individual illustrations or parts of illustrations. Thus, at car exterior, you get UK rear-light and US tail-light.
9.4 COBUILD
COBUILD takes a di¤erent approach. Rather than o¤ering language
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Usage, and Grammar) and a databank of examples (Wordbank). Each of these is a comprehensive resource which provides teachers and students with a very wide range of information about the language. Taking the word ‘relevant’ as an example, the dictionary entry will give you a definition, pronunciation, and examples. However, it is also possible to click on a ‘full-text’ tab next to the ‘entries’ tab, and then get opportunities to review the meaning of relevant under the categories of Heading (where you find main entries in the Dictionary, the Thesaurus, and the Grammar), and Explanations, where you can find all occurrences of relevant in dictionary definitions, Examples, which gives all instances of the word that occurs in examples through the dictionary along with Synonyms and Antonyms. I find that the Thesaurus works particularly well, as it is possible to follow hot-links to dictionary entries for any of the words in the Thesaurus sets, and thereby clarify the meanings of the items on o¤er. Under the ‘full text tab’ it is also possible to review all of the 198 instances of the word in the Wordbank. I personally find this feature to be the most compelling reason for buying any of the electronic dictionaries on o¤er—but I suppose anyone knowing my interest in corpus-informed ELT would not be surprised by this!
9.5 LIED
On first sight, LIED only seems to o¤er an option to integrate the dictionary into their word-processor so that not only is one able to check spelling conventionally, but also to check the meaning of words, use a quick search feature, and try out some not particularly interesting exercises. Hidden from first sight, however, under a tool-bar heading ‘Books’ is an important collection of reference resources, including: π The Longman English Dictionary—a combination of the Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture and The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. π The Longman English Grammar (whose provenance is not flagged) π Longman Verbs (with more than 5,600 fully conjugated verbs) π Longman Dictionary of Common Errors to help you to avoid the most common mistakes made by students of English π Longman Picture Library, with over 600 illustrations—drawings, pictures, maps π Longman Video Library of video clips based on everyday situations π Longman Exercise Library of 2,000 multiple choice, close text, error correction, and key word transformation exercises π Tables with information on numbers, weights and measures, etc. π Features giving extra information on topic areas such as Education, Christmas, and Shakespeare’s Plays. While I do not feel that the Videos, Exercises, and topic features would have long-term value for an individual reader (beyond being a useful resource in a study centre), the other books in the library could be a significant asset. My problem with them was that their integration was not particularly transparent—especially for the typical non-user-guide reading user! This is a pity, for as for each of the words you look up in the dictionary there are possible links to the other books in the collection. In the case of the problems chosen for this review, these were consistently ‘greyed-out’ as not having relevant information—and this seemed to be Survey: Electronic dictionaries
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the case for an awful lot of other words. The upshot of this (from a user’s point of view) is that LIED contains some potentially handy resources, but they seem to be hidden from view most of the time.
9.6 MED
MED o¤ers a smaller set of resources, but actually integrates them very
well. There are no exercise banks or other collections of books o¤ered, but it is possible to choose two kinds of search: Word Search or Text Search. In the former, you are able to decide where you want to look for your word, being able to select from: Simple headwords/Derived headwords/Compounds/Phrasal verbs/Phrases/Collocations. While this o¤ered no benefits in the case of the words we chose to look for in this review, if you choose something like consider you are taken into all sorts of interesting areas (and some blind alleys). Text Search enables you to look in three areas: Definitions/Examples/Editorial Notes—in e¤ect turning the dictionary into an unstructured linguistic database. Again, some interesting results are available, but it does not compare with the systematic resource provided by the COBUILD Word Bank.
9.7 OALD
Of the five dictionaries in this review, OALD o¤ers perhaps the most radical additional resource—and one which is completely dependent on the electronic nature of the publication, as well as perhaps the richest set of more traditional exercises and game materials, along with reference materials such as maps, grammar guidance, and cultural essays. I’ll comment first on the 3-D search feature. This is easier to understand than to describe, but is a kind of dynamic word-association web. Take a word like humour and you get (to me) a fascinating set of links which include: ebullient, shtick, sparkle, satire, slapstick, humorous, and lavatorial. These all ‘shimmer’ around the node word (movement being stopped at the click of a mouse) and any of the individual links can be followed. The only problem with this feature is that most people I’ve showed it to don’t share my enthusiasm. I, however, think it’s really neat! Perhaps of greater interest to users and language centre managers is the extensive set of language activities and games. These include conventional grammar multiple choice exercises, plus crossword puzzles and cleverly implemented anagram and phrase building games, and give the impression that they would be very useful additions to the resources in a self-access centre.
10 Conclusion
The five dictionaries in this review all have strengths. Some did better than others with the three words I used in my review test, although this obviously does not constitute a comprehensive assessment of the qualities of such substantial publications. This said, a reader who was interested in buying one of these dictionaries would be faced with similar problems (or similar success) when it came to using the dictionary, and the comments I have made on installation, interface, and additional resources will stand whatever kind of vocabulary or grammar investigation is being made. If you are thinking about getting a digital dictionary for your own use, you may find the pronunciation feature alone a suªcient justification for your purchase. If you are buying for an institution or for others to use, you will need to decide which features
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matter most to you (and check it will work with your system). Whichever dictionary you do decide to buy you will then have to start clicking for yourself to find out what’s hidden behind the interface. The reviewer Dr Christopher Tribble is a freelance consultant based in London and Warsaw. He is an Associate Lecturer at King’s College, London University, where he teaches on the MA in Applied Linguistics and ELT , a Visiting Research Fellow in SLALS , University of Reading, and was an ELT Journal Panel member. He has published books and articles on the teaching of writing and corpus
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applications in ELT , and given papers at conferences and specialist seminars around the world. Apart from his work in applied linguistics, Dr Tribble also provides consultancy and training in project management and evaluation, and is a documentary photographer. Email:
[email protected] Home page: www.ctribble.co.uk
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