Electronic Dictionaries Will Power Learning Techniques

Dictionaries written especially for learners of English have existed for several decades, but only in the last few years have we seen the appearance of ESL dictionaries that can be used on a computer.

There are four computerized ESL dictionaries currently available and they are of two types. On the one hand there two relatively simple dictionaries that can run on DOS or Windows platforms on non-multimedia computers: The Longman Dictionary of American English for Microsoft Windows and the Collins COBUILD Student's Dictionary On-Line. The Longman Interactive English Dictionary and the Collins COBUILD on CD-ROM can only be used with a multimedia computer system having Windows 3.1, at least 4 megabytes of RAM and a CD-ROM drive.

The Longman Dictionary of American English for Microsoft Windows is a computerized version of the Longman Dictionary of American English, an intermediate level ESL dictionary with an emphasis on American English. Of the four above-mentioned computerized dictionaries, this is the one closest to its print counterpart in terms of content and organization and includes almost all of the useful pedagogical material found in the printed dictionary. This is good for learners who are used to the print version because it can help ease them into the use of a dictionary with a computer (no small task when learners are not familiar with computers.)

The Collins COBUILD Student's Dictionary On-Line is also based on a printed dictionary, the Collins COBUILD Student's Dictionary. Like the Longman Dictionary of American English for Microsoft Windows, the Collins COBUILD Student's Dictionary On-Line is close to its printed version but it doesn't contain many of the supplementary pedagogical features found in the Collins COBUILD Student's Dictionary. This product is actually one of a series of computerized dictionaries by Collins, among which are the bilingual dictionaries of English. When one of these dictionaries is installed on a computer, any of the others can be easily added to it and they can be use together under Collins' dictionary software.

The COBUILD on CD-ROM includes not only the complete text of the Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary, but it also incorporates the Collins COBUILD English Grammar and the Collins COBUILD English Usage. The program also includes the 5-million word Collins COBUILD Bank of English corpus which can be searched for examples of words which can be used in spoken and written English.

The Longman Interactive English Dictionary is the first truly multimedia ESL dictionary. "Multimedia" is the term used to describe computer applications that offer sound, animation and live-action video in addition to standard text and graphics. For example, by clicking on a pronunciation button, users can hear recordings of people pronouncing words with a sound quality much better than that of pocket electronic dictionaries.

A striking feature of the Longman Interactive English Dictionary is that it contains short live-action videos that can be played right on the screen. The videos, however, are really a separate component of the product, being mini-language lessons involving different real life scenarios like those found in most textbooks. I would hope that future multimedia dictionaries integrate video more closely with the dictionary itself; for example, by using video clips to help illustrate the meaning of words, especially verbs.

Like the COBUILD on CD-ROM, the Longman Interactive Dictionary is more than just a dictionary. It incorporates several English language reference works for learners including a reference grammar, a pronunciation dictionary and a dictionary of common errors: The user can search for items in each of these works and have windows open at the same time with the relevant section on the screen. One of the great advantages of all of these computerized ESL dictionaries is that they provide innovative ways of finding words. In each of the dictionaries reviewed, a user can double-click on a word used in the definition of another word and get an entry for that word. The two dictionaries on CD-ROM allow complex searches where the user can look for words that occur not only in definitions but also in examples in the entire dictionary or find words where definitions include one or more search words. More than any other feature, the ease in finding words demonstrates the power and utility of computerized dictionaries.