Noun and Verb Codes in Pedagogical Dictionaries of English: User-friendliness Revisited (original) (raw)
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The codification Of English in Dictionaries
Codification of English is the most important stage in standardization process as it established the English language and acknowledged its standards. However, the most significant periods of codification are the 17 th and 18 th centuries because they involved on the creation of dictionaries and grammar books as they are important to guide the speakers of the language to the correct structures. Moreover, dictionaries have a long history and specific motivations behind their creation, as they have two main types and specific criteria of word inclusion. English language had a long history to be as we see today. The long history has been started since the 17 th century as grammar books were dominant and dictionaries were very rare, grammar books were involved on lexicons and they were a part of classical education as they written in Latin and because grammar had an authoritative status. Also, they based on many literary works which included difficult words and terms like poetry, novels, logic and others, it's also included hard words lists like synonyms, homonyms, pronunciations and spelling. (Mitchell, 1994) Grammarians used to work trying to modify the functional grammar and vocabulary through taking the role of lexicographers by adding illustrations of pictures for the words, "words should not be learned apart from the objects to which they refer; since the objects do not exist separately and cannot be apprehended without words, but both exist and perform their functions together." (Comenius, 1642) However, they wanted to generalize the Latin grammar to be accepted in bilingual translations, the most significant grammar book was Introduction of Grammar by William Lily. (Mitchell, 1994) In contrast, Dictionaries involved in only some lists of hard words and they weren't widely common because English language wasn't the language of education or any other important field. Moreover, in 18 th century Grammar books still dominant and dictionaries included synonyms, but later, the lexicographers continued their hard work and created dictionaries with definitions and descriptions for each word. (Mitchell, 2005) However, some dictionaries that appeared in 18 th century were a turn point in their field like New General English Dictionary by Dyche as it consists of grammatical information like, pronunciations, spelling and other technical terms beside the definitions of the words because its goal was making people pronounce, write and understand the language properly. As grammar books turned into a reference for grammar and structure for teaching students at schools, William Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language became the most authoritative dictionary since it established. (Mitchell, 2005) Johnson wanted to create a Standard English and make people pronounce, spell and use it correctly and to record the language changes. Therefore, his dictionary is not just a list of words but shows the words within a narrative context to show how the use of words can change their meanings. (Smacholdt, 2010) Because he believes in the concept of "living language" which means that language is something flexible and changeable, 1
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The call for research on dictionary use has been present in the literature on the subject for a few decades now. The user perspective in lexicography goes back to the early 1960s and Barnhart's (1962: 161) statement that “[i] t is the function of a popular dictionary to answer the questions that the user of the dictionary asks, and dictionaries on the commercial market will be successful in proportion to the extent to which they answer these questions to the buyer”.
On attitudes towards code-switching among English Philology students
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The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse attitudes towards, and reasons for, code-switching among English Philology students. The authors show the evolution in the perception of code-switching by linguists. In the past it was seen as a violation of the linguistic norm, whereas today it is often perceived as an indispensable tool in the process of communication among biand multilingual speakers. The attitudes of linguists have been compared with those of students and laypeople. It appears that code-switching may be both a valuable linguistic tool which enlarges one’s linguistic repertoire and a sign of linguistic incompetence, which is reflected in the mixed attitudes towards this phenomenon among English Philology students, who usually present a high level of linguistic awareness.
the impact of codeswitching on learning english language
Classroom code switching is a common scenario in many multi lingual and multicultural classes. Classroom code switching has some distinctive attributes. As a part of the global transformation in the methods and techniques of English language teaching, we need to consider classroom code switching as a fact which cannot be ignored in any way especially in a country like Pakistan where English is taught as a foreign language. In most of the cases students tend to switch codes, but it is also common in teachers' discourse. This paper aims to focus on the reasons for teachers' code switching and the attitude of the teachers and students towards classroom code switching. A survey was conducted for data collection where two different sets of questionnaires were used for teachers and students. 20 English language teachers and 37 undergrad students from different universities participated in the survey. The findings of the survey result in identifying the reasons for teachers' code switching like ease of communication, explanation, maintaining discipline in the classroom, translation of the unknown terms etc. On the other hand, although many teachers consider that they should not switch codes in the class room, students possess a positive attitude towards it. Introduction Code switching is a debatable issue in EFL classroom discourse. The old and new English language teaching methods starting from the Grammar-Translation Method up to the Communicative Language Teaching have specific rules regarding the classroom language usage for both teachers and students. Some approaches support the mother tongue interference whereas others consider it as a 'taboo' considering that it may hamper the foreign or second language acquisition. Code switching, i.e. , alteration between two languages in the same discourse is a common phenomenon in the present day multi lingual language classrooms where English is taught and grammatical rules are explained with the help of the native language and where English is the predominating language and other languages function as supportive or secondary elements in explanation and comprehension. But in case of monolingual countries where English is used and taught as a foreign language the scenario is different from that of the multilingual countries. English has a growing demand here and being a part of the global community the necessity and importance to learn English is felt more and more and day by day. English is taught as a compulsory course in primary, secondary and higher secondary levels. At the undergraduate level English is included as a compulsory course for the non-English major students studying in both public and private universities. In the public universities, the mode of instruction is English for these courses, but for other courses there is no specific instruction from the university authority regarding classroom language usage. On the other hand, in private universities the medium of instruction is English which an obligatory rule is for the teachers even taking other courses. But sometimes, even in the private university classroom discourse we find mother tongue interference as a common fact. This phenomenon creates scopes for classroom code switching. The aim of this study is, therefore, to investigate: Why do the teachers switch codes in classroom discourse? What attitude do the teachers and students possess towards classroom code switching? Classroom Code Switching: A Brief Overview Codes switching in regular social context and code switching in language learning classroom have separate and distinct functions though sometimes some functions are common in both the situations. 1 Mphil Scholar in English at SBBU Sheringal Dir (U)
International Journal of Lexicography, 24(1): 29-49, 2011
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Abstract The paper presents a selection of results from a study investigating dictionary use by 712 Polish learners of English representing a variety of FL competence levels and backgrounds. Data from Learner Survey, experiment, and Teacher Survey are brought in to test hypotheses relating to a variety of aspects of dictionary use. Here two aspects have been selected for presentation. First, frequency with which learners seek different types of information in their dictionaries is analyzed.
Studii si Cercetari Filologice: Seria Limbi Straine Aplicate, 2012
The present paper aims at stressing the need for applied linguistics in dealing with didactic and lexicographical instruments, not only in the traditional manner, but also – or mainly – in the novel modalities suggested and allowed by the new information and communication technologies, concepts and devices. Proceeding from the contrastive and didactic view of the lexicon and the lexicographer's task, and also taking advantage of the various models that good learner's dictionaries in use have already set, the author presents the main aspects involved by compiling a complex, grammaticized Romanian-English dictionary – in fact, one of a larger series projected. In such a complex / grammaticized Romanian-English dictionary, meant as a polyfunctional, flexible, ready-to-use tool of learning, based on an interconnective approach blending the semantic description proper and the grammatical regimen, every relevant item is explained in terms of grammatical usage, and relevant divergi...
Dictionaries as aids for language learning
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 & 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 (L2) language 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. 1. Introduction: Historical overview and major issues As will have become clear in this Handbook, dictionaries have a long and varied history. In essence, their intention is to inform people unsure of the meanings or uses of 'words', such people often being non-native speakers (NNSs). From antiquity, word repositories included ad hoc collections of translations intended to help with commerce and conquest; from the Middle Ages, the margin glosses produced by monks gave rise to more principled collections for deciphering religious texts in Latin, Greek and other classical languages. The Enlightenment saw the development of dictionaries for native speakers (NSs), thus giving rise to a preoccupation with 'good usage', a trend which was only questioned in the 20 th century with a more descriptive approach to lexicography, which has particular implications for learners and other NNSs. The first part of this chapter looks at recent (i.e. 20 th and 21 st century) developments in the design, compilation and use of various types of dictionaries and associated resources for and by NNSs. The second part moves on to research conducted on dictionary use and how this informs lexicography as well as informing good practice for dictionary use by teachers, learners and other users.