Attitudes of Slovenian Language Users Towards General Monolingual Dictionaries: an International Perspective (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Journal of Lexicography, 2018
The article presents the results of a survey on dictionary use in Europe, focusing on general monolingual dictionaries. The survey is the broadest survey of dictionary use to date, covering close to 10,000 dictionary users (and non-users) in nearly thirty countries. Our survey covers varied user groups, going beyond the students and translators who have tended to dominate such studies thus far. The survey was delivered via an online survey platform, in language versions specific to each target country. It was completed by 9,562 respondents, over 300 respondents per country on average. The survey consisted of the general section, which was translated and presented to all participants, as well as country-specific sections for a subset of 11 countries, which were drafted by collaborators at the national level. The present report covers the general section.
The Image of the Monolingual Dictionary Across Europe. Results of the European Survey of Dictionary use and Culture, 2018
The article presents the results of a survey on dictionary use in Europe, focusing on general monolingual dictionaries. The survey is the broadest survey of dictionary use to date, covering close to 10,000 dictionary users (and non-users) in nearly thirty countries. Our survey covers varied user groups, going beyond the students and translators who have tended to dominate such studies thus far. The survey was delivered via an online survey platform, in language versions specific to each target country. It was completed by 9,562 respondents, over 300 respondents per country on average. The survey consisted of the general section, which was translated and presented to all participants, as well as country-specific sections for a subset of 11 countries, which were drafted by collaborators at the national level. The present report covers the general section.
Online Dictionary Use in the Digital Era: A Survey among Italian Users of English
Conference proceedings. ICT for language learning, 2016
Since their first compilation dictionaries have become important tools for the speakers of any language. Monolingual, bilingual dictionaries, dictionaries for specific purposes like synonyms or technical ones have been edited in order to help people in the challenge of using a language appropriately. In the recent decades, ICT and computer technology in collaboration with some branches of Applied Linguistics such as Corpus Linguistics have changed the habit of many people and also influenced the criteria in which dictionaries are currently compiled and published. Since the predominance of paper dictionaries few years ago, the market demand has experienced a fast shift towards digital editions on CD or DVD devices. Still, the creation of online dictionaries is currently leading to another major change avoiding any physical device guaranteeing a permanent update in terms of entries and examples. After a brief preliminary review of the major evolution in the field of lexicography during the last century, the study examines the use and perception of online dictionaries in Italy taking advantage of a survey administered to Italian L2 speakers of English of different ages. The study highlights a number of innovative trends and approaches to the use of linguistic resources. Above all, the results show how more and more users understand the need of a tool which alongside with adequate definitions also reports some examples of language in use. Based on the data emerged from this research, some possible implications are provided in order to frame this study in the context of a wider research. Particular emphasis is also placed on the role language corpora in the development of new online digital resources for a permanent and reliable update of linguistic data. This paper may also stimulate further research on this evolving topic.
2002
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.
Research into dictionary use by Polish learners of English: Some methodological considerations
2006
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”.
Lexikos, 2018
We present ESDexplorer (https://owid.shinyapps.io/ESDexplorer), a browser application which allows the user to explore the data from a large European survey on dictionary use and culture. We built ESDexplorer with several target groups in mind: our cooperation partners, other researchers, and a more general public interested in the results. Also, we present in detail the architecture and technological realisation of the application and discuss some legal aspects of data protection that motivated some architectural choices.
The attitude of dictionary users towards automatically extracted collocation data: A user study
Slovenščina 2.0: empirical, applied and interdisciplinary research
The paper is based on a survey conducted within the framework of the basic research project Collocations as a Basis for Language Description: Semantic and Temporal Perspectives (KOLOS; J6-8255). It presents a qualitative analysis of a user evaluation of the interface of the Collocations Dictionary of Modern Slovene (CDS). It discusses an alternative perspective—the user's point of view—on problematic aspects of individual dictionary features, which require further lexicographic analysis and discussion. The collocations user study presents a model of the process of user evaluation; its findings are significant primarily for determining problems encountered by users. They also serve as a useful basis for methodology improvements in future, comparable lexicographic user studies and analyses.
Dictionary Use and Perceptions Regarding Dictionaries
This survey examines factors relating to student dictionary ownership , as well as perceptions concerning dictionary use, and the quality of current dictionaries in light of likeable, dislikable, and desirable features as determined by the survey population. Data collection through the survey-method allowed for a distribution of 270 questionnaires to eight freshman classes, resulting in a return of 244 useable surveys for the study. The focus of this study's questionnaire is threefold , and gathers data concerning the background of the student's dictionary(s), student's use of their dictionary(s), and dictionary characteristics and features of relevance to the Korean EFL student. Analysis of the data allows us to see what kind of dictionary students possess, where and how they most often put their dictionary to use, and what they would like to see in an ideal dictionary. Further, the results suggest that students are active dictionary users who are aware of the shortcomings and virtues of their current dictionaries and, having consciously evaluated these aspects, will take them into consideration when acquiring a future dictionary. A discussion of survey findings culminates with recommendations on dictionary selection for University English Program (UEP) students within Korea.
General Monolingual Persian Dictionaries and Their Users: A Case Study
2012
User needs and user satisfaction have unfortunately been neglected in the compilation of Persian dictionaries. This article aims to investigate five general monolingual Persian dictionaries in terms of their meeting user needs and the extent of user satisfaction with them. The investigated dictionaries are Dehkhoda, Mo’een, Amid, Farhange Farsie Emrooz, and Sokhan. To assess user needs, different groups of users, based on Assi (1995), filled up questionnaires, and some were interviewed; some statistical procedures, such as the chi-square significance test, were used. The objectives of this study were to identify the users' reference needs and the relationship between these needs and social variables. Moreover, the extent of the users' satisfaction with the mentioned dictionaries, the relation of this satisfaction to the social variables, and the necessity of certain qualifications in users were assessed. It was found that the users' educational background was the only de...
Fran: The Next Generation Slovenian Dictionary Portal
Gajdošová, Katarína and Žáková Adriána (Eds.): Natural Language Processing, Corpus Linguistics, Lexicography. Eight International Conference Bratislava, Slovakia, 21–22 November 2015. Proceedings. , 2015
The article presents Fran, the new Slovenian language portal at the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, containing all key Slovenian monolingual dictionaries. As a whole it contains 22 dictionaries and linguistic atlases describing the Slovenian language in its contemporary, historical and dialectal forms, Slovenian terminology in various fields, and includes language counselling and hyperlinks to corpora and other language resources. Great emphasis was placed on simple navigation and clear visualization. To the general users, the Fran portal offers contents they most frequently search for, and helps them to understand the contents. To the advanced users, it brings advanced search options, the possibility to change settings, and offers additional content.