- Dictionary.com - This online dictionary is the one I use most frequently. It provides ample definitions and expressions, and Thesaurus is greatly helpful for ESL writers. There is also Translator for over 50 langauges from word level to sentence level, but, I found the work of translation not reliable.
- Merriam-Webster Online - This one also provides dictoinary and thesaursus, similar to Dictionary.com, I would say.
- Cambridge Dictionaries Online - This online dictionary provides both US and British pronunciation samples which a learner can actually listen to. It also has several sub-dictionaries such as Advanced Learner's, Learner's, American English, Idioms, and Phrasal Verbs, among which I like the last two most. They provide ample explanations and examples of idioms of a word, which is really helpful for English learners in that they generally have a weakness with idioms or formulaic expressions.
- Oxford Dictionaries Online - This online dictionary offers two versions of dictionaries, US English and World English, and you can choose one of the two options at the front page. On the top menu, right by Dictionary, there is the menu of "Better Writing" which offers useful tips on grammar, spelling, pronunciation, and writing. Especially, I find the section of "Improve your English" very helpful; that is, it works on nuances (bored by, of, and with), easily confused words (ex. affect and effect), and a list of different British and American terms (ex. dustbin and garage can)
- MSN Encarta - This one also provide both US and World English dictionaries as well as Thesaurus and Translations (which is basically English-other languages dictionaries). These dictionaries are only good for one-word lookup since they have limited entries for idioms/expressions and they do not provide many sentence examples, some of words and expressions only with definitions.
- Urbandictionary.com - This is a slang dictionary, made and constantly edited by users, so I would call it a wiki-dictionary. Since due to the Internet, English learners access to "authentic" expressions which are sometimes not found in traditional dictionaries, I have found this online dictionary very useful and helpful.
- google.com - This search engine is useful for ESL writers since it provides enormous databases including "language corpora," and by online searching, "a student can find which words in a language tend to go together, a phenomenon called collocation" (Horwitz, 2008, p. 144). When you are not certain about a certain English expression or idiom, you can search it through google.com and comparing how many results are found, you can decide which one is more widely used.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Online Dictionaries
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I use dictionary.com frequently as well whether it be to look up English words or to translate isolated words I have yet learned in other languages. I agree that promoting autonomous learning is important for students. It makes students aware of the resources at their disposal so that they do not feel overly dependent on the teacher. One caveat, though, is that it is very important not to trust a full text translation on the computer because it is not always accurate in translating syntax, grammar, and meaning, and there are culturally embedded phrases that cannot be translated literally, so it is important for them to not get too dependent on the computer for translating large bodies of text. That said, I still love dictionary.com (at one point, it was my homepage on my computer), and I want to students to take advantage of it as a resource so that they can build their vocubulary.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience and tips for using the online dictionary.
ReplyDeleteI actually tried to experiment with dictionary.com Translater and even with a single word, it did not work well and produced a quite stupid result. I tried to have it translate "account" into Korean, and the result came up with only one definition of the word, that was "charge or bank account." I did not understand why only one and why that particular definition came up. Then, I entered "take account of" and it translated it into a phrase in Korean meaning something like "to do with an account" which is a really awkward expression. I think, we should completely disregard translation softwares, and it is also important that language teachers should remind their student to not trust those at all.
You have done a thorough research on such useful online dictionaries. These sites will serve as great resources. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, Erica. I did not begin this post with these many online dictionaries though. Due to the nature of the Internet, I ended up like this. :) I hope this post helps.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Erica. This is a very comprehensive list of online dictionaries available. Great job, Eunjeong!
ReplyDeleteI thought I would a more teacher centric resource to your list. I recently found an ESL glossary,http://bogglesworldesl.com/glossary.htm
that is meant to act as an online dictionary for people working in the ESL field. Although it is not a very comprehensive list, but I think it can come very handy for doing a quick search on important ESL related key concepts.
Thank you for sharing the ESL glossary website. I like the site! Not many terms, but they are all very useful ones. I clicked "midnight run" and got this definition: "When a teacher leaves his or her job abruptly and then hastily departs the country to avoid contract obligations or penalties." This reminded me of a English native-speaker teacher in my high school did "midnight run." Probably she must have had a real hardship in living abroad alone at a very new country, but it was a big shock to the entire school. Anyways, a good site!
ReplyDelete