MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Bachelor Thesis Brno 2011 Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Renata Jančaříková, Ph.D. Bc. Matej Lukáč MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Using Dictionaries in ELT Bachelor Thesis Brno 2011 Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Renata Jančaříková, Ph.D. Bc. Matej Lukáč Annotation Annotation The aim of the bachelor thesis is to explain the importance of monolingual dictionaries in English Language Teaching. The theoretical part of the study deals with the information provided by monolingual dictionaries and shows the role of a teacher in choosing the right dictionary for a particular class. The practical part analyses a set of activities based on dictionary work performed with a class of lower secondary school students. The focus was laid on activities which can be easily integrated in lessons at lower secondary schools. Keywords bilingual dictionary, collocation, defining vocabulary, dictionary entry, ELT, idiom, lexicographical function, monolingual dictionary i Declaration Declaration I proclaim that I have written this bachelor thesis by myself and I used only the materials that are stated in the literature sources. I agree with the placing of this thesis in the library of the Faculty of Education and with the access for study purposes. In Brno, 4th April 2011 ............................... Matej Lukáč ii Acknowledgement Acknowledgement I would like to express my thanks to Mgr. Renata Jančaříková, Ph.D. for the supervision of my work and the headteacher of ZŠ v Trstenom pri Hornáde for the opportunity to try out the activities presented in this bachelor thesis. iii Contents CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 3 I THEORETICAL PART ............................................................................................. 4 1. Linguistic Dictionaries ............................................................................................ 4 1.1 Lexicographical function ................................................................................... 4 1.1.1 Satisfaction ................................................................................................ 5 1.1.2 Lexicographically relevant need ................................................................ 5 1.1.3 Extra-lexicographical situation .................................................................. 5 1.1.4 Potential user ............................................................................................. 5 1.2 Bilingual Dictionary .......................................................................................... 6 1.3 Monolingual Dictionary .................................................................................... 7 1.3.1 Learner‟s Monolingual Dictionary ............................................................ 7 2. How to Choose the Right Dictionary? ................................................................... 8 3. How to Use a Monolingual Dictionary? ............................................................... 10 3.1.1 A Dictionary Entry .................................................................................. 10 3.1.2 Collocations in Dictionaries .................................................................... 11 3.1.3 Idioms in Dictionaries ............................................................................. 12 3.1.4 How to Find a Word in a Dictionary? ..................................................... 12 II PRACTICAL PART ................................................................................................. 13 4. Specification of the Classes ................................................................................... 13 4.1 Dictionaries ...................................................................................................... 13 4.2 Group A ........................................................................................................... 14 4.3 Group B ........................................................................................................... 15 5. Activities ................................................................................................................. 15 5.1 Activity 1 – Translation Game ........................................................................ 16 5.2 Activity 2 – What‟s What in the Dictionary .................................................... 18 5.3 Activity 3 – Snake ........................................................................................... 21 5.4 Activity 4 – Place, Animal, Food and Thing ................................................... 23 5.5 Activity 5 – Guess the word ............................................................................ 26 5.6 Activity 6 – Create a Definition of Your Classmate ....................................... 28 1 Contents 5.7 Activity 7 – Collocations (Holidays) ............................................................... 30 5.8 Activity 8 – Pronunciation ............................................................................... 32 5.9 Activity 9 – Derivation .................................................................................... 34 5.10 My Personal Dictionary ................................................................................... 36 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 38 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 40 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................... 43 2 Introduction INTRODUCTION A monolingual dictionary is a necessary tool for all advanced learners of English language. Teachers at language institutes, universities or lectors in courses for advanced students of English language recommend monolingual dictionaries as a source of important information concerning grammar information, collocations, spelling, pronunciation, context and etymology of words. There are a large number of materials which help students and teachers to work with dictionaries. However, not all of these materials can be used at lower secondary schools, because the situation at many primary and secondary schools is different. Although teachers see the advantages and positive effects of monolingual dictionaries, they often encounter various difficulties in presenting them to students. The lack of financial resources at schools often prevents teachers from updating the edition of dictionaries or they prefer bilingual dictionaries to monolingual ones. Teachers also cannot afford to teach dictionary strategies at the expense of other skills students have to master at the end of the school year. Teachers also face the problem of choosing the right dictionary for their classes. The aim of the present study is to help teachers to deal with these problems by providing necessary information for teachers to lead a lesson or an activity based on dictionary work, i.e. advantages and disadvantages of a particular kind of dictionaries, information provided by dictionaries, tips for choosing the right dictionary for a class and examples of activities which can be easily integrated in an ordinary lesson plan at lower secondary schools. The study is divided into two chapters: theoretical and practical part. The first section of the theoretical part deals with linguistic dictionaries. It explains their lexicographical function and divides them into categories according to the number of languages used in the dictionaries. The second and the third sections are focused on monolingual dictionaries and answer the questions how to choose a dictionary for a class and how to use the dictionary. The first section of the practical part contains the classification of the classes in which the activities were performed and explains their structure. Besides the descriptions of the activities the results of the activities and problems which emerged during the lessons are also stated in the practical part. 3 Linguistic Dictionaries I THEORETICAL PART “Books like friends should be few and well-chosen.” Samuel Johnson The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on dictionaries and divides them into several categories considering different aspects of language. It defines their lexicographical function and demonstrates the possible usage of dictionaries. Two main types of linguistic dictionaries are described in detail stressing the advantages and disadvantages of each type. The importance of the teacher in the process of choosing a dictionary in the class is highlighted and explained, together with the necessity to teach students how to work with dictionaries correctly. 1. Linguistic Dictionaries The aim of the first section is to categorise dictionaries and provide a short description of the main types. The dictionaries chosen are classified on the basis of the number of languages involved in a dictionary and the structure of information provided by a dictionary. The emphasis is placed on monolingual learner’s dictionaries which are different from dictionaries for native speakers. They do not contain such a wide selection of words and they focus on the function and general usage of lexical units. This section also deals with the lexicographical function of dictionaries in order to clearly define who is a user of a dictionary