The Effectiveness of Using a Bilingualized Dictionary for Determining Noun Countability and Article Selection
This article discusses the use of a bilingualized dictionary, namely Oxford Advanced Learner's English–Chinese Dictionary 8 (OALECD8), by advanced Hong Kong Cantonese ESL learners in the determination of noun countability and associated article use. A homogenous group of 30 English majors in...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Afrikaans |
| Published: |
Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal-WAT
2017-11-01
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| Series: | Lexikos |
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| Online Access: | https://lexikos.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/1399 |
| Summary: | This article discusses the use of a bilingualized dictionary, namely Oxford Advanced
Learner's English–Chinese Dictionary 8 (OALECD8), by advanced Hong Kong Cantonese ESL learners in the determination of noun countability and associated article use. A homogenous group of 30
English majors in a local university participated in the study, which consisted of a noun countability and article selection task without and with the use of the dictionary. The results show that
although bilingualized dictionaries are useful in helping learners determine noun countability and
associated article use, learners often misinterpret dictionary information and model on inappropriate structures, resulting in article errors and/or wrong countability judgments. Chinese translations are also sometimes sources of errors. The results of the study provide lexicographers with
signposts to the selection of noun information to be included in a learner's dictionary. More explicit
information about noun countability and related article use should be provided in a more user-friendly arrangement. ESL teachers are also advised to engage advanced learners in analyses
uncovering the different syntactic requirements of equivalent vocabulary items in the target and
source languages when using a bilingualized dictionary. |
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| ISSN: | 1684-4904 2224-0039 |