Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T06:30:25.549Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Evaluating online bilingual dictionaries: The case of popular free English-Polish dictionaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2017

Robert Lew
Affiliation:
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland (email: rlew@amu.edu.pl)
Agnieszka Szarowska
Affiliation:
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland (email: agnieszka.szarowska@gmail.com)

Abstract

Language learners today exhibit a strong preference for free online resources. One problem with such resources is that their quality can vary dramatically. Building on related work on monolingual resources for English, we propose an evaluation framework for online bilingual dictionaries, designed to assess lexicographic quality in four major areas: coverage of lexical items, their treatment in the entries, access to lexical information, and presentation of lexicographic data. The proposed framework is applied to a set of six popular bilingual English-Polish dictionaries freely available online, established through an online survey of Polish learners of English.

Type
Regular papers
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Davies, M. (2008) The Corpus of Contemporary American English. http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/.Google Scholar
De Schryver, G.-M. (2003) Lexicographers’ dreams in the electronic-dictionary age. International Journal of Lexicography, 16(2): 143199.Google Scholar
Dziemianko, A. (2011) Does dictionary form really matter? In: K. Akasu and S. Uchida (eds.), ASIALEX2011 Proceedings. Lexicography: Theoretical and practical perspectives. Kyoto: Asian Association for Lexicography, 92101.Google Scholar
Dziemianko, A. (2012) Why one and two do not make three: Dictionary form revisited. Lexikos, 22: 195216.Google Scholar
Dziemianko, A. (2015) Colours in dictionaries: A case of functional labels. International Journal of Lexicography, 28(1): 2761.Google Scholar
L’Homme, M.-C. and Cormier, M. C. (2014) Dictionaries and the digital revolution: A focus on users and lexical databases. International Journal of Lexicography, 27(4): 331340.Google Scholar
Leaney, C. (2007) Dictionary activities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, M. and Steel, C. (2015) Language learner perspectives on the functionality and use of electronic language dictionaries. ReCALL, 27(2): 177196.Google Scholar
Lew, R. (2011) Online dictionaries of English. In: P. A. Fuertes-Olivera and H. Bergenholtz (eds.), e-Lexicography: The Internet, digital initiatives and lexicography. London/New York: Continuum, 230250.Google Scholar
Lew, R. (2012) How can we make electronic dictionaries more effective? In: S. Granger and M. Paquot (eds.), Electronic lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 343361.Google Scholar
Lew, R. (2014) User-generated content (UGC) in online English dictionaries. OPAL – Online publizierte Arbeiten zur Linguistik, 2014(4): 826.Google Scholar
Lew, R. and Adamska-Sałaciak, A. (2015) A case for bilingual learners' dictionaries. ELT Journal, 69(1): 4757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lew, R. and De Schryver, G.-M. (2014) Dictionary users in the digital revolution. International Journal of Lexicography, 27(4): 341359.Google Scholar
Lew, R. and Mitton, R. (2011) Not the word I wanted? How online English learners' dictionaries deal with misspelled words. In: I. Kosem and K. Kosem (eds.), Electronic lexicography in the 21st century: New applications for new users. Proceedings of eLex 2011. Ljubljana: Trojina – Institute for Applied Slovene Studies, 165174.Google Scholar
Lew, R. and Mitton, R. (2013) Online English learners’ dictionaries and misspellings: One year on. International Journal of Lexicography, 26(2): 219233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lew, R., Grzelak, M. and Leszkowicz, M. (2013) How dictionary users choose senses in bilingual dictionary entries: An eye-tracking study. Lexikos, 23: 228254.Google Scholar
Meyer, C. M. and Gurevych, I. (2012) Wiktionary: A new rival for expert lexicons? Exploring the possibilities of collaborative lexicography. In: S. Granger and M. Paquot (eds.), Electronic lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 259291.Google Scholar
Müller-Spitzer, C., Koplenig, A. and Töpel, A. (2012) Online dictionary use: Key findings from an empirical research project. In: S. Granger and M. Paquot (eds.), Electronic lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 425457.Google Scholar
Nesi, H. (2000) Electronic dictionaries in second language vocabulary comprehension and acquisition: The state of the art. In: U. Heid, S. Evert, E. Lehmann and C. Rohrer (eds.), Proceedings of the Ninth EURALEX International Congress, EURALEX 2000, Stuttgart, Germany. Stuttgart: Institut for maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung, Universität Stuttgart, 839841.Google Scholar
Nielsen, S. (2008) The effect of lexicographical information costs on dictionary making and use. Lexikos, 18: 170189.Google Scholar
Pearsons, E. and Nichols, W. (2013) Toward a framework for reviewing online English dictionaries. Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, 34: 201210.Google Scholar
R Core Team. (2015) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org.Google Scholar
Stein, G. (1991) Illustrations in dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography, 4(2): 99127.Google Scholar
Yamada, S. (2010) EFL dictionary evolution: Innovations and drawbacks. In: I. Kernerman and P. Bogaards (eds.), English learners’ dictionaries at the DSNA 2009. Tel Aviv: K Dictionaries, 147168.Google Scholar
Yamada, S. (2013) A test of the proposed framework for reviewing online dictionaries: m-w.com, dictionary.com, macmillandictionary.com, dictionary.cambridge.org, and oxforddictictionaries.com. Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, 34: 211224.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Lew and Szarowska supplementary material

Lew and Szarowska supplementary material 1

Download Lew and Szarowska supplementary material(File)
File 45.1 KB