![]() And even with languages in which I have a higher proficiency, I still prefer a bilingual dictionary to a monolingual dictionary most of the time. I’m still a beginner in most, and somewhat advanced in a couple. I have experience learning several languages. Now, even if you have no knowledge of flowers, you’ll have a good idea of what a chrysanthemum is! In the case of specialty language, bilingual dictionaries are better.Īnd here is an extra tip: when you’re looking up a specialty or technical word, try Google Images! If I type chrysanthemum into the Google search bar, and you will get many images of this flower. If I am a Japanese learner of English, I immediately know what that is, especially since knowledge of flowers tends to be strong in Japanese culture. If I use an English-Japanese dictionary, however, I will get this: 菊、キクの花. I know it’s a flower now, but I still don’t know what kind of flower it is. I look it up in an English-English dictionary, and I get this: a plant that has brightly colored flowers and that is often grown in gardens. If your English language skills are not high enough, using a monolingual dictionary can end up confusing you even more! Finally, for some specialty vocabulary, it just doesn’t make sense to use a monolingual dictionary.įor example, say I see the word chrysanthemum and I want to know what it means. Some dictionaries might end up sending you on a circular path right back to the word you first looked up! You might want to try a different dictionary if this happens to you. This could send you down the path of having to look up even more words, which takes more time. Second, the definitions might be as difficult or even more difficult than the words themselves. The first one is that it will take more time to find the meaning, even if you use an online or electronic monolingual dictionary. Monolingual dictionaries are definitely useful tools beyond just definitions.īut there are disadvantages, as well. Monolingual dictionaries also tend to offer a lot of useful information – they have definitions, example sentences, pronunciation guidance, parts of speech, derivative words, collocations, idioms and proverbs, synonyms and antonyms, and even historical notes, among other things. You’ll have to read the definitions in a language that is not your own, and figure out through context (by reading the example sentences given), which of the definitions is the one you’re looking for. Yes, this requires a lot more mental energy than simply looking at the translation into your own language. Using a monolingual dictionary will definitely be more challenging for you, because there’ll be more cognitive load (meaning more of your working memory will be used). But this is more theory than fact, and it may or may not be true in your case. One common belief is that you’ll stop translating so much, and start thinking more in English. There are many advantages to using a monolingual dictionary. I think it’s pretty common for language teachers to recommend that you start using a monolingual dictionary as soon as you can, which is usually when you become an intermediate learner of English. But if you’re reading or listening in English, and you want to know the meaning or a particular word, phrase, or idiom that you see or hear, should you use a bilingual dictionary or a monolingual dictionary? Now, obviously, if you’re thinking of a word, phrase or idiom in your own language, and you want to know how to say or write it in English, well, you’re going to use a bilingual dictionary, regardless of your level. A monolingual dictionary has just one language, and when you look up the word, you get the definition or definitions, as well as other information about the word, depending on the dictionary you’re using. If you look up a word in Japanese, it will give you one or more English versions (or equivalents), depending on the word. For example, it might have Japanese and English. Well, just to be clear on what we’re talking about here, a bilingual dictionary has two languages. Today I’m going to share with you my views on using monolingual vs bilingual dictionaries for learning English, or any other language.
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