DICIONÁRIOS MONOLÍNGUES PARA APRENDIZES DE INGLÊS COMO LÍNGUA ESTRANGEIRA: ALGUNS ELEMENTOS PARA O PROFESSOR

Abstract

The massive quantity of dictionaries available on the market demands that foreign language teachers have lexicographic knowledge so that they can select the dictionaries according to their specific objectives and different types of students. The purpose of this study was to discuss how teachers can evaluate the lexicographic material available to them. Guided by the question as to what foreign language students look for in a target-language monolingual dictionary, four dictionaries were examined: the American Heritage Dictionary, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, the Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English, and the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners of American English. Each was chosen for being representative of a specific type of dictionary, and was analyzed for its uniqueness and for what it could offer (English) foreign language teaching. Result of this study indicate that it is important for the teacher to be aware of the characteristics of each type of dictionary to be able to identify which best fulfils the user’s needs. It is also important to mention that this knowledge may be useful in direct learning activities, with students handling the material in the classroom.