[Lexicog] Frequency & Attendant Words/Phrases for Lex. Entry

[Randy Radney]

On 30 May 2007, at 18:12, Hayim Sheynin wrote:

> The only use of dictionary for learning English as second or third  
> language is to look for 1) meaning; 2) spelling; 3) pronunciation;  
> 4) idioms.
> The simpler structure of a dictionary, the easier its use. Think  
> well, is it worth to invest time and effort for frequency-listing &  
> attending-words/phrases listing (lexical inclusion).

This is only part of the picture; I regularly teach students in  
philosophy who are learning English as they study. They tend to use  
their bilingual dictionaries to find words for use in essays. I  
suspect that because they have been taught to avoid too much  
repetition of the same or similar terms, they look through  
dictionaries for variety to include in their essays (hence, the  
_anneal_ and _spoliator_ examples I mentioned in my last post!).  
While I agree with you that students will tend to gravitate towards  
tools that are simpler, I also believe Scott's idea would prove quite  
useful to my students in their search for common understanding (as  
well as variety).

Cheers,
radney
(J. Randolph Radney, Ph. D.
radney at twu.ca)



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