This article aims to explore new ways to improve dictionary skills for language learners by promoting the use of active dictionary rubrics. It also tries to get a deeper understanding on how students ...perceive dictionaries before and after this type of training in dictionary use. To this end, a total of 75 students participated in the study and answered a questionnaire on dictionary use previous to the experiment. A second questionnaire was delivered after the instruction period to compare the users' perception of dictionary affordances. A mixed-method approach is used to collect quantitative and qualitative data via both questionnaires. This study reports on students' dictionary content awareness and how this awareness may increase by creating a habit in dictionary use routines. Keywords: dictionary use, dictionary users, dictionary rubrics, English Language Teaching (ELT), dictionary skills, online dictionaries, dictionary consultation, writing skills, learners' dictionaries, dictionary use training
•Propose a novel class shared dictionary learning method named label embedded dictionary learning (LEDL).•Propose a novel dictionary learning framework named cascaded dictionary learning framework ...(CDLF).•Propose to utilize the alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm and blockwise coordinate descent algorithm to optimize each layer of a dictionary learning task.•The proposed LEDL and CDLF methods achieve superior performance on six benchmark datasets.
Dictionary learning methods can be split into: i) class specific dictionary learning ii) class shared dictionary learning. The difference between the two categories is how to use discriminative information. With the first category, samples of different classes are mapped into different subspaces, which leads to some redundancy with the class specific base vectors. While for the second category, the samples in each specific class can not be described accurately. In this paper, we first propose a novel class shared dictionary learning method named label embedded dictionary learning (LEDL). It is the improvement based on LCKSVD, which is easier to find out the optimal solution. Then we propose a novel framework named cascaded dictionary learning framework (CDLF) to combine the specific dictionary learning with shared dictionary learning to describe the feature to boost the performance of classification sufficiently. Extensive experimental results on six benchmark datasets illustrate that our methods are capable of achieving superior performance compared to several state-of-art classification algorithms.
Abstract
This study investigates the dictionary use of graduates in English and German as well as their attitudes towards teaching and learning dictionary skills in the classroom. The first section ...of the paper offers a historical overview of research on dictionary use and dictionary didactics in Hungary. This is followed by the detailed description of the quantitative research, which aims to investigate the participants’ (n=197) self-reported preferences and attitudes regarding dictionary use, their dictionary consultation behaviour, and the role of dictionaries as an aid to language learning and teaching. The research results partly confirm the trends revealed in previous international studies (e.g. increased use of online tools, reluctance to pay for dictionaries, low prestige of teaching dictionary use); they also show that there is a need for dictionary use skills to be taught from an early age and for placing a special emphasis on features and search strategies in the case of digital dictionaries. Based on these findings, the authors plan to design a core ‘dictionary skills’ module (with teaching aids and handbooks), which could be incorporated into a variety of courses in tertiary education.
Abstract
This article reports on findings from interviews with students from the University of Ljubljana. The study is based on fourteen questions about participants’ habits of dictionary use, their ...look-up abilities, and their perceptions of the utility and quality of definitions and illustrative examples. Students were given nine contexts containing a clearly-marked common word used in an infrequent sense; they had to locate the relevant sense in the online Merriam–Webster Learner’s Dictionary (MWLD). A think-aloud method enabled the researchers to follow the students’ look-up process and record their problems as well as their suggestions on how to improve the content and presentation of information in the dictionary. Recommendations are provided on: the improvement of drop-down menus; the inclusion of the form(s) of a target word; illustrative examples; the use of italics, boldface, and colors as well as what types of information should be displayed or available if needed.
This paper reflects on aspects of dictionary culture in African language communities. It demonstrates how weak lexicographic traditions in African languages and present pedagogical practices in the ...public schooling system of African countries militate against the establishment of a thriving dictionary culture. This is against the gains made from the 1990s when the production of mother-tongue dictionaries gained traction in African languages and some efforts to provide for the integration of dictionary pedagogy in schools. The unavailability of dictionaries and the exclusion of dictionary pedagogy are identified as major challenges. The paper thus reiterates the need for the empowerment of teachers through formal training and also for the collaboration between lexicographers and other stakeholders as long-term solutions to the identified challenges.
Data curation practices of the Crystallography Open Database (COD) are described with additional focus being placed on the formal validation using the Crystallographic Information Framework (CIF). ...The cif_validate program, capable of validating CIF files against both the DDL1 and the DDLm dictionaries, is presented and used to process the entirety of the COD. Validation results collected from over 450 000 CIF files are demonstrated to be a useful resource in the data maintenance process as well as the development of the underlying ontologies. A set of programs intended to aid in the dictionary migration from DDL1 to DDLm is also presented.
Data curation practices of the Crystallography Open Database are described with greater focus being placed on the cif_validate program, capable of validating crystallographic information files against both DDL1 and DDLm dictionaries.
In 2011 the Groot Woordenboek Afrikaans en Nederlands (Large Dictionary Afrikaans and Dutch), commonly known as ANNA, appeared. Contrary to so-called difference dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries ...of narrowly related languages which describe only differences between the two languages, ANNA describes both differences and similarities between Afrikaans and Dutch, not only on the semantic level but on the combinatorial and pragmatic level as well. In this sense ANNA is a unique project, based on an original amalgamation model. In this article first some background information will be given about the ANNA project and its results, followed by a presentation of the underlying model and an evaluation of it.
This is a review of a new great publication by the Munich publisher IUDICIUM, and particularly addresses the readers in Slovenia and neighboring countries. The new concise bilingual dictionary does ...not only offer word searches, but it may also be used as an excellent reference for researchers and students of Japanese Studies and East Asian Studies.
The present article was inspired by the plenary lecture given by Rufus Gouws at the XX International Congress of EURALEX in Mannheim: "Dictionaries: Bridges, Dykes, Sluice Gates" (Gouws 2022). His ...emphasis on the lack of a dictionary culture and the responsibilities that not only lexicography has towards society, but that society also has towards lexicography is an important perspective that is relevant for many societies, including Georgian society. While Gouws uses this term as an umbrella term to refer to both the user-friendliness of dictionaries, on the one hand, and the ability and willingness of society to use dictionaries and their knowledge of dictionary-use skills, on the other, in the present article we concentrate more on the latter aspect of the term dictionary culture. Numerous studies conducted in the field of dictionary use since the 1970s have revealed that many users did not know how to use dictionaries, were not familiar with the structure of entries, could not identify what part of speech this or that word was, had no idea of homonymy, polysemy and related issues; this led to errors in comprehension, translation and other tasks related to foreign language acquisition. These studies, conducted in different countries, also clearly showed the need to teach dictionary use in schools and universities. Unfortunately, despite efforts from lexicographers and educators to improve this situation, and despite some positive steps taken in this direction which will be discussed in the paper, there is still no satisfactory teaching of dictionary use in educational institutions that would help create or sustain dictionary culture. The aim of this article is to discuss problems in dictionary use in the Georgian context and share our experience of introducing the teaching of lexicography and developing dictionary-use skills at Georgian universities.
PDF
