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Coursebooks and materials - Dictionaries

 

The next item we're going to consider is the use of dictionaries and here perhaps the first thing we should do is to make a distinction between the two main types of dictionary and that distinction is between the monolingual and the bilingual dictionary. In a monolingual dictionary you have a word and its associated meaning and those two are both described for example in English so the word and the description of that word are both given in English. Whereas in a bilingual dictionary that word meaning could often be for example the word given in English and the explanation given in Thai and vice versa. So what can we use a dictionary for? Well, within the dictionary itself obviously we can get things like how words are spelled or the spelling of the word. We can also get the pronunciation of that word because most dictionaries will involve the phonemic symbols that go along with that word and it's very helpful for the students to be able to pronounce it correctly. It can also give us ideas on what part of speech that that particular word can be used for. So quite often after the word in the dictionary there will be letters like N or ADV for noun and adverb and so on and so forth. Another thing that they can do is to sometimes show you a typical context of that word. So with in some dictionaries they actually give example sentences showing how that word can fit into context. It's quite important that we don't allow students to overuse the dictionary within the classroom itself but having said that there are some very useful homework activities that we can get the students to do by using their dictionary which is much more suitable.


Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next.

Although I am fluent in English and have lived in America all of my life, this lesson was extremely helpful in guiding grammar and parts of speech. There are so many different elements to grammar and this lesson helped to refresh and relearn the specifics of why we speak the way we do, as well as what the English \"formula\" is for writing and speaking.this unit is specifically about English basic grammar. from sentence structure to each word detail and nature. these basic lessons are often forgotten by teachers because of the speaking habit. but always useful when students ask more explanations. I have remembered all of the names we used to call each word. like superlative, transitive verb, gerund...



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