Print deferred bilingualised dictionaries and their implications for effective language learning: a new approach to pedagogical lexicography

Abstract

Print bilingualised learners’ dictionaries, which typically include an L2 definition immediately followed by an L1 translation, represented a step forward in the field of pedagogical lexicography insofar as they provided users with access to both monolingual and bilingual information. However, the very structure of print bilingualised dictionaries minimises the monolingual part: most users read only the L1 text, thus missing exposure to L2. This paper presents a new kind of bilingualised dictionary, the ‘print deferred bilingualised dictionary’, in which users do not encounter translations immediately, as is the norm in other print (immediate) bilingualised dictionaries. Rather, in this new type of dictionary translations are deferred. This avoids the users’ skipping of monolingual L2 definitions and reading only the bilingual (side-by-side) translation. Apart from that (and unlike print immediate bilingualised dictionaries, which are not circular), when giving bilingual L1!L2 translations the print deferred bilingualised dictionary directs the reader towards the monolingual part, thus promoting L2 exposure.