Kernerman Dictionary News • Number 13 • June 2005
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Power to the Learner: an
Approach towards Pedagogically-Oriented Bilingual Dictionaries
Konzeption: Vincent J. Docherty Projectleitung: Wolfgang Walther 1078 pages ISBN 3 468 13113 5 Langenscheidt, Berlin and Munich 2002 Introduction Change is not something that
people tend to associate with dictionaries. [...] The heavy cost of
dictionary production, and the penalty to be paid for errors of judgement, have
made it almost impossible for any radically new dictionary to come into being. (Atkins
1996) A decade ago, Sue
Atkins’ rather pessimistic sounding statement was not an isolated one – on the
contrary. Numerous meta-lexicographers expressed their doubts as to the
possibility of bringing really innovative approaches into the vast field of
dictionary making, such as Zöfgen, who wrote: It is therefore all the more
surprising that in a market saturated with language learning material a
bilingual dictionary developed along the lines of pedagogical lexicography and
especially designed for the foreign learner is [...] still not available. (Zöfgen 1995) Looking back at the
development in the German market over the past decades, one is tempted to
agree with Atkins’ and Zöfgen’s observations. Of course there were some “new”
dictionaries – published by well-known publishers – with titles like Schulwörterbuch or Schülerwörterbuch [school dictionary];
in fact, these turned out to be more or less conventional dictionaries with
some “add-ons” such as warning-signs against the use of false friends, an
additional appendix, and so on. In a way, Atkins was
right when she talked about the financial risks that prevented publishers for
a long time from pursuing radically new ways of presenting languages in
bilingual dictionaries. Traditionally accepted principles of organizing the
macro- as well as micro-structure were adhered to. Therefore, competitors had
little more to show off with than the number of entries, the number of
translations and some catchy neologisms. Quantity seemed to dominate quality. Also, on the
academic level, in-depth reflections and discussions on the topic of
bilingual learner-oriented lexicography did not – to my knowledge – start
until the early nineteen eighties. As regards learner’s
dictionaries, reflections and discussions by lexicographers as well as
meta-lexicographers were of course influenced by the work and results already
accomplished worldwide. And yet again, the main interest did not focus on
bilingual dictionaries but on monolingual ones – the following definition
speaks for itself: A learner’s dictionary is a
synchronic monolingual dictionary intended to meet the demands of the foreign
learner. (Herbst 1995) Along with the
prevailing didactic approach of teaching a foreign language via the foreign
language, the main course of discussion followed – for quite a long time –
the monolingual path rather than the bilingual one. Thanks to institutions
such as EURALEX, the relevance of bilingual dictionaries for foreign language
acquisition was re-discovered and is now widely recognized, and
lexicographers worldwide (either in the function of dictionary-makers working
for a publisher or as meta-lexicographers working at a university) have taken cognizance of the need for bilingual learner’s
dictionaries that meet the requirements of the users. Or to put it
differently: discussions and reflections on monolingual English learner’s
dictionaries over the past few decades have significantly contributed to the
high quality represented in monolingual dictionaries for advanced learners of
English, which set international standards for the genre of monolingual learner’s dictionaries. In Germany it was
Langenscheidt publishing house who were thus determined to maintain the high
standard set up by these and other titles when they decided to produce the Großwörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache.
Towards the Bilingual Learner’s Dictionary In the 1990s, renowned
international dictionary publishers added a new facet to the monolithic block
of monolingual learner’s dictionaries: the semi-bilingual learner’s
dictionary. OUP/Cornelsen published the Oxford Grundwörterbuch [Basic Dictionary] English-German / Deutsch-Englisch and
Langenscheidt introduced Two in One
Dictionary of English, along lines
set outside
Langenscheidt Power Dictionary Englisch – Deutsch /
Deutsch – Englisch In 1993 a working-group
was established at Langenscheidt which was to discuss and design ways of
improving one of it’s best-selling books,
the well-known Schulwörterbuch, hence the
provisional working-title Didaktisiertes
Schulwörterbuch, or DSW for short. On
the team were not only lexicographers, but also experienced teachers and pedagogical
experts from universities and teacher-training seminars. The target-group was
identified as German-speaking learners from beginner to intermediate level.
Although we were primarily aiming at school students, we realized from the
start that the concept should also work for ELT in adult education. During several brain-storming
weekends it has become clear that the mere incorporation of new features
would get us nowhere. It was the structure as such, the lexicographic
identity, which had to be changed. The idea began to invade our minds that we
would have to get rid of old and convenient lexicographical conventions if we
were to achieve anything. Slogans such as Less
is More!, Kill the Swung Dash!, No more v/recip and
v/impers!, Phonetics for Translations! and so on covered pinboards and flipcharts. At the end we
had a concept to start with, a concept that of course was changed and adapted
in the course of compilation, which again was accompanied by permanent
discussions in the team. It was a concept which – and we were absolutely
convinced about that – would lead us to a dictionary unprecedented in the
history of German lexicography. The main characteristics of the Power Dictionary: * We followed
the topos of less is more, which
means we decided on a lean dictionary concept – a reduction in the
number of headwords in favour of an extended, user-oriented microstructure. * No more swung
dashes – each compound or derivative, each headword that is repeated in a
phrase or example sentence, is given in full. * Each
headword is given full lemmatization – no more nesting of compounds or
derivatives. * The
headwords are printed in ‘Langenscheidt blue’ – phrasal verbs follow after
the base-verb in a blue frame. * In the
German-English section, entries that changed considerably due to the new German
orthography are given in a blue frame. * No more
cryptic abbreviations for grammar, but clear, explicit meta-language or
phrases and examples to show typical grammatical structures. * The dictionary
is tailored to meet the varying needs of the users depending on the
individual context: -
English-German for decoding: this part concentrates on what students might
hear or read. Here the users find a large number of headwords with a lot of
idiomatic contemporary vocabulary. - German-English for encoding: this part
concentrates on what students wish to express in spoken or written English.
Here they find a selective range of headwords for active use. For the first
time, L2-phonetics are given in the L1-L2 section of
a bilingual dictionary. - A wealth of usage notes were especially designed
to meet the needs of the German-speaking users. - A new kind of contextualized, lively colour
illustrations help to extend the learner’s vocabulary and offer scope for
classroom work. * Bearing in
mind that there is more to language learning than just grammar and
vocabulary, i. e. cultural and communicative competence, we introduced Info-Fenster [info boxes] with
additional information on language phenomena, cultural or political topics,
and other subjects of relevance to learners. The feedback on the Power Dictionary has been
overwhelming. In fact, soon after publication we received inquiries from
other European dictionary publishers who showed an interest in producing English
learner’s dictionaries for their languages in line with the Power concept. Inevitably, we pursued
the idea of establishing a Power family, including a range of
bilingual learner’s dictionaries for the main European languages. So, the
second in this line was Power
Wörterbuch Französisch (French), published in 1999, followed by Power Wörterbuch Spanisch (Spanish) in
2004.and Power Wörterbuch Italienisch
(Italian) appearing this year. The English and French Power dictionaries
underwent revisions in 2002 and 2003 respectively. At the same time,
some features of the Power concept
were incorporated into revised editions of other Langenscheidt dictionaries:
blue headwords, info boxes and other didactic features can be found in the Großes Schulwörterbuch [Concise
School Dictionary] as well as
in the Taschenwörterbuch [Standard
Dictionary] series. Even the complete revision of the Muret-Sanders Großwörterbuch Deutsch-Englisch
[Muret Sanders Comprehensive German-English Dictionary] was
infected by the “Power virus”. However, we
perfectly realize that the Power concept
cannot be applied to all kinds of dictionaries. Tourists want, for example, a
pocket dictionary with plenty of headwords and a good choice of travel-related
vocabulary. Professional users, like translators, need a plethora of special
vocabulary, secretaries may want a dictionary with typical office-oriented
phraseology, etc. In the future, Langenscheidt
will continue to offer a wide range of dictionaries in order to meet the
requirements of as many users as possible. But with the Power concept we are convinced that we have achieved a major breakthrough
in bilingual learners’ lexicography. Dictionaries Das
Oxford Grundwörterbuch English-German/Deutsch-Englisch.
1990. Oxford:
OUP/Cornelsen. Kernerman
Semi-Bilingual Dictionaries, PASSWORD. 1986-2005.
various lacations and publishers. Langenscheidt's
Großes Schulwörterbuch. 1999. München: Langenscheidt. Langenscheidt's
Großwörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache. 1993,
2003. München:
Langenscheidt. Langenscheidt's
Muret-Sanders Großwörterbuch Deutsch-Englisch. 2004.
München:
Langenscheidt. Langenscheidt's
Power Dictionary Englisch-Deutsch/Deutsch-Englisch. 1997,
2002. München:
Langenscheidt. Langenscheidt's
Power Wörterbuch Französisch-Deutsch/Deutsch- Französisch. 1999, 2003. München: Langenscheidt. Langenscheidt's
Power Wörterbuch Italienisch-Deutsch/Deutsch-Italienisch. 2005. München: Langenscheidt. Langenscheidt's
Power Wörterbuch Spanisch-Deutsch/Deutsch-Spanisch. 2004. München: Langenscheidt. Langenscheidt's Two in One Dictionary of English. 1997.
München: Langenscheidt. References Atkins, Sue. 1996. Bilingual Dictionaries – Past, Present and Future. Euralex
Proceedings Göteburg 1996 (2 Vol), Vol 2, p 515. Herbst, Thomas.
1995. Dictionaries
for Foreign Language Teaching: English. Wörterbücher, Vol II, p1379. Zöfgen, Ekkerhard. 1996. Bilingual
Learner's Dictionaries. Wörterbücher, Vol II, p 2888.
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