To help make your vocabulary learning as easy and effective as possible, I recommend you use two dictionaries: a bilingual dictionary (English to your language) and a monolingual dictionary (English-English). In the bilingual dictionary you’ll see translations. Why both a bilingual dictionary and a monolingual dictionary? In the monolingual dictionary you will see definitions. There is a very good reason for having two dictionaries: to make sure you learn the right word.
Whenever you open a page in your dictionary and see a tick, take a few moments to see if you can remember the meaning of that word.After you look up a word in your dictionary and you have understood the meaning, put a tick next to the word.You should then be able see which word in your language matches both the definition and the context.Choose a definition which fits the context in which you read the word.Look up the word in your monolingual dictionary (such as The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary) and study the various definitions.Very often we look up a word in our bilingual dictionary and we see several possible translations. If you see a new word in a text that you’re reading, don’t go immediately to your dictionary.
#MONOLINGUAL ONLINE DICTIONARY PLUS#
I remember when I was studying Korean I had a lot of difficulty initially due to the confusion that came with trying to translate between two languages, plus the strain of trying to memorise large amounts of new vocabulary and grammar. Each time a useful word came up, I would make a flashcard with all the meanings of that word and example sentences (I got these from an online dictionary). I would then review that flashcard on at least six different occasions, and put a tick on the card each time. Once I had reviewed it six times, I would be pretty confident that it would stick in my brain. I had two piles of flashcards, one “to be learnt” and one “already learnt”. I would mostly go to the “to be learnt” pile and from time to time I would review the “already learnt” pile just to refresh my mind. This technique was very effective for me, and took away a lot of the chaos of an entire dictionary (I knew I would never know every word in the dictionary, and that made me feel overwhelmed!).I used to think using a monolingual dictionary was necessary as soon as possible. The advantage is that you are using the language while learning the language, etc, etc. However, discussions on this very topic changed my thinking. It really depends on what you're using the dictionary for. If you are looking up a word, and are happy to spend some time browsing and thinking about the nuances of the definition, etc, a monodic (as Ari in HTLAL used to call them) is a good option. On the other hand, if you're reading and simply need to meaning of a word to continue reading, a bilingual dictionary is the sensible choice for the average intermediate reader.įor example, you're reading in French and it says that there's a hêtre in the front garden of a house.
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