Which is the best Advanced Learners Dictionary?
The world's bestselling advanced-level dictionary for learners of English. Show
Since 1948, over 100 million English language learners have used OALD to develop their English skills for work and study. Now in its tenth edition, OALD builds English vocabulary better than ever before and leads the way to more confident, successful communication in English. Buy a code Redeem a code Buy a print book Build your vocabularyOALD is created especially for learners of English, with clear and simple definitions, synonyms, real voice audio and example sentences showing language in use. The A-Z is integrated with the new Oxford 3000 and Oxford 5000 word lists, which provide core vocabulary that every student needs to learn, and OPAL word lists, which contain the most important vocabulary for academic writing and speaking. Sample entry Easy to useChoose ‘English’ from the search box options to look up any word in the dictionary. The complete A-Z is available for free: read meanings, examples and usage notes; listen to British and American English pronunciations; expand images to view related vocabulary. Sample entry More than just a dictionaryTake your English skills to the next level with extra resources and practice including the iSpeaker and iWriter, or make your own lists of words to learn with My Word Lists. For teachers, we have a whole range of resources for use in the classroom, from videos to worksheets to whole lesson plans. These are all part of our OALD Premium package! iWriterImprove your writing in English with the Oxford iWriter. Study model texts and practise your own writing through guided activities. Find out more iSpeakerImprove your pronunciation and speaking skills. Watch ‘Sounds’, ‘Conversations’ and ‘Exam speaking’ videos, study useful language and record yourself. Find out more My Word ListsCreate your own lists of words to learn and test yourself on them with My Word Lists. See sample word lists Want to use the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary offline? Try our app - download and preview it for free! Select any word on this page to check its definition and pronunciation in a dictionary. Click brown words for a pop-up explanation. © Tomasz P. Szynalski, Antimoon.com IntroductionFew teachers will explain a word to you like a good learner’s dictionary. A dictionary can give you a clear definition, comprehensive information on pronunciation, and – most importantly – carefully chosen examples that show you how to use the word. Which dictionaries are best for serious English learners in 2009? Certainly we should be thinking of digital dictionaries. In an age of ubiquitous laptops and netbooks, book dictionaries are clearly a thing of the past – quaint relics used exclusively by elderly ladies who go by the title of “Senior English Instructor”. Their sheer weight (the dictionaries’, not the elderly ladies’) and the time it takes to look up a word mean that there is absolutely no reason for a serious English learner to use one. What about online dictionaries? They’re free, there’s a lot of them, and the growing availability of wireless Internet connections makes them more and more accessible. Might they be a viable option? Let’s see:
Therefore, my opinion is that Web dictionaries are a useful resource when you want to get some extra information about a word (e.g. get some more examples, double-check the pronunciation), but for serious everyday work, you can’t beat a software dictionary. It just makes no sense to slow your progress in order to save $30. That is why this review will focus on the currently available English dictionaries for advanced learners available on CD/DVD. The dictionaries
I was wondering whether I should include the 5th edition of the Collins COBUILD Dictionary in this review. In the end I decided to do so, because it is much better than the current edition and it is still available in at least one online store (and will most likely continue to be available until the end of 2009). Review criteriaI looked at the following features in all the dictionaries:
Testing methodologyPart of the Excel sheet I used to evaluate the examples and definitions Example sentences and definitionsIn order to evaluate the quality of examples and definitions in all the dictionaries more objectively, I simulated the way an English learner uses a dictionary in real life:
Sometimes a dictionary would give a great number of example sentences for a word that doesn’t need a lot of examples. For example, you don’t need more than 4 examples to learn to use phrases like sore throat or angst-filled lyrics. These relatively useless examples would add to the total number of example sentences in my test, making the dictionary seem better than it really is. To avoid this effect, for each word, I set a limit (between 4 and 7) on the number of example sentences that I would count. If a dictionary had more examples than the limit, I did not count the extra examples. Phonetic transcriptionsI checked the dictionaries against a list of 38 specific issues, for example:
Coverage of American EnglishHere, I used a list of 50 questions (38 phonetic, 12 vocabulary/usage), such as:
RecordingsI looked up 18 “tricky” words (words with a difficult pronunciation or with many possible pronunciations). I checked the following things:
I evaluated British and American recordings separately. Grading system
The comparisonSummaryAs you see, there is no clear winner – no dictionary that would be best (or even close to best) in all the categories. That said, here are a few thoughts:
Which dictionary is best for advanced learners?Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
The world's bestselling advanced-level dictionary for learners of English. Since 1948, over 100 million English language learners have used OALD to develop their English skills for work and study.
What is the latest Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary?The new 9th edition with Oxford iSpeaker and Oxford iWriter make OALD the ultimate speaking and writing tool.
Which dictionary is the best for learners?Best English Online Dictionaries for Beginners. Macmillan Dictionary.. Cambridge Dictionary.. Collins Dictionary.. Merriam-Webster Dictionary.. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries.. Dictionary.com.. The Bottom Line.. Is Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary good?The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, or OALD, is recommended by teachers and students because it defines words in language students understand, gives useful example sentences, and includes the tools learners need to succeed in English.
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