Reference Materials

Knowing about different reference materials is useful for helping students and teachers become more
self reliant. Several reference materials available online include dictionaries, concordancers, and
translators.

Dictionaries are useful tools in learning a language. I still frequently refer to a dictionary to help me
learn my native language of English better. For example, I just learned the difference between setup and
set up. Now dictionaries dont only come as books, but also as electronic gadgets, software, online
resources, and even as apps to be loaded on your cell phone. Below are several examples of online
dictionaries that can be used in language teaching/learning.

Dictionary 1: WordWeb
WordWeb is a free software that can be downloaded onto a desktop computer or mobile
phone. It gives word definitions and examples of how words are used in sentences.

Dictionary 2: Spanishdict
Spanishdict.com
This is an online Spanish dictionary I often use it with the students Im tutoring. Its useful
because it translates Spanish idioms, provides examples for how words are used in sentences,
and has verb conjugation charts.

Dictionary 3: Urban Dictionary

Urbandictionary.com
This website is useful for learning slang. However, students should be advised to use this with
caution, as many slang terms have offensive meanings.

Dictionary 4: Ozdic
Ozdic.com is a collocation dictionary, which means it shows how a word is used as a noun,
verb, adjective, etc.

Concordancer
Concordancers show how the same words can be used in different scenarios. This is useful for helping
students learn the ambiguity of English and become more familiar with poetic speech.
This lesson is designed to introduce you to concordancers, so you wont be shocked when you go into
much more detail in your TESOL 425 TESOL Vocabulary class. The best way to learn about concordancers
is through an internet search for them.

Examples of Online Concordancers:

www.lextutor.ca
Word: Brown
Corpus: BNC Humanities
Results (10 lines):

Just-the-word.com
Word: Happy
Corpus:
Results (10 lines):

Collocations are words that are grouped together or normally used together. For example, if you looked
up the word interested you would notice that it is often followed by the word in. In the just-the-word
example, you can see that the word happy can be used next to any noun, adjective, and preposition.

Why Use Concordancers?

With all the information available on the web, students may wonder why it is important to know how to
use a concordancer. In the example below, I looked up the word happy on Google. Over twenty-four
billion results came up, and the first one doesnt have anything to do with the actual word. I love
Google as much as the next college kid, but its not always as accurate as we need it to be.
Example:

Question: If you wanted to find out how Mormons use a particular word (for example: sealed) which
concordance or corpus would you use?
Answer: Look it up on lds.org. Searching a word inside of a specific domain shows how a certain
group of people use a word.

Example: How is the word faith used by the Mormons?

In the above example, the word faith is used as a noun in Articles of Faith.

Note:
MonoConc is a piece of concordancer software that at one time was downloadable for free if it was
used for research. Ive included it as part of your materials. Try it out. When the program opens you
wont see much of anything. Youll need to go under file and load a corpus (any .txt file will do). Once
you have a corpus, then you can do searches to see how the word is used within that corpus.
The nice thing about MonoConc is that you can load your own corpus. You just need to save your corpus
as a .txt (text) file before you can load it.
MonoConc Link (found in the LC Share folder)

Translators (Bilingual Dictionaries)

In the old days, one had to use a bilingual dictionary when doing translation work. Now there are several
online resources that can translate not only words, but whole phrases or sentences. Even Microsoft
Word has a translate function. The following are examples of using Google translate to learn the
meaning of small words and phrases.

Spanish: Mis alumnos son los mejores estudiantes en todo el mundo.

English Translation: My

students are the best in the world

French: Mon chien mang mes devoirs.

English Translation: My

dog ate my homework.

Hebrew: ?

English Translation: Where

can I buy this book?

Russian: .

English Translation: Brother

Christensen is my favorite teacher.

Chinese (Taiwan):

English Translation: Red

sports car driving very fast on the road

Chinese (PRC):

English Translation: When

I was young I fell in love with the girl next

door

Japanese: Brother Wyman makes very hard tests. (Sorry, too hard for the translator programs. Can you
find one that works?)

Japanese Translation:

Korean: .

English Translation: I

want to go to school in Hawaii.

Tai:


hot

English Translation: I

need to drink water because food is spicy .

Tongan: Oku ou fia kai ia.

English Translation: I want to eat.

While online translators can be useful for learning words and phrases, students should be advised to not
trust them for doing entire assignments. Sometimes, translators can be too literal or take certain words
out of context. Ive had several occasions where students wrote their assignment in their native
language and then ran it through an online translator. My favorite was when someone tried to say
Primary children can invite less-active members, and the Spanish translator said, Young student can
invite lazy eyeballs.

Spanish: My students are the best students in the whole world.

French: My dog ate my homework.
Hebrew: Where can I buy this book?
Russian: Brother Christensen is my favorite teacher.
Chinese (Taiwan): The red sports car drove down the road very fast.
Chinese (PRC): When I was young, I was in love with the girl next door.
Japanese: Brother Wyman makes very hard tests.
Korean: I want to go to school in Hawaii.
Tai: I need a drink of water because this food is spicy hot.
Tongan: Im hungry.