Towards A Theory Of Learners' Dictionary Criticism In Chinese Context

In recent years,much effort has been put into the development and design of dictionaries for foreign learners of English. With an increasing number of dictionaries available for learners at different levels and for different learning processes, learners need to find accurate information about the quality of the content and structure and the suitability of a dictionary for their situation. Consequently, reviews of dictionaries, bilingual and monolingual, have sprung up, both in academic and popular magazines.As a time-honored activity of evaluating and assessing lexicographic products, dictionary criticism falls into two categories, one of which is guidelines or criteria of reviewing, the other a set of dictionary reviews and analysis. Metalexicographers, users and language teachers usually use one or more of the three methods: questionnaire-based approach, specific tests and comparative studies. Dictionary criticism may take the form of critical reviews, product tests, buying guides, critical monographs, meta-criticism or general guidelines. However, until recently, no generally agreed criteria have been established for dictionary evaluation in international lexicographic community.In China, scholars have published articles on how to establish criteria or a theoretical framework for bilingual dictionary evaluation, mostly from the perspective of dictionary compiling. The present thesis attempts to establish a theory of learners'dictionary criticism in Chinese context from the user perspective. Through a survey of twenty-one reviews of"the big four"by Chinese reviewers, the present author has identified authors and readership, purposes, evaluation methods, content under evaluation, conclusions drawn by the reviewers and tones of the reviewers,and has found the following problems with the reviews: they tend to be limited to the reviewers'own experience; their purposes and evaluative methods are not clearly informed; the accuracy, adequacy and appropriateness of categories ofinformation in the dictionaries are not often analyzed or criticized; some reviews draw no conclusions which are of great interest to teachers and learners. It is suggested that for such reviews to be truly useful to their intended readers, they should be evaluative and that at least part of the evaluation should be based on a study of the use of the dictionary by target users. Therefore, the present author has cited findings from user-related research in the context of foreign language learning, especially those in China,in which the assumptions, expectations, reference needs and reference skills of dictionary users are revealed. User-related research in China shows that although bilingualized dictionaries are the most popular among students, their functions are not fully realized and utilized as students only refer to the Chinese part for meaning without reading English definitions and that the students are indifferent to monolingual learners'dictionaries. It is evident that more lexicographical instructions are needed to help students explore the useful information in monolingual dictionaries. On the basis of findings from user-related research in the context of foreign language learning, especially those in China, the present author has proposed a model of learners'dictionary criticism, which covers evaluation purposes, evaluation methods, evaluation perspectives, criteria for reviewing the macrostructure and the microstructure of learners'dictionaries, and guidelines for macrostructure and microstructure, which may be applied to future criticism of learners'dictionaries.