Setting Of Optional Expression Column In ECLDs

This thesis proposes to set an optional expression column in English-Chinese Learners’Dictionaries (ECLDs) which aims to deal with Chinese EFL learners’ overuse of general words or expressions and reuse of the same word or phrase in English writing. The fact that Big Five have created production-oriented expression columns in their latest editions shows the trend of future learners’dictionary is the focus on language output and construction of lexical semantic network. However, ECLDs lag behind in this respect. Optional expression column is proposed to make up for the defect as well as giving insight on how future ECLDs should better serve the function of language output.The thesis starts by revealing the lexical problems existing in Chinese EFL learners’writings, and then demonstrates the significance of lexical relations for second language acquisition before looking into how association dictionaries and Big Five present lexical relations (especially synonymous relation). Semantic Field Theory and Mental Lexicon are employed as theoretical foundation to support the presentation of lexical relations in ECLDs--optional expression column. The thesis devotes a lot of energy to analyzing the features of Longman Essential Activator (LEA) and the strengths and weaknesses of Big Five in terms of key words, items and content of expression columns. At last, by taking advantage of the strengths and improving the weaknesses, the writer puts forward tentative suggestions for setting optional expression column in ECLDs from three aspects:the selection of key words and items, the content of optional expression boxes and the arrangement of items. And three tentative samples for optional expression boxes are provided.