A Study Of Verbal Synonym Discrimination Boxes In English Learner’s Dictionaries From Chinese EFL Learners’ Perspective

English synonyms account for a large proportion in English vocabularies.However,Chinese EFL learners have difficulties in using English synonyms.Dictionaries are regarded as important tools for English learning.Different English learner’s dictionaries furnish EFL learners with different forms of discrimination information,such as discrimination boxes,usages notes.This present study attempts to examine synonym discrimination boxes for verbs from two aspects.First,a contrastive analysis of synonym discrimination boxes was made among the four learner’s dictionaries.Second,an empirical study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of synonym discrimination boxes in the learner’s dictionaries on Chinese EFL learners’synonym discrimination.Firstly,overlapping synonym discrimination boxes for verbs in the four learner’s dictionaries,namely A New English-Chinese Dictionary（ANECD）,A modern English-Chinese Dictionary(3^thedition)（AMECD）,Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary(9^thedition)（OALECD）and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English(6^thedition)（LDOCE）,were investigated.This present study mainly focused on the examination of verbal synonym discrimination boxes in ANECD and AMECD.And we mainly compared the verbal synonym discrimination boxes in the learner’s dictionaries from several aspects,including the inclusion of synonyms,definitions,examples,collocations,as well as pragmatic information.It was found that some deficiencies existed in the treatment of verbal synonym discrimination boxes in ANECD and AMECD,such as the inclusion of inappropriate synonyms,the lack of distinctive features in definitions,the provision of insufficient and untypical examples,as well as the lack of pragmatic information and collocations.Secondly,an empirical study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the four learner’s dictionaries on Chinese EFL learners’synonym discrimination.Results showed first the overall accuracy rate of participants’determination of synonyms improved significantly with the use of the four learner’s dictionaries.Second,the overall accuracy rate of participants’selection of synonyms in ANECD Group was slightly lower than AMECD Group.Third,with the use of OALECD and LDOCE,the overall accuracy rate of participants’determination of synonyms was slightly lower than that of the two domestic English-Chinese learner’s dictionaries.Based on the experimental results above,some possible reasons are analyzed:1)Dictionaries,which are deemed as effective tools for Chinese EFL learners,are conductive to their vocabulary learning;2)The two domestic English-Chinese dictionaries are compiled for Chinese EFL learners.By contrast,more detailed information is provided in AMECD,which can better meet Chinese EFL learners’needs in language learning;3)Compared with the two domestic English-Chinese learner’s dictionaries,more information is included in the verbal synonym discrimination boxes in OALECD and LDOCE.For example,collocations are provided.However,differences among synonyms are not revealed in the collocations provided,which fails to take Chinese EFL learners’demands into consideration.By contrast,the effectiveness of synonym discrimination with the use of OALECD and LDOCE is not good as the two domestic English-Chinese learner’s dictionaries.The country-specific design and compilation of dictionaries,therefore,will be of great help to meet the needs of English learners of different native languages.Furthermore,participants’feedback after dictionary consultation is summarized and analyzed.Finally,based on Meaning-driven Multidimensional Definition Theory and Schema Category Theory and Chinese EFL learners’needs,some tentative principles and suggestions are put forward in terms of the selection of synonyms,the treatment of definitions,examples,collocations,as well as pragmatic information.Meanwhile,a sample synonym discrimination box for verbs is presented,which aims to improve the quality of synonym discrimination boxes so as to better meet Chinese EFL learners’needs.