A launch of innovative lexical luxuries is underway. The way we learn and refine our understanding of new words is evolving in a remarkable manner. The change is so powerful that the way in which we introduce students to new vocabulary terms must evolve as well.
Until recently, print dictionaries seemed to be the most efficient way to ascertain the correct meaning and usage of a word. It’s easy to see why. Dictionaries, unlike computers, are relatively inexpensive. As such, they are also ubiquitous. Even in high poverty areas, just about every school and classroom has access to dictionaries. Before the arrival of netbooks and cloud computing, most educators doggedly taught their pupils how to use a standard, offline, on the shelf variety of dictionary. In fact, many still do.
As handy as offline dictionaries are, as dependable as offline dictionaries are, and as inexpensive as offline dictionaries are, they leave a lot to be desired. For starters, print versions of dictionaries are often too concise as to be useful. Print dictionaries have to deal with space constraints. There’s only so much room to print words and definitions. When new words enter the language editors of print dictionaries have to toss out old words. This medium restrictive paradigm also makes it difficult to display how the word is used in context. There’s not enough room for additional examples of or variations in the way a word can be employed.
Compared to their dead-tree antecedents, novel online dictionaries and word reference tools offer richer and more robust options when it comes to divining a word’s meaning and usage. Something as simple as adding an audio file for the pronunciation of a word is a major advancement. When pupils use Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary they have an opportunity to hear the proper way to speak a new word.
In addition to hearing unfamiliar words, Merriam-Webster also allows users to cross-reference words used in the site’s definition of a term. Many of the words defining a term are already hyperlinked so that a confused or intrigued student need only click for more information. Even those words that are not officially hyperlinked are easy to define as well.
Thanks to technology, students can easily go beyond simple definitions to more detailed, dynamic explorations of new vocabulary terms. Take for example, a site where “words have meaning.” Lexipedia demonstrates this feature by taking given terms and generating semantic relationships in animated word webs. It’s a powerful tool for pupils who are trying to ferret the meaning on new vocabulary terms.
If online word-reference resources offered only the few amenities mentioned previously, they’d still be more worthwhile for students than traditional print reference materials. The fact is, though, online word reference is getting ready to offer even more features. Take, for example, Wordnik. Not only does this upstart online dictionary makes it easy for pupils to find a word, it has a tremendously useful value-add as well.
Wordnik also delivers examples of a given word from real-life, popular media sources like newspaper articles, Flickr (pictures come along as well to help illustrate a word!), Twitter, and other outlets. This feature really leaves the old-fashioned dictionary behind and brings relevancy and real-life application of words front and center.
Given, all that online word-reference resources have to offer, it’s difficult to understand why more educators don’t help students learn how to use them in an appropriate manner. This doesn’t mean that old, print versions of dictionaries are useless. It just means that teachers and students need to know what tools for learning are available and when they’re likely to help us find what we need to know in the most efficient manner.
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dictionaries, dictionary, reference, word, words
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