Fixed Phrases in Monolingual Learners’ Dictionaries

Abstract

Learning a second language involves familiarising oneself with at least part of its vocabulary and learning to apply the rules of its grammar. This means that a great many lexical elements have to be learnt by heart: the L2 student has to get acquainted with words and fixed phrases. A large number of the latter can be expected to require a greater learning effort than single words. The ability to use fixed phrases seems to be a fairly good indication of the command one has of the second language. It is a well-known fact that it is far more difficult to write in a second language than it is to understand a text in the same language. For text production, one has to be able to select the appropriate words, or fixed phrases, from the lexicon and to use them according to the rules. So the L2 student has at least two difficult things to do: memorising the fixed phrases and learning how to use them appropriately. This is where the learner’s dictionary can play an important role: that of helping the student to learn the different expressions and their meanings and of giving him or her information on typical usage. In order to fulfil this task the learner’s dictionary has to meet certain requirements.