City University of Hong Kong Dep
Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics
Research Seminar
English Learner Dictionaries :
Special Features and New Considerations
Presented by
Prof. Housheng Qian
Director, Shanghai Information Centre, The Commercial Press (Beijing)
Date: 14 December 2006, Thursday
Time: 4:30pm - 6:00pm
Venue: B5309 (Lift 3, 5/F, Blue Zone),Academic Building,CityU
Abstract
In this talk, I shall address the design and compilation of dictionaries for learners of English as a foreign language (ELD). I shall first of all present a survey of learner dictionaries produced in Britain by Oxford, Longman, Cobuild and Cambridge before outlining some of their special features such as core vocabulary, simplified definition, grammar and usage notes. I shall then move on to new considerations in the design and compilation of such dictionaries. These include pragmatics, semantic categories, collocation, and encoding as found in Longman Activator and Oxford Wordfinder. Time allowing, I shall go on to address ELD issues that are specifically related to Chinese learners of English, i.e. officially designated word lists and vocabulary requirements in officially administered examinations.
Speaker
Prof. Housheng Qian is the Director of Shanghai Information Centre, the Commercial Press (Beijing). He received his BA in English Language and Literature from Nanjing University, China, in 1981 and his MA in Linguistics from University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, in 1988. He became a full professor in 2000 and served as the Deputy Dean of the Institute for International Studies, Nanjing University, the Director in the English Editorial Department and Publishing Cooperation Department, Nanjing University Press, and the Deputy Director of the Council for Dictionary Editing and Publishing of the Lexicographical Association of China. He was an honorary research fellow, Survey of English Usage, University College London, in 1996-97. He has published 9 books and English-Chinese dictionaries, in addition to numerous journal articles on lexicography, language learning and linguistics.
