PHONETICS OF EFL DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS A BOOK IN PRESS

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PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 31 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY A) PHONOLOGY

Phonetics of EFL dictionary definitions

Phonetics of EFL dictionary definitions

A book in press by Włodzimierz Sobkowiak

1. Contents

Abstract

0. Introduction

1. Phonetic difficulty in EFL vocabulary learning

2. A reference lexicon: from CUV2 to CUV3

2.1. CUV2

2.2. From CUV2 to CUV3

3. Phonetic Difficulty Index (PDI)

3.1. Short history of PDI

3.2. Implementation of PDI

3.3. Empirical validation of the PDI assignment algorithm

3.4. PDI statistics

4. The phonetics of defining vocabularies (DV)

4.1. COBUILD

4.2. LDOCE DV

4.3. CIDE DV

4.4. OALD DV

4.5. MEDAL DV

4.6. MEDLIST

4.7. Summary of DVs

4.8. PDI of DVs

5. The phonetics of EFL dictionary definitions

5.1. E-dictionaries for language learning

5.2. Phonetics in EFL dictionaries

5.3. Dictionary definitions as text corpora

5.4. The phonetics of EFL dictionary definitions

6. The phonetics of MEDAL definitions

6.1. Phonetic transcription of MEDAL definitions

6.2. Phoneme frequency in MEDAL DV and MEDLIST vis-à-vis general British lexicon

6.3. Phoneme frequency in MEDAL definitions vis-à-vis running British text

6.4. Word frequency in MEDAL definitions vis-à-vis running British text

6.5. Most frequent content words in MEDAL definitions

6.6. Most frequent word n-grams in MEDAL definitions

6.7. PDI of MEDAL definitions

6.8. MEDAL definition PDI vis-à-vis other EFL dictionaries

6.9. Definition phonetics: a closer look

6.10. Summary

7. Pedagogical applications of phonetically treated definitions

7.1. Searches based on PDI values

7.2. Searches based on transcription and PDI monograms

7.3. Searches based on PDI polygrams

7.4. Searches based on the "words commonly mispronounced" list in Sobkowiak 1996

7.5. Prospectus

8. Summary and conclusions

Appendices

Bibliography

2. Background

Now that the benefits of form-focused instruction are being positively reassessed, we may see a change in attitude towards vocabulary lists (Nation & Waring 1997:19), for example...
"Words containing infrequent or unusual sequences of sound can be deliberately avoided in the early stages of language learning" (Nation 2001:44), because...
"In learning the foreign vocabulary for native words, the pronounceableness of the foreign word has a strong determining effect (0.37) depending on the degree to which it conforms to the phonotactic patterns of the native language, even if the word does not have to be spoken" (as quoted by Ellis & Beaton from Rodgers 1969; my emphasis – WS).
"The MLD (monolingual learners' dictionary – WS) [...] should be seen first of all as a language learning resource, its compilers as much in the business of language teaching as of lexicography" (Rundell 1988:134).
"Dictionaries are less satisfactory in pronunciation than in spelling, meaning, or etymology. The record of the spoken language is difficult to acquire, difficult to transcribe accurately and unambiguously, difficult to represent understandably in a dictionary transcription, and in most cases of less interest to the user than other kinds of information" (this summary of James Hulbert's views in his 1955 book comes from Landau 1991:97).
Even in the most sophisticated electronic dictionaries for FL learners definitions (as well as example sentences) remain almost completely pedagogically unexploited as a corpus of FL text.
There is no reason to assume that the acquisition of vocabulary, whether deliberate or incidental, mediated through dictionary definitions is in principle different from one effected in the course of 'ordinary' reading.
It stands to reason that phonetically difficult definitions will tend to impede the reading and understanding process, the essential part of dictionary lookup, particularly in those learners who continue to vocalise or articulate subvocally in silent reading.

3. Phonolapsological analysis of definitions – an example

Table 37. MEDAL definition of discrimination, PDI=3.2, analyzed phonolapsologically

word	transcription	PDI value	PDI code	phonetic difficulties and likely mispronunciations
unfair	,Vn'f7	6	ABEQ13	linking /r/; //; // quality and overnasalized; accent confusion; secondary stress: /a'fer/
treatment	'tritm@nt	2	JQ	schwa quality and overnasalization: /tritmet/
of	0v	2	N1	devoicing; spelling pronunciation; accent confusion: /af/
someone	'sVmwVn	2	dE	// quality: /'samwan/
because	bI'k0z	3	fN1	-au- (spelling pronunciation); final devoicing; accent confusion: /b'kous/
of	0v	2	N1	devoicing, spelling pronunciation; accent confusion: /af/
their	D7	5	cABL1	-ei- (spelling pronunciation); linking /r/; /e/; //; accent confusion: /zei/, /zer/, /eir/
religion	rI'lIJ@n	2	JU	schwa quality; /d/ quality: /re'ldn/
race	r4s	0	*	-
or	OR	2	A1	linking /r/; accent confusion: //
other	'VD@	5	AEJL1	linking /r/; // and schwa quality; //; accent confusion: /aze/, /ae/
personal	'p9s@nl	5	JKQX1	short and long schwa quality, vowel overnasalization*, syllabic /l/, accent confusion: /'personal/
features	'fiC@z	5	bJNU1	-ur-; schwa quality; final devoicing; /t/ quality; accent confusion: /fites/, /fiters/

4. Main findings

The most powerful factor responsible for the ultimate phonetic profile of the definitions is the composition and usage of the defining vocabulary adopted for the given dictionary. Frequently used DV words will contribute most to the phonostatistics of the entire definition database.
The average word-weighted phonetic difficulty of definitions is significantly lower than that counted for the English lexicon: 1.52 versus 2.45, respectively. There is little evidence, however, that this happens as an effect of deliberate phonolexicographic control.
Most phonetic difficulties identified by the PDI algorithm, however, are very significantly overrepresented in MEDAL definitions, compared to the English lexicon.
The top-frequency content words used in MEDAL definitions are significantly phonetically easier than the definition average, as counted by the PDI metric.
Phonetic difficulty of definitions is partly affected by the prosodic and juncture phenomena, which have not been captured by the PDI metric: phrase and sentence stress, rhythm, sandhi assimilations, reductions and deletion.
The phonostatistic and phonolapsological profile of MEDAL definitions is quite similar to that of other EFL dictionaries, specifically of the remaining four of the 'big-five'.
Better understanding of the phonetic aspects of EFL dictionary definitions among dictionary makers might significantly improve the phonolapsological profile of definitions making them phonetically easier (more 'user-friendly') to learners.

5. To be studied

A number of issues were left for further study throughout this dissertation, both in the narrow area of phonolexicography and beyond. Some examples are: (1) the empirical testing of PDI criteria on a suitably large sample of learners of a variety of L1s, (2) the extension of the methods and procedures elaborated here onto definition and example sentence corpora of other EFL dictionaries, (3) testing experimentally the effect of varied phonetic difficulty of definitions and examples on the process of dictionary consultation in learners; in particular: do phonetically difficult definitions and examples hinder the process of sense finding, entry reading, headword understanding, incidental vocabulary learning, correct pronunciation acquisition?, (4) investigating the style of EFL dictionary definitions in comparison with different modes and genres of native and non-native text corpora of English, (5) exploring the didactic potential of dictionary definitions and examples as corpora of native text, on the phonetic, morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels, in particular (6) elaborating best methods to offer access to such corpora as an integral part of electronic EFL dictionaries and CALL resources.

6. I have a dream

I dream of dictionaries which would redress the anti-phonetic bias of current lexicography. In such dictionaries not only the phonetic representation of the headword would be carefully thought over, but the entire entry would likely receive phonolexicographic attention. Definitions would be designed and written according to some phonetic guidelines, just like they are written according to strict syntactic and stylistic guidelines today. In consequence, such definitions would be easier to read, both as meta-text and text, and the incidental learning of vocabulary would get a boost. Properly annotated, they could be used as a (phonetic) electronic corpus resource in simple look-up as well as in a variety of sophisticated queries informing word-list generation, test preparation, materials design, etc. Audio-recorded or speech-synthesized, they could make an e-dictionary a yet more functional didactic aid, with all the multimedia involvement expected by contemporary learners.

7. Abstract of the book at

http://elex.amu.edu.pl/~sobkow/abstract.htm#abs46

References

Ellis,N.C. & A.Beaton. 1993. "Psycholinguistic determinants of foreign language vocabulary learning". Language Learning 43. 559-617.

Hulbert,J.R. 1955. Dictionaries: British and American. London: Deutsch.

Landau,S.I. 1991. Dictionaries: the art and craft of lexicography [2^nd ed.]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nation,I.S.P. 2001. Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nation,I.S.P. & R.Waring. 1997. "Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists". In N.Schmitt & M.McCarthy (eds). 1997. Vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 6-19.

Rodgers,T. 1969. "On measuring vocabulary difficulty: an analysis of item variables in learning Russian-English vocabulary pairs". International Review of Applied Linguistics 7. 327-343.

Rundell,M. 1988. "Changing the rules: why the monolingual learner's dictionary should move away from the native speaker tradition". In M.Snell-Hornby (ed.). 1988. ZüriLEX '86 Proceedings [2nd EURALEX Congress, Zürich 1986]. Tübingen: A.Francke. 127-137.

Mikorzyn 2006, Włodzimierz Sobkowiak: Phonetics of EFL dictionary definitions 4

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