Email: jkrajka@batory.plo.lublin.pl

The Macmillan English Dictionary CD-ROM is a program for upper-level students, a comprehensive dictionary containing over 100,000 references, with 30,000 idioms and phrases, produced by a team of 100 lexicographers studying the corpus of 200 million words to provide up-to-date and accurate information on words, their forms, meanings and uses. The dictionary, apart from giving all these in traditional entries, provides also pronunciation practice and allows quick access to words while working in other applications. The MED makes it possible to choose the window size, find a word, check the spelling while writing, listen to the pronunciation of a word, find a word using another program, build one’s vocabulary and add one’s own note to a word. As a learning tool, it enables pronunciation practice, lets students build up their grammar knowledge by providing study pages, gives easier access to meanings by illustrated words, and facilitates learning words by adding them to personal wordlists. As for teachers, they are able to teach words using illustrations, create teacher-made wordlists, and print their own vocabulary lessons.

The MED is said to be directed at advanced learners, but when looking at the defining vocabulary it seems that intermediate and upper-intermediate students could profitably use the tool as well. It is widely accessible through Macmillan ELT representatives, as well as in language bookshops. There are separate British English and American English versions, created from the same language database, but differing in vocabulary, contexts, spelling styles, punctuation and phraseology.

The MED entries contain the following pieces of information: the word, phonetic transcript, the icon to play back its pronunciation, the category of the word (noun, verb etc.), information on the grammar of the word (e.g. countable/uncountable, transitive/intransitive), definition of the word in its different meanings, example sentences, idioms/fixed phrases the word is used in and finally the words derived from it.

Once the word is typed in, the dictionary searches automatically for other expressions it appears in, so the learner may research the dictionary contents in this way. Some words have also usage notes, as is the case of ‘should’, where the difference between ‘should’ and ‘would’ is focused on. The novelty is frequency information, expressed in the form of stars next to the word, with three stars denoting the highest frequency down to no stars at all. Thanks to this feature, students can get the idea of which words should become their productive vocabulary, and which could remain receptive only. One thing missing in the entries of the MED is the lack of related words option, which would enable the user to research the dictionary contents for words of similar meaning or relating to the same language area.

It must be said that the MED has well-developed and advanced searching capabilities. As was said before, the dictionary automatically searches its contents for the phrases with the word requested, the list of which is given in the box at the bottom of the screen. Another search option is using ‘WordSearch’, which makes it possible to look for a given word, specifying whether it is a headword, derived word, compound, phrasal verb, phrase or collocation. If that does not work, the user may try ‘TextSearch’, looking for some text in definitions, examples or editorial notes. Another search facility, ‘SmartSearch’, enables searching using AND, OR, NOT operators, applying at the same time the following filters: part of speech, grammar, region, style, frequency, irregular inflection, defining vocabulary, number of senses, illustration, menu, summary and editorial notes. The final feature of the program is ‘SoundSearch’, a novelty in electronic dictionaries, where a student can type in the pronunciation of the word (or choose the phonetic symbols from the list) to find the requested words. The possibility of using wildcards (putting in ? or * for one or more symbols) makes it possible to work on minimal pairs, homophones and homonyms.

The MED has a basic A–Z component, with alphabetic list of entries, definitions, examples, pronunciation recordings and usage notes. In addition to this, there is the illustrations component, where some words are explained with pictures. The words appearing in the picture are given in the box below, and by moving the mouse over the picture one can see the words and get their meanings. Thus, it is not only easier to understand some words, but learners can acquire new words in meaningful contexts by associating an object with a word.

The dictionary also features study pages, where learners can find detailed information on the dictionary (foreword, introduction, using the dictionary, grammar codes, labels, pronunciation, defining vocabulary, irregular verbs), as well as build their knowledge of the language in general by reading about numbers, phrasal verbs, academic writing, metaphor, computer words, pragmatics, spoken discourse, business English or word formation. What is more, the dictionary encompasses a mini-atlas, with general maps of continents and countries. The final component of the MED are wordlists, where a user can add words in given categories, add notes to them, print the list or use flashcards for vocabulary practice.

The MED, just as most machine-readable dictionaries on the market, allows the following operations: copying an entry, printing an entry, adding a note to an entry (annotating entries) and, unlike other dictionaries, adding a word to one’s wordlist, in order to practise a list of words later on. Also, it is possible to play back the British English and the American English pronunciations of each word, as well as practise pronunciation by recording your pronunciation and playing it back and listening to it.

Nowadays, it is becoming more and more important for a dictionary to be flexible and easy to integrate with other Windows programs, in order to save time and allow the user to get the definition without having to switch to the dictionary and type in a word. As for the MED, it has various possibilities for such a mode of work. If the dictionary is open alongside the word-processor, simply moving the mouse pointer to any word in a word-processor text makes the dictionary display that entry. However, in order to make this possible, both programs can’t be maximised, which may not be very convenient for the user. Thus, another chance is to use the ‘QuickSearch’ display mode, which is a small window staying on top of other programs. Using this you do not have to switch to the dictionary window or run the word-processor minimised, and by moving the mouse pointer over any word in the text makes the MED give its definition. This is the same in programs without a cursor, such as an Internet browser, where positioning the mouse pointer on the word makes the dictionary give its definition in an instant. It must be said that this way of integrating the dictionary with all Windows programs is as simple as it can be.

The MED has a clear, uncluttered interface, with tasteful colour combinations dominated by red. The program screen is divided into a few boxes: the biggest one in the centre is where the entries are displayed. In the panel to the right usage notes and user notes appear. In the left-hand corner of the main panel, there is a small box where the desired word is typed in; under this the alphabetic list of all words of the dictionary appear, and below that the results of a search for a desired word in phrases are displayed. On the top of the screen, just as in most Windows applications, there is a list of drop-down menus (View, Edit, Pronunciation, SmartSearch, SoundSearch, History, Options, Help, Quick/Full view switch). When clicking on these, the user gets a list of commands enabled in a given menu. The requested word opens in the central window, and scrolling up and down one can get through the entries above and below. All the words accessed before can be quickly recovered from the History menu. The creators of the dictionary decided not to use icons, and instead gave text instructions everywhere in the program, which seems to be a good idea, considering that icons can be interpreted differently.

The MED is easy to install and uninstall. It does not have heavy hardware requirements, so it does not take too much time for it to load or look up a word. No crashes have been observed, and it has not caused any malfunctioning of the system. It is quite flexible in use also in that while installing the program the user can choose a ‘Normal’ or ‘Full’ installation. ‘Normal’ installation copies all the disc contents except for the sound files to the hard disc, and requires the disc in the CD-ROM drive when listening to the pronunciation of words. ‘Full’ installation allows the copying of the entire contents of the MED to the hard disc, making the dictionary fully functional without the CD-ROM. The latter demands 560 MB of hard disc space, but it allows the user to have two dictionaries alongside: a monolingual one (the MED) on the hard drive and a bilingual one in the CD-ROM drive.

The MED is relatively user-friendly, as it has a number of features giving assistance to the user while learning how to operate the program. Above all, the program is accompanied by a printed CD-ROM user guide, giving advice on installation, getting started, display modes and menus, notes and lists, advanced searching, study aids, printing and copying. In this way, the user can get basic information before starting the program. Another help facility is the guided tour, with onscreen animations explaining what the MED is, how it is different from other machine-readable dictionaries (MRDs), how to get started with it, how to use advanced searching options, how the MED can help in teaching and learning. In addition to these, users who are connected to the Internet can also use an online guide. Finally, there is a dedicated dictionary website (www.macmillandictionary.com), containing further information, tips, advice and ideas for use in the classroom. Thus, it seems that no user should have any problems with making the most of the MED, due to such an extensive and varied set of help tools.

The key to using MRDs by students and teachers is finding the ways to subject the tool to the people’s needs, rather than using the tool as it allows to be used. Usually, commercial-made dictionaries give little possibilities for being customised. In the case of the MED, there are two options making it possible for the user to suit the tool to his/her needs. One is the possibility of creating wordlists, namely adding selected words to custom-made categories, adding notes to them, then checking one’s retention by reviewing the wordlist, going to selected entries, and reviewing the notes. Wordlists are flexible enough in that they allow adding new words, deleting them, printing the entire wordlist or renaming it. Another way of customising the dictionary is to add one’s own comments to the entries, which are displayed to the right of the entry proper. However, as is the case with other MRDs, it is not possible to input one’s own words or to update the dictionary in any way (e.g. via the Internet).

As noted by Sobkowiak (2002), electronic dictionaries stop being dictionaries only, and become more and more versatile tools, encompassing also grammar reference and vocabulary exercises. Indeed, most MRDs available on the market make it possible for the user to test the retention of selected words in exercises or games of various kinds. It must be said that the MED is quite poor in this respect, and the only kind of exercise that it allows is practising the words from a wordlist in a ‘Flashcard’ game. Here, the user may choose to see the headword only, the entry without a headword, a note or a note and an entry without a headword. Especially option 2 and 4 (with headwords hidden) seem to be quite good for vocabulary practice, but this could be better developed by adding scoring, feedback or multiple choice answers.

On the whole, it must be said that the Macmillan English Dictionary is an extremely well-developed machine-readable dictionary. Its strongest sides are probably advanced searching capabilities (word, text, complex text and sound search), easy and quick integration with all other Windows programs, great amount of information included in the dictionary, frequency hints based on the corpus counts, the existence of separate British English and American English editions and informative and helpful assistance tools. However, when developing future versions of the dictionary its manufacturers could consider releasing also a Mac version, including more vocabulary games and exercises of different types, as well as the possibility of Internet update. Also, another area where some improvement could be made is cross-referencing and linking words to related words, so that the user could start with some words and make lexical research into other words in the given thematic area.

Sobkowiak, W. (2002) "The Challenge of Electronic Learners’ Dictionaries". Teaching English with Technology, vol. 2, no. 1, http://www.iatefl.org.pl//call/j_article7.htm.

This is an edited version of the review first published in Teaching English with Technology – A Journal for Teachers of English, Vol. 2, Issue 3 (May 2002), http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/callnl.htm.