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G E N E R A L S E S S I O N The Phonetics and user-friendliness of free online dictionaries: an overview Marianna Kyprianou University of Cyprus kyprianou.marianna@ucy.ac.cy Since the appearance of electronic dictionaries, ways of obtaining dictionary information have changed. Paper dictionaries seem to be losing popularity among EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students over their electronic counterparts. The present survey was undertaken in this relatively recent area of lexicography and is in relation to the content and quality of online pronunciation dictionaries. It concerns the evaluation of free online dictionaries concerning the reliability of their phonetic content and their user-friendliness. Particular attention is placed on the visual as well as on the audio representation of English pronunciation of dictionary entries. For the purposes of the current study, the following free online dictionaries were reviewed: a) Howjsay.com b) Cambridge Online Dictionaries c) Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English d) Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary e) The FreeDictionary.com f) Dictionary.com g) American Heritage Dictionary The findings concerning the aforementioned free dictionaries viewed considerable variation concerning concerning their usability features and their phonetic representation of words, both visual and auditory. The phonetic representation of words was of particular interest, and was further compared and contrasted with the content and quality of two well-known paper pronunciation dictionaries accompanied by CD roms that are commercially available (Jones 2006, Wells 2008). Selected References Bowyer, T. 2006-8. Howjsay.com: An English Pronouncing Dictionary with Instant Sound. Available online at http://www.howjsay.com, accessed 10 December 2008. Bowyer, T. 2007. A Phonetic Alphabet for Keyboards. Available online at http://www.fonetiks.org/ipa.html, accessed 10 December 2008. Campoy, M. C. 2004. Computer-mediated lexicography: an insight into online Dictionaries. In Campoy, M. C. & Safont, P. (ed), Computer-mediated Lexicography in the Foreign Language Learning Context. Collecció "Estudis Filologics" 18. Castello, Spain: Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume, 47-72. Cambridge University Press 2004. Cambridge Online Dictionaries Help. Available online at http://dictionary.cambridge.org/help/, accessed 10 December 2008. Carr, M. <strong>19</strong>97. Internet Dictionaries and Lexicography. <strong>International</strong> Journal of Lexicogrpahy 10(3), 209-230. De Schryver, G. M. 2003. Lexicographer's Dreams in the Electronic-dictionary Age. <strong>International</strong> Journal of Lexicography 16(2), 143-<strong>19</strong>9. Jones, D. 2006. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary with CD-Rom. 17 th Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Krajka, J. 2007. Online Lexicological Tools in ESP – Towards an Approach to Strategy Training. Scripta Manent 3(1), 3-<strong>19</strong>. Available online at http://www.sdutsj.edus.si/ScriptaManent/2007_1/Krajka.html, accessed 12 December 2008. Lan, L. 2005. The growing prosperity of on-line dictionaries. English Today 83, 21(3), 16-21. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English with CD-Rom (LDOCE) 2006. 4 th revised ed. Longman. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary with CD-Rom (MWCD) 2006. 11 th ed. Merriam Webster. Merriam-Webster 2008. Merriam-Webster Frequently Asked Questions. Available at http://www.merriamwebster.com/info/faq.htm, accessed 11 December 2008. Singh, S. P. 2003. Evaluation of Electronic Reference Sources. DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology 23(2), 43-47. Sobkowiak, W. <strong>19</strong>99. Pronunciation in EFL machine-readable dictionaries. Poznan: Motivex. Abstract available online at http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/~swlodek/abstract.htm#ABS13, accessed 12 December 2008. Sobkowiak, W. 2002. The Challege of Electronic Learners' Dictionaries. Teaching English with Technology 2(1). Available online at http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/j_article7.htm#sob, accessed 12 December 2008. Wells, J. 2008a. John Wells’s phonetic blog archive 1-14 February 2008: 04/02/08 entry on Audio pronunciations on line (commenting on howjsay.com). Available online at http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/ wells/blog0802a.htm, accessed 10 December 2008. Wells, J. 2008b. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary with CD-Rom. 3 rd Edition. Harlow: Pearson Longman. <strong>19</strong> th ISTAL 30
G E N E R A L S E S S I O N Learning to perceive and produce the British English vowels via computer-based auditory training Angelos Lengeris University College London a.leggeris@ucl.ac.uk The perception and production of vowels in a second language (L2) is generally a difficult task. When both members of an L2 contrast are assimilated to a single first language (L1) category, learning is more challenging than cases where each member is assimilated to a different L1 category (Best, <strong>19</strong>95; Flege, <strong>19</strong>95). At the same time, it has been shown that L2 perception and production can improve via computer-based auditory training (with most studies focusing on consonant learning, see for example Logan et al., <strong>19</strong>91; Bradlow et al. <strong>19</strong>97). With the exception of Iverson & Evans (2007) who trained German and Spanish native speakers’ perception of English vowels but did not examine gains in production, research on vowel training has exclusively examined Japanese native speakers (e.g. Lambacher et al., 2005; Nishi & Kewley-Port, 2007). The present study investigated the effectiveness of auditory training on Greek speakers’ perception and production of Southern British English vowels with the goal of expanding our knowledge on vowel training. Greek has a simple 5-vowel system with no “long-short” or “tense-lax” distinctions and Greek learners of English have difficulties with most English vowels especially when durational information is reduced (Lengeris & Hazan, 2007). Training consisted of a pre-test phase, a training phase, and a post-test phase. The pre- and post-phase assessed Greek participants’ perception and production of English vowels (embedded in bVt words). During the training phase, participants received 5 sessions of High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT: Logan et al., <strong>19</strong>91), consisting of an identification task with feedback using natural words spoken by multiple talkers covering the entire English vowel space. The results showed that 5 sessions of training significantly improved the trainees’ overall identification of English vowels (eighteen percentage points) and that improvement generalized to a new English speaker. Furthermore, auditory training had a positive effect on the trainees’ production of English vowels. The relationship between gains in perception and production for individuals is discussed. References Best, C. T. <strong>19</strong>95. A direct realist view of cross-language speech perception. In W. Strange (eds), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research. Timonium, MD: York Press, 171– 204. Bradlow, A. R., Pisoni, D. B., Akahane-Yamada, R. & Tohkura, Y. <strong>19</strong>97. Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: IV. Some effects of perceptual learning on speech production. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 101, 2299-2310. Flege, J. E. <strong>19</strong>95. Second language speech learning theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (eds), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research. Timonium, MD: York Press, 233– 277. Iverson, P. & Evans, B. G. 2007. Auditory training of English vowels for first-language speakers of Spanish and German. Proceedings of the 16th <strong>International</strong> Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Saarbrücken, Germany, 1625- 1628. Lambacher, S. G., Martens, W. L., Kakehi, K., Marasinghe, C. A. & Molholt, G. 2005. The effects of identification training on the identification and production of American English vowels by native speakers of Japanese. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26, 227-247. Lengeris, A. & Hazan, V. 2007. Perceptual assimilation and discrimination of Southern British English vowels by native speakers of Greek and Japanese. Proceedings of the 16th <strong>International</strong> Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Saarbrücken, Germany, 1641-1644. Logan, J. S., Lively, S. E. & Pisoni, D. B. <strong>19</strong>91. Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: A first report. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 89, 874-886. Nishi, K. & Kewley-Port, D. 2007. Training Japanese listeners to perceive American English vowels: Influence of training sets. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 1496-1509. <strong>19</strong> th ISTAL 31
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