Optimizing Usage Information In ECLDs

Usage information in learner’s dictionaries plays an important role in learner’s language learning by guiding them to use language correctly and appropriately. The present study attempts to find out the most common errors of Chinese learners based on Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC) by taking error analysis as the theoretical foundation and put forward some tentative suggestions for optimizing usage information in domestic ECLDs so as to fully satisfy Chinese learners" needs.As errors are unavoidable in language learning, it is significant to make a systematic study of Chinese learners" errors to improve the compilation of ECLDs. The present study first introduces some basic issues concerning error analysis and corpus-based error analysis and some previous corpus-based studies in China. Lexicographers can make use of corpus-based study, which provides illuminative insights into learner language, in the compilation of more user-friendly ECLDs.Secondly, the first empirical research is conducted based on the written text of CLEC using concordance software to identify the most common errors committed by Chinese learners. It reveals that Chinese learners are likely to commit errors in wording, verb, noun and collocation. Lexicographers can make a detailed study of these errors and work out specific solutions to these errors when compiling Chinese-specific dictionaries. The second empirical research aims to examine the presentation of usage information in some ELDs and domestic ECLDs compiled by Chinese lexicographers. It is obvious that both kinds of dictionaries provide little usage information for Chinese learners and ignore their actual needsFinally, some tentative suggestions for optimizing usage information in both content and form in Chinese-specific ECLDs are put forward based on the previous findings. It is suggested that usage information should be selected from various reference materials by taking into consideration Chinese learners’ usage needs and presented in various ways, such as glosses, bracket notes, common error warning notes and usage columns etc. Some samples concerning the presentation of usage information are also designed to serve as an example.