Where do you find an alphabetical listing of words with their meanings, spellings, variant forms, pronunciation, etymology, synonyms, antonyms, usage examples, and more...in five different languages? Well, if you suggested an “online dictionary,” then you’d be close. But with many free online foreign language dictionaries providing more eye distractions than definitions, it’s hard to find something that will meet the needs of foreign language students without exhausting the library’s budget…until you look to the experts in language dictionaries.

Grades 6–12+

Cost Subscription for a K–12 school is $395 with unlimited access and concurrent pricing available. Subscriptions for public and academic libraries begin at $695 for a single user and $995 for unlimited access. A free 30-day trial is available at ams.oup.com/user/trial.pfm.

The Big Picture As an authoritative source in languages, Oxford University Press introduces Oxford Language Dictionaries Online with more than 1.2 million words and phrases and over 2 million translations in French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Oxford Language Dictionaries Online provides students with both the functionality of a dual-language print dictionary and the ease of an online Web site. With future features to include other languages such as Russian and Chinese, Oxford Language Dictionaries Online is the ultimate resource in linguistic resources for students from middle school through college.

In addition to its original function as an online dictionary, the Oxford Language Dictionaries Online includes extensive material to expand the learning experience for students. Through segments like Life & Culture, students are introduced to useful phrases, cultural information, and common terms used by native speakers—content not usually found in print dictionaries. Other segments, such as a Glossary of Grammatical Terms, help users to better understand the terminology within the dictionary, while more segments like Writing and Word Games help students understand how to use correct punctuation and spelling, as well as how to apply those skills in correspondences through proper writing samples in each of the four foreign languages. Oxford Language Dictionaries Online provides students and teachers with a cyber resource that goes far beyond a simple “definition.”

Look & Feel The initial log-in page provides several valuable components that can be used by anyone visiting the site. A Word of the Day provides an opportunity to increase language comprehension and vocabulary by learning the Daily Word in one of five languages (English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish) or to subscribe to the Daily Word program via email.

On the upper right of the home page are Free Resources and Tools for students or language teachers with hundreds of Web sites and tools for use in the classroom (or for entertainment) in each of the four major languages. Each of these tongues also has links to additional resources (such as Life and Culture and Writing and Word Games). These provide users with an extensive list of grammatical notes, vocabulary-building notes, verb pattern and verb tables, templates for composing letters, instructional PowerPoint lectures, and more.

After logging in, students can use the Quick Search box to find translations fast or use the Advanced Search options to query the full text of the dictionary; perform a Boolean search; or restrict a search to specific parts of speech, subject area, or language register.

Students may also select Browse to search the dictionary using an alphabetical entry list. They can also find a list of other records that have the search term within them and click on any word in an entry to look up that item. If an entry can’t be found, the Did You Mean? feature provides help in finding the correct term.

Contextual clues and examples help students to choose the right word within their search. Mouse-over explanations of phonetic symbols, click-through explanations of the parts of speech, as well as the ability to insert accented characters or letters from different alphabets using Oxford Language Dictionaries Online’s pop-up virtual keyboard all make the dictionary much more convenient. All entries within the Oxford Language Dictionaries Online can be printed, emailed, or linked and a citation bibliography is available.

How It Works Using Oxford Language Dictionaries Online can be an adventure that leads the user beyond the standard word search and into a complete cultural experience. While users have the opportunity to search for definitions in English and any of the other four languages (such as English–Spanish; Spanish–English), the additional content—such as usage examples, illustrative phrases, grammar guides, verb tables, pronunciation charts, and explanations of grammatical terms—makes this both a fantastic resource for libraries supporting foreign language departments and an outstanding resource for the classroom.

Unique content includes hundreds of correspondence templates for writing letters, emails, and résumés in each language (including English); guidelines for addressing individuals in correspondence; and cultural information such as events and holidays.

After selecting the language, students may use the Basic search or the Browse functions on the home page---both of which easily support new students of foreign languages. In the Basic Search box, students may begin spelling words or use the Virtual Pop-Up Keyboard to type words with special characters. As the student begins to type the word, a list of possible choices appear in a Word Wheel below the Search box, enabling the user to easily see possible spellings of unfamiliar terms. When the student finishes typing the word, the first entry in the Word Wheel opens automatically.

Each of the results consists of a headword and a matching part of the entry. Results can be displayed by relevance or in alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order. By highlighting words in the definition, students may continue to search for additional explanations of terms selected. Within each word’s definition are examples of how the term is used and any unique uses of the word within phrases used in daily language.

For example, the word “cat” in the English Spanish dictionary provides 63 different definitions, pronunciations, and uses of the word in English and Spanish, as well as how the word (or the variations of the word) may be used in translation.

• 1. cat

... domestic animal gato, -ta m,f has the cat got your tongue? colloquial ¿te comieron la lengua los ratones? colloquial ...

• 2. cat2

n catalog or catalogue ...

• 2. CAT

... u computerized axial tomography TAC f before n CAT scan escáner m TAC CAT ...

• 4. cat food

n u comida f para gatos ...

The Search and Browse tabs switch between searching and browsing the current dictionary. Using Search enables the student to run a search for a word anywhere in the dictionary, including translations and example sentences. By using Browse, an alphabetical list of the dictionary’s entries is available using the Word Wheel, which displays entries beginning with the letter A. To find a specific word, students may type the first few letters in the Search box.

Oxford Language Dictionaries Online will update content every six months and in early 2008 will add pronunciation software–a big plus for any student studying a foreign language.

For Students and Teachers Students will love the ability to access a foreign language dictionary that will immediately provide definitions to unknown words, foreign language phrases, and even cultural information, all from any computer. Because the Oxford Language Dictionaries Online provides high-quality content material, as well as supplemental resources that directly relate to many instructional projects in foreign language classes, students will be likely to use this tool for more than just definitions.

Teachers will find that the Oxford Language Dictionaries Online provides ease of use and resources that not only support the curriculum but also extend it to areas that are often taught in foreign language classrooms. Daily word clues, foreign phrases, cultural Web links, word puzzles and games, as well as lesson plans help to increase Oxford Language Dictionaries Online’s usability by teachers who want to encourage students to use dictionaries during their classroom assignments or while doing research.

Report Card It’s without a doubt that Oxford Language Dictionaries Online provides an outstanding wealth of linguistic resources for both new students and native speakers of each of the five languages represented. However, Oxford Language Dictionaries Online additionally supplements any foreign language curriculum with content not expected within an online dictionary. With new languages being added early in 2008, as well as speech capabilities, Oxford Language Dictionaries Online deserves an A+ for encouraging us to trade in our dusty, dull print foreign language dictionaries for something with much more high-tech tenacity.