Online dictionaries and other tools for reading-comprehension in French as a foreign language in the learning context

Abstract

In this article, online dictionaries and tools were analyzed. They show translation equivalents for lexical units from French into Portuguese and are consulted in the context of reading-comprehension of written texts. Easily accessed from small portable devices, these online tools used for consultation have increasingly spread among various users, including beginner learners of a foreign language or learners of a foreign language for specific purposes. Attracted by the easy and quick way of searching provided by the Internet, these consultants do not always have conditions to assess the quality of the data obtained through the dictionaries and tools consulted. Conversely, as they are in a learning context that requires early autonomy in relation to systematic teaching, they do not need a consultation focused on interlinguistic equivalence, which is not always suitable for their needs of linguistic information nor language learning. Thus, this analysis took into account principles of pedagogical lexicography and its main functions: the communicative and the cognitive functions. Out of these two perspectives, the main data on the lexicon supplied by the tools analyzed are presented and discussed. Their informative and pedagogical potentials were also assessed, targeting the situation of consultation and the consultant profile. The dictionaries and tools analyzed respond differently to each function and, in general, can provide more than just equivalents. The consultants can, when well-trained, use them to solve specific doubts related to meaning, as well as to enrich their language learning process.

Keywords: online dictionaries and translation tools, reading-comprehension in a foreign language, pedagogical lexicography.