Title
ASSESSING DICTIONARIES IN ASIAN EFL USAGE

Keywords: No Keyword

Author
Ms. Kim, Su-Jin

Bio Data
The author, Ms. Kim, Su-Jin, formerly a High school teacher in Korea, completed her Ma Education in 2002 in Australia. Ms. Kim worked in Korea for 17 years before moving to China to teach in a University in Beijing. She obtained her Ma Education from the Seoul National University in Korea.

Abstract
The primary subject of this work is the dictionary entitled, “Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition” hereafter referred to simply as Merriam’s. Further reference by way of a comparison, which is essential to evaluate carefully the primary work, will be made to the “Longman English-English-Korean Dictionary,” hereafter referred to as Longman’s, and the “Collin’s Concise Dictionary,” hereinafter referred to as Collin’s.
What is a dictionary? Collin’s defines dictionary primarily as, “a book that consists of an alphabetical list of words with their meaning, parts of speech, pronunciations, etymologies, etc,” (Collins Concise Dictionary, 404). Merriam’s expands that definition by saying, “…a reference book containing words alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings and syntactical and idiomatic uses,” (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 322). Whilst similarities appear in word order, Merriam’s uses the word ‘reference’ to precede the word ‘book.’