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MED Magazine - Issue 45 - June 2007
Feature
Introduction
to the New Edition of the Macmillan English Dictionary
by Michael Rundell
• The success
of the first edition
• Why a second edition?
• What the second edition
has on offer
• Core vocabulary
• Improvements
• Innovations
The Macmillan English Dictionary (MED) was published
at the beginning of 2002, and quickly gained a reputation for quality,
innovation, and user-friendliness. The development of the MED was guided
by two key principles: firstly, a belief that we can make dictionaries
better by applying what we learn from linguistic theory in practical ways;
and secondly, a commitment to ‘learning from learners’ –
in other words, finding out what students and teachers really need their
dictionaries for, and then tailoring the dictionary to meet those needs.
This proved a successful formula, and the MED has won
several prestigious prizes, including the ESU
English Language Book Award (2002) and the British Council’s
ELT
Innovation Award (2004).
So why do we need a new edition? Well, the world hasn’t stood still
since we produced the first MED. The English language is in a state of
continuous change, as it responds to social, political, and technological
developments. Our understanding of how languages work and how people learn
them continues to improve, and – thanks to new technology –
the resources available to us for studying languages (large corpora and
intelligent software) have become bigger and better.
All of this gives us the means to make the dictionary
even more relevant to the needs of its users. So our first job was to
get a clearer idea of what these needs are. As well as talking to hundreds
of teachers, language-teaching experts, and students of English, we conducted
a massive survey of MED users. Almost 2,000 people took part, and they
told us what they liked about the MED, what could be improved, and what
additional features would make the dictionary even more helpful. We analysed
the results, and the new MED has been specially designed to reflect what
users told us.
Like its predecessor, the new MED focuses on three main aspects of the
language-learning process:
- receptive tasks: understanding what
you read and hear
- productive tasks: writing and speaking
natural English, accurately and with confidence
- language awareness: developing a deeper
understanding of the language system as a basis for successful learning
To achieve all this, we have built on the innovations
we introduced in the first edition, which included:
- menus to help users find the right
meaning fast
- collocation boxes listing words that
frequently occur together, to help users write natural-sounding English
- metaphor boxes that reveal the connections
between all the words and phrases we use for expressing particular ideas
and emotions
- language awareness articles, written
by well-known experts, on topics ranging from Pragmatics to British
and American English
- learning support through the MED’s
dedicated website
and this monthly
magazine. These provide tips on using the dictionary, a regular
‘new words’ column, e-lessons for teachers, articles by leading
language experts, and much more
The most important feature of all is the clear distinction that the MED
makes between high-frequency core vocabulary and the
less common words needed mainly for reference. Core vocabulary
– the words you need to know in order to perform successfully in
both receptive and productive modes – is shown in red,
and reference items – the more specialized, less frequent words –
are shown in black. There are 7,500
‘red words’ in the MED, and research into users’ vocabulary
needs has convinced us that this is an appropriate and realistic target
for learners who want to succeed at advanced level. This key feature of
the first MED remains unchanged in the new edition.
In every other area we have made improvements and additions. There are
many more collocation boxes in the new MED, and more collocates listed
in the existing ones. We have added 20 new metaphor boxes, because users
told us this was one of their favourite features. And there is a complete
set of new Language Awareness articles written specially for this edition.
In addition, the new MED provides improved resources for users’ receptive
and productive needs. On the receptive side, we have added hundreds of
new words and phrases that have appeared in the last five years, and our
coverage of World English has almost doubled. Two other ‘receptive’
aids are worth a special mention. First – as a direct response to
the results of our user survey – we have added about 4,000 items
of specialist vocabulary, with a focus on six key subject
areas: business and economics, science, information technology, medicine,
tourism, and the arts.
Meanwhile, the dictionary’s CD-ROM includes thousands
of weblinks. This means that – whenever users want
more in-depth information about a cultural, historical, literary, or political
issue – they can just click on an icon, and they will be taken to
a carefully-selected website that tells them everything they need to know.
But the most important innovations are on the ‘productive’
side. The new MED has a special focus on writing skills, and includes
a range of materials designed to help learners produce written texts,
especially in academic or professional settings. These materials have
two aspects:
- vocabulary enrichment: the MED now
includes extensive vocabulary expansion material in three important
areas: Communication, Emotions, and Movement. In addition,
the MED’s CD-ROM now has a thesaurus as well as
a dictionary, so that users who are looking for a better way of expressing
an idea can just click on the thesaurus icon, and they will be given
a range of appropriate vocabulary.
- writing skills: working with the
Centre for English
Corpus Linguistics (CECL) at the University
of Louvain in Belgium, we have produced a complete set of materials,
based on an extensive learner
corpus, to help learners using English in an academic or professional
context. These include 18 major sections devoted to developing writing
skills such as Exemplifying and Reformulation, and
over 100 special notes for helping learners avoid common errors. The
MED CD-ROM also has exercises to enable users to practise what they
have learned. This unique feature – the product of a two-year research
project – makes the MED the best resource for anyone who needs
to write essays or reports in accurate, well-structured English.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed
to the new edition of the dictionary, above all our talented editorial
team and our distinguished advisory panel who have worked so hard to keep
up the MED tradition of technical and linguistic innovation and academic
excellence.
For an interview with Michael Rundell, Editor-in-Chief
of the Second Edition of the Macmillan English Dictionary, visit
this page.
Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007
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