ABSTRACT

Research has shown bilingual dictionaries to be the text most used by students of foreign languages and the one most highly regarded by them (Hartmann 1983). The main reasons for this are likely to be factors such as the authority accorded to dictionaries, their usefulness for individual study, and the absolute need for their study in light of the fact that they contain far more lexical information than any teacher could hope to teach given the constraints upon time and other teaching priorities of a language course. For the student of a foreign language the bilingual dictionary is without doubt the single most important source of lexical information and an indispensable aid to its individual study.