Dictionaries and Learner-friendly Definitions

“The chief strength of definitions is that they provide explicit information about word meanings that is normally only implicit in context. If you want a student to know what a particular word means, explaining it is unquestionably more effective than waiting for the student to encounter it numerous times in context.” (Nagy & Scott, 2000)

Dictionary definitions are not sufficient.

A common approach to vocabulary instruction is to have students look up the definitions of words in a dictionary or online. Definitions are an important tool, but they rarely provide meanings sufficiently rich to support adequate learning by themselves and can be problematic for a number of reasons. First, if you have children who are struggling with reading and writing, they may not even be able to spell the word correctly to look it up. Second, dictionary definitions are very abstract forms of language, and these very terse definitions are hard for children to interpret. Even for us as adults they are sometimes hard to understand.

In 1974, George Miller studied sentences children had produced after studying dictionary definitions for novel words. It was clear that dictionary definitions gave students limited and sometimes incorrect information about word meaning. 

For example:

• The dishes come out of the dishwasher chaste. or
• If you do that there will be nothing but consequences.

Using dictionary definitions is not a bad idea; they can be critical in confirming or disconfirming guesses about word meanings. But they need to be used in conjunction with other sources of information. 

Learner-friendly definitions support understanding. 

Learner-friendly definitions use words and friendly terms that kids understand. By putting a definition in a context that kids can understand, it makes that word come alive. It makes it readily accessible to them at their level of understanding.

Learner-friendly definitions are not intended to be precise nor comprehensive. 

Learner-friendly definitions limit themselves to one frequently-occurring meaning of the word, which is linked directly to the meaning of the word as used in the text students have read. Some worry that learner-friendly definitions do not include the nuances of meaning that definitions in a dictionary might. In fact, what they are is a starting point for students, a way to begin thinking about the word and building the meaning in their own heads. Then, students can add those different nuances over time as they’re exposed to the word in other contexts and other texts, or provided alternate meanings.