Oxford Student's Dictionary for learners using English to study other subjects
Oxford University Press 2007
ISBN 978-0-19-431747-4This dictionary for Upper-Intermediate to Advanced learners is ideal for students studying other subjects in English, for example, those in Switzerland doing a bilingual Matura within a Content and Language Integrated Learning programme (CLIL). The dictionary would also be suitable for students at International or Bilingual schools, or those doing vocational courses in English.
This new edition comes with a CD-ROM, and the dictionary has a reference section including exercises (answer key at back of dictionary) and contains many diagrams and illustrations describing scientific and technical processes, such as the carbon cycle and fractional distillation. In addition, words from the "Oxford 3000 keywords" and Academic Word List are clearly indicated, together with collocation, thesaurus and word family boxes throughout the dictionary they are all aimed at expanding vocabulary. Information is also given about synonyms, idioms, register and irregular spelling.
As could be expected, the reference section includes information such as weights and measures, numbers and countries, but contains additional information, for example, about writing a CV in British and American styles, interpreting graphs, report writing and a guide to the language of literary criticism. In my opinion, all information throughout the dictionary is clearly presented and is simple to use.
It is easy to navigate around the CD-ROM, which has a wealth of information. Words can be searched for in the usual way of typing the word into the "search box", or by going to one of the 54 categories in the "Topic Dictionary". I especially like this latter feature, and think it could be very useful for students doing project work or simply when covering different subject areas in their studies. It is also possible to create word lists and store them in the "My Topics Dictionary", or to add personal notes to the dictionary entries. The sound quality on the pronunciation of the entries is good, and sounds authentic, not computerised, and it is useful to have the British and American pronunciation. The picture dictionary section is extremely comprehensive with a good choice of pictures and diagrams which are clearly labelled. There are numerous vocabulary exercises as well as some reading and writing exercises.
It may come of no surprise that the emphasis throughout the dictionary is on vocabulary learning, but in my opinion it is done in a way which makes it easy for students to learn, and dare I say it, even fun! The CD-ROM is especially good at awakening the desire to find out more, or just check out the meaning of another word.....
All in all, I would definitely recommend this dictionary for learners using English to study other subjects.
Angela Matthews Siegrist