Creation of multilingual learners’ e-dictionary for learners of Asian languages

Abstract

With the advent of technology, electronic dictionaries have become an important variety of available tools for learning languages. Our research team developed an online learner’s dictionary, named eRjecnik, with basic entries for learning Hindi and Sanskrit, next to those for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. This e-tool was developed with reference to two key elements: (1) an analysis of existing e-dictionaries and their structure, and (2) an analysis of the dictionary usage habits among students enrolled in a language class of one of the above-mentioned languages, as well as among learners who had finished their studies. The goal of this study was to analyze data and develop an e-dictionary that can help students study their respective languages. As a result, a free learner’s e-dictionary that can incorporate student input has been designed, allowing cross-language searches as well as comparative searches between several languages. The article presents an overview of a student survey that was conducted as a preliminary step to the building of eRjecnik.