Een Receptie-Woordenboek Voor Beginnend Leesonderwijs

For some language (e.g. Latin, Russian) learners need to acquire only one skill: Reading. This article proposes a learning method for beginning reading in a foreign language wich consist of a dictionary in which lexical and grammatical information are combined. The working of this Dictionary Search Method is demonstrated. With the help of a search-algorithm, learners may, quite independently, grasp the meaning of authentic texts. As lexicon and grammar are fully combined in the reading (or learning to read) process, there is no risk of a gap between formal language knowledge and the application of it. From psycholinguistic literature we know that the reader needs less grammatical information than the writer or speaker. Traditional pedagogic grammar reflects the production oriented language knowledge. This is demonstrated by comparing fragments of a reception- and production-oriented language knowledge. In designing reading courses in a foreign language we have to consider this fact which is further clarified by some examples from different languages. Another very important fact to be considered is the level of conceptual knowledge the reader has of the subject. Thus a course for highly specialised learners may well be very different from a course for beginning students, concerning the amount of formal language knowledge to be learned. The integrated dictionary offers all the necessary grammatical information. The learners themselves decide on the parts they use and acquire.