The monolingual transition is more difficult for some languages than others.įor related languages, the transition is pretty easy and only takes 1-2 months.įor these languages, we recommend making this shift towards the end of Stage 2B. When you translate from TL to NL, you force the TL to fit into the paradigm of your NL which distorts the original meaning of the TL words.īy using a monolingual dictionary instead, you can learn your TL directly without distorting the meaning.īy forming this new mental paradigm early, you will dramatically accelerate your journey to fluency. Up until now, you've been using a bilingual dictionary to translate the meaning of TL words into your NL so that you can comprehend. Using a monolingual dictionary also gives you a more accurate understanding of a word or concept. This allows you to describe a TL concept using your TL.Īs an added benefit, reading a monolingual dictionary is a form of active immersion and allows you to accumulate additional time in your TL. When you learn new words and concepts, you associate them with other TL words and concepts rather than associating them with your NL. Immersion alone is enough to untangle the languages and build this new mental paradigm, but you can accelerate the process by adopting a native (monolingual) dictionary as your primary reference guide for the language.īuilding this new mental paradigm unlocks the ability to think in your TL. Unfortunately, it also tangles the two languages together and distorts the meaning of your TL. This scaffolding accelerates your comprehension. Using a bilingual dictionary is a great tool when you first start learning a language because it uses your NL paradigm as a scaffolding for learning your TL. To be truly fluent, you need to build a new paradigm for your TL. Unfortunately, if you attempt to force your TL to fit into the paradigm of your NL, big parts of the TL will get distorted in the process. When you first start learning a language, the natural inclination is to translate between your native language (NL) and target language (TL) because you have only ever seen the world through one lens. If you want to learn business French, you may also consider Dictionnaire d'apprentissage du français des affaires - Livre by Jean Binon, Serge Verlinde, Jan Van Dyck and Ann Bertels, published by Didier in 2001/2003.Language is a tool that we use to understand the world around us.Įach language is its own paradigm: a lens through which we see the world.

Definitions have been kept simple and there are many usage examples. This dictionary is aimed at learners of French and has 22,000 entries.

Dictionnaire du français langue étrangère by Josette Rey-Debove, published as the result of a co-operative effort between Le Robert and CLE International.

(If you need to write an exam in French and you are allowed to bring monolingual French dictionaries but no bilingual dictionaries, this can be useful for finding words.) I don't know whether this dictionary provides pronunciation information it is aimed at an age group that is not familiar with IPA. Larousse dictionnaire Maxi DEBUTANTS: if you don't mind using a dicionary created for French school children, you will find easy-to-undestand definitions, synonyms, antonyms, a mini atlas and a number of pages/tables with thematically related vocabulary.This dictionary should not be confused with Le Petit Robert, which requires a native or near-native level of French. Where relevant, synonyms and antonyms are also listed. (Many examples come from literary sources.) The pronunciation of each word is also provided. (In the early 1990s, Le micro Robert de poche, as it was then known, also existed in a two-volume edition.) This dictionary contains 90,000 definitions and many examples. Dictionnaire Le Robert Micro poche: the current edition is a single volume of 1 680 pages.At school, our teachers of French abhorred bilingual dictionaries and recommended the following monolingual dictionaries:

Monolingual define