New Dictionary, a Valuable Tool for ESL Teachers and Their Spanish-Speaking Students

• Published in: The Bilingual review 1998-09, Vol.23 (3), p.280-281
• Main Authors: Fayer, Joan M., Fayer, Jane C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Review Article / Reseña
• ISSN: 0094-5366; 2327-624X

Rose Nash's NTC's Dictionary of Spanish Cognates Thematically Organized (Chicago: NTC/Contemporary, 1997) is reviewed. The work contains some 20,000 English-Spanish cognates organized into 20 thematic groups. True & false cognates are defined in a brief introductory article of guidelines for using the dictionary. Four appendixes are included, dealing with British spellings, irregular English & Spanish plurals, & supplementary vocabulary. The lexicon is found to be very user friendly & extremely valuable for English as a second language teachers & their Spanish-speaking students. The dictionary would not be needed for bilinguals with extensive educational & work experience in both English & Spanish, but it would be very useful for those with limited proficiency who need specialized vocabulary in their fields. Although the presentation format makes the dictionary easy to use, two improvements are suggested: an alphabetical index in both languages with page cross-references & a floppy disk to make the material accessible on the computer. Z. Dubiel