Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary (CALD)

A. Background

Learning vocabulary is one of important thing to build our skill in English. There are many ways we can use to increase our vocabulary. One of them is by using picture.

In CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) Activity there is much software that we can use to learn vocabulary by using picture. One of them is CALD (Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary).
This software is very good to learn about vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. I, myself think that this software is very complete; it is different from usual dictionary. It helps students to learn English more. Students can improve their vocabulary by picture. Besides vocabulary they can know how to pronounce the word because this software is completed native speaker of British and American. Beside that this software can be used as learning resources in learning English process. Teacher can print out the material for example; picture, exercise, and study pages.

By explanation above, I think that CALD is very good software for learning English and we can improve our vocabulary in English.

B. Description of CALD (Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary)

CALD is one of advanced learners’ dictionary series. It is completed around 170.000 words in English. It has three editions. In this paper I will explain the third edition published on 2008. CALD is easy software we can get it freely without installation.
This software has layout like in the picture below:













When we are looking for a word, window will display the words in some color; Dark Blue means main entries and variants, Green means phrasal verbs, Light Blue means phrases, and Red means idioms like the picture above.

CALD has ADVANCED SEARCH, QUICKFind, SUPERwrite, exercises, picture, study page, my note, and my list.

Advanced Searches

We can use the 'Advanced Search' button to search for particular areas of language. For instance, you can search for idioms only, or phrasal verbs only, or by topic area. The screen shows idioms which contain the word story.

QUICKfind

You just have to point at a word with your mouse and the definition will appear in the QUICKfind window in the corner of your screen.

Exercise

To open the exercise Click EXERCISES on the toolbar. The Exercises window is displayed. Choose the category of exercise we want to do. Click one of the following, like in the picture below

We can choose grammar, vocabulary, picture, and exam practice

· Grammar. Test yourself on parts of grammar, such as modal verbs, pronouns and verb patterns.

· Vocabulary. Test your vocabulary in areas such as adjectives, phrasal verbs and suffixes.

· Pictures. Test your knowledge of vocabulary in specific topics by matching words to pictures. For example, match words and pictures relating to health, like bandage, eye-patch and medicine.

· Exam practice. Test yourself with sample exam questions.

If we don't understand a word used in an exercise, double-click on it to look up the meaning in a separate window.

When we have finished, click Check Answers. To see the correct answers, click Show Answers.

Picture page

In the page picture, we can learn vocabulary by picture. To open picture we just click picture page in the window then there will be lay out like this:

we click the picture that we want to know the meaning in English, then there will be new page that show the word.

Study Page

In study page, we can get more specific information about English, for example in vocabulary we can know the regular and irregular verb. The special one of this page is the format. The format is in PDF. We just click study page and we choose what we want to learn. If we want copy it, we can print out in, just click printer icon on the left corner. To make it clear we can see the picture below:

My list
In my list, we can make a list about the vocabulary than we have learnt so it makes us easy to remember the vocabulary we want.

Beside main page of this dictionary, in the window displayed some items that can help us, they are smart thesaurus, native speaker voice (British and American), recording,
Smart thesaurus

This dictionary is completed by Smart thesaurus. Every entry in the dictionary contains a button that you can click to find synonyms and other related words. Use SMART thesaurus to explore the dictionary, expand your vocabulary and learn more about a subject. To open the Smart thesaurus we must Display the dictionary entry for a word. Then click the Smart thesaurus, SMART thesaurus window is displayed. Synonyms and other words related to the word you looked up, with their definitions, are shown on the right hand side of the window. In the panel on the left, the thesaurus categories are listed. to see an example of this window showing words and categories related to the word 'fast'. You can see the picture below:

Recording
Besides smart thesaurus, this software is completed recording. We can record our voice to train our pronunciation. To open recording, we just click microphone picture then window will display

Click record once, say the word, then click stop, click listen to listen our recording.

C. The advantages of CALD

When we use this software, there are many advantages that we can get

1. It has smart thesaurus, so we can find synonym and some word that related with the vocabulary we look for.

2. This software is completed with native speakers British and American so it helps us to pronounce the word correctly, besides that, there is recording. We can record our voice to train our capability in pronouncing the word.

3. Every word has example how the word is used in the sentences

4. This dictionary has study page contains some modules which is very useful for us.

5. This dictionary is completed picture, so we can study vocabulary directly by using picture.



D. The disadvantages of CALD

1. This software is hard for beginner because it is full English


E. The Process Of Using The CALD For Learning And Teaching Activities

If we want to use the CALD in the learning process we can follow these steps.

I decided the steps into three step; introduction, core, and closing

1. Introduction

The first thing we have to do is preparing the class. We explain the students about the goal that we want get after learning. We prepare LCD in our class.

2. Core

In this step, teacher starts to give students stimulus. Students are asked to mention vocabularies in the class. In this chance teacher points two or three students to mention it. Teacher and students discuss about the vocabulary that they want to discuss for example about fruit. Teacher display the window about fruit in LCD

Then teacher Give chance student to click picture by them self. Then teacher repeats the name of fruit while pointing the fruit picture.

After that teacher give students exercise by giving students a task to match the picture with the name of fruit in the right side correctly.

3. Closing

In the end of learning process Teacher gives feedback to students and motivation to students. Then teacher reminds to student to learn again about vocabulary that they have learnt.


F. Conclusion and recommendation

Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary is very good software for learning vocabulary. Students are able to study vocabulary by themselves. Especially for English teacher, they have to have this software because it really helps them to have good learning process.

May be in the learning process, learning facilities doesn’t support the teacher to use this software, but the teacher can use others way. They can print out material that they want to explain to their students or they can also print out the exercise for their students.

If students are hard to know the meaning because this dictionary is English to English, teacher can use picture in this dictionary or she can print out it.

The last word, I hope there has been this dictionary in your PC.