On Monofunctional Bilingual Online E-Dictionaries: English-Romanian and Romanian-English

The aim of this paper is to focus on online monofunctional bilingual electronic dictionaries (online EDs), English-Romanian and Romanian-English, and on the role of these lexicographic tools in the teaching of EFL on an advanced level. Taking into account the changes brought by the advent of e-technology in the domain of lexicography, as well as the challenges that the increased availability of a multitude of online dictionaries poses for students and teachers, the paper aims to analyse the frequency/efficiency with which advanced students of English (in this case, the students of English and Modern Languages Departments, University of Bucharest) make use of English-Romanian, Romanian-English online EDs. Based on questionnaires addressed to the students, the paper will attempt to establish (a) which English-Romanian and Romanian-English online EDs are mostly used by students (b) the frequency with which the students access these resources compared to that with which they employ traditional English-Romanian and Romanian-English print-based dictionaries. It is also important to note that several of the EDs freely available online to students represent truncated versions of former traditional paper-based dictionaries. An essential problem that arises is that the information that was formerly part of a larger coherent lexicographic entry in former paper-based dictionaries becomes incomplete when it is reintegrated as part of the online e-entry. The paper will focus not only on the pedagogical and social dimensions of employing these online EDs as learning tools, but also on a significant ethical dimension related to such resources, namely on what counts as plagiarism in online e-lexicography.