Teaching linguistics and lexicography with online resources

WHILE ADVANCES IN INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY offer new ways to think about and teach in the humanities and the social sciences, inadequate attention has been paid to the teaching of linguistics and the employing of various pedagogical models within the classroom. By contributing entries to the California Central Coast Online Dictionary (CCCOD), a database-supported Web site, university students learn a great deal about linguistics and lexicography. Such a project allows for consideration of several models for teaching in the information age: teaching as modeling, teaching as negotiation, and teaching as defamiliarization or disequilibrium. Using instructional technological tools such as the CCCOD provides opportunities for students to consider real-world language challenges. By describing speech communities through the creation of an online dictionary, faculty and students share in multifaceted interactivity and collaborative learning.