The Hidden Pitfalls of E-Dictionaries: How Inaccuracies Affect Chinese Language Users.

Electronic dictionaries are now the primary resource for second-language (L2) learners, providing effective support for vocabulary acquisition and lexical development. It is commonly presumed by users that entries in e-dictionaries are accurate, often without critical evaluation of their authenticit...

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Publicado en:Lexicography Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 107 - 131
Autores principales: Wang, Xi, Zhang, Shiyang, Meng, Fanfei, Li, Lan
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: University of Toronto Press Dec2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: The Hidden Pitfalls of E-Dictionaries: How Inaccuracies Affect Chinese Language Users.
      aug:
        au:
          Wang, Xi
          Zhang, Shiyang
          Meng, Fanfei
          Li, Lan
        affil:
          School of Data Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong–Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
          School of Humanities and Social Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong–Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
          School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong–Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
      su:
        Chinese language
        Artificial intelligence
        Measurement uncertainty (Statistics)
        Word recognition
        Consumer surveys
        Communication strategies
        Lexical access
        Encyclopedias & dictionaries
        China
      sug:
        subj:
          China
          Chinese language
          Artificial intelligence
          Measurement uncertainty (Statistics)
          Word recognition
          Consumer surveys
          Communication strategies
          Lexical access
          Encyclopedias & dictionaries
      keyword:
        acquisition
        consultation
        e-dictionary
        retrospection
        translation
        Youdao
      ab: Electronic dictionaries are now the primary resource for second-language (L2) learners, providing effective support for vocabulary acquisition and lexical development. It is commonly presumed by users that entries in e-dictionaries are accurate, often without critical evaluation of their authenticity or reliability. The content of electronic dictionaries is seldom scrutinized for accuracy, and the underlying corpus design used in their development has received little scholarly attention. Moreover, research on dictionary usage remains limited, particularly regarding challenges unique to e-dictionaries. This research adopts a mixed-methods approach that integrates experimental testing, user surveys, and critical analysis of dictionary content to examine Youdao, the most widely used electronic dictionary in China. The experimental components integrate retrospective reporting with a controlled translation task to evaluate the influence of an electronic dictionary on student learning outcomes. More than 100 students from various academic disciplines participated in a translation task featuring sentences containing terms with inadequate definitions in the Youdao Dictionary. The consultation process was recorded to assess how such inaccuracies affected participants' comprehension of the target vocabulary. The findings suggest that electronic dictionaries containing incomplete or inaccurate entries may lead to sentence misinterpretation during translation tasks. Moreover, ineffective consultation behaviors, such as excessive reliance on the concise dictionary section, were found to further aggravate these challenges. The study attributes inaccurate definitions to the limitations in current artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies used in dictionaries. To mitigate these challenges, it is recommended that L2 learners receive targeted training to develop more critical dictionary consultation skills, while online dictionaries should incorporate more advanced AI technologies for greater accuracy and usability.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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