Bilingual Lexical Data Contributed by Language Teachers via a Web Service: Quality vs. Quantity

Authors:  Valérie Bellynck, Christian Boitet,  John Kenwright

Polibits, 40, pp. 49-56, 2009.

Abstract:  IToldU is a light web service which, in its first year of use for teaching technical English in French engineering schools, has enabled the contribution of just over 17000 English terms in about twenty technical domains. These terms are associated with their French translations (95% of which are correct) and examples of use (about 85% correct). In the second year, emphasis has been on quality rather than on quality: about 6000 high-quality entries have been contributed by the same number of students and classes. Some desirable extensions are in progress, e.g. to add English when this language is not included in the original language pair, and to synchronize with off-line contributions prepared on a PDA or a hand-held calculator.

Keywords: Collaborative dictionary construction; examples of use; technical English teaching

PDF:  Bilingual Lexical Data Contributed by Language Teachers via a Web Service: Quality vs. Quantity, Alternative link