Electronic Dictionaries with Particular Reference to the Design of an Electronic Bilingual

This paper describes the different types of electronic bilingual dictionaries currently available in Japan. It draws attention to their relative merits and demerits as a general introduction to a more detailed consideration of changes that would need to be made to a portable IC (Integrated Circuit)-card type of electronic bilingual dictionary in order that English-speaking learners of Japanese could use them more effectively. First, general changes to the design of the three dictionaries of an electronic bilingual diction-ary for this language pair are considered- the kanji-English, English-Japanese, and Japanese-English dictionaries. Then, specific changes to the kanji-English dictionary are considered. In particular (i) the look-up methods of existing portable electronic dictionaries, (ii) whether or not learners of a beginner to intermediate level of proficiency could use these look-up methods effectively, (iii) whether there are any other look-up methods more suited to the needs of this type of learner, and (iv) whether problems of look-up methods could be solved by different input methods. Search routines and database entries are illustrated.