Wikipedia and Wiktionary as LL Resources
One possible resource for students' word study and language practice is Wikipedia and its related Wiktionary. However, the situation at Wikipedia is complicated. Beginning-level students (and their teachers) might have difficulty in navigating its text-heavy pages and multiple hyperlinks. There are actually at least four different resources at Wikipedia that might be useful. But the teacher will have to take great pains to make sure the students find and understand them. First, Wikipedia has various bilingual dictionaries that can be accessed from the top page of the Wiktionary site. For example, one can link to a Japanese Wiktionary (JW). The JW can be used as both E-J and J-J dictionaries. The J-J function can also serves as a minimal J-E one, since it will give a very short English translation for a searched Japanese word. Below in the figure is a screenshot of the result of using the JW's E-J function for the verb 'negotiate'. It includes an etymology, phoneti...