Wikipedia and Wiktionary as LL Resources

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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, phonetic transcription of both US and UK pronunciations transcribed into both IPA and SAMPA (no special characters), a sound file, inflected forms of the verb, Japanese translations of the core meanings, example sentences in both Japanese and English, and finally important lexical derivations. However, the JW didn't give English definitions or collocations for 'negotiate'.

For English definitions, there is the English Wiktionary (EW). For example, the EW gave five definitions for 'negotiate', including one that is now obsolete. There is also the Simple English Wiktionary. However, it limits definitions to a list of key synonyms and synonymous phrases.

Finally, there is the Simple English Wikipedia. It has a lot of content useful for language learning and practice put into more basic English than the regular Wikipedia. 




















A list of links to Wikpedia and Wiktionary:
1.  Top page of Wiktionary
https://www.wiktionary.org

2.  Top page of the Japanese Wiktionary
https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/メインページ

3.  Top page of the Simple English Wiktionary
https://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page

4.  Top Page of Simple English Wikipedia
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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