6.1 Dictionaries & Lexical Reference Tools

Why lexical reference tools matter on TKT Module 2

TKT Module 2 (Teaching Knowledge Test, Module 2) tests lesson planning and use of resources for language teaching. In Part 2, the syllabus asks about reference resources: the range of tools teachers consult while they prepare, and the reasons they consult them. This section is the lexical slice of that range — dictionaries and related word tools you open before class, not a live dictionary race with students.

A candidate who can only write dictionary on every item will miss questions that distinguish a learners' dictionary from a bilingual dictionary, a collocation dictionary, or a thesaurus. OpenExamPrep independent study treats those labels as planning tools. Using a dictionary as a teaching aid during the lesson is a different resource skill. Here the teacher is at the desk, checking language so a marker sentence, a gap-fill, or a pronunciation drill is accurate.

The planning job, not the classroom gadget

When you plan tomorrow's slot on make versus do, you are not “doing dictionary work as an activity.” You are consulting a reference resource so your clarification is right. Typical planning questions look like this:

• Does this word mean what I think it means in this context?
• What is the form — countable or uncountable, irregular, hyphenated, which particle, which pattern after the verb?
• How is it pronounced, including word stress?
• What collocates naturally with it?
• Is it appropriate for this age, register, and relationship?
• Can I take a graded example for a marker sentence without teaching an error?

Each question points to a different lexical tool. TKT matching items are built on that fact.

Trainer dictionary labels you must be able to name

Trainer lists for this area commonly name three dictionary types. Learn the ELT labels as they are used in staffrooms, not as “the one true dictionary.”

1. A learners' dictionary (also called a monolingual learner dictionary) is written for people learning English. Definitions use a controlled defining vocabulary. Entries typically show example sentences, grammar codes, usage labels, and phonemic transcription.
2. A bilingual dictionary (L1–L2) gives equivalents between the learner's first language and English — L1 headwords with English glosses, or English headwords with L1 glosses. It is built for a quick L1 check, not for a full picture of pattern and collocation.
3. A monolingual dictionary in trainer language often means a monolingual L2–L2 desk dictionary written for proficient users: English headwords defined in English, with a denser defining style and a wider sense inventory than a learners' dictionary.

Do not collapse all three into one pile. On items, learners' dictionary is the tool that gives graded examples and typical patterns. Bilingual is the tool for a quick L1 check. Monolingual L2–L2 is the tool for a precise advanced sense. If a stem says the teacher wants language she can put on a B1 board, a desk dictionary full of rare defining words is the wrong first open.

Monolingual learner dictionaries when you plan

A learners' dictionary is the default when you will clarify in English and you need language the class can survive. You consult it to:

• Confirm meaning at a teachable grain
• Steal typical patterns for the marker sentence (succeed in -ing, interested in, remind someone to…)
• Read usage notes (informal, British, disapproving, spoken)
• Copy phonemic script if pronunciation is in the aim
• See whether the word is countable, takes a preposition, or prefers -ing or a to-infinitive

Classroom scenario: Aisha is writing a B1 marker sentence with suggest. Her first draft is I suggest you to take the bus. She looks up suggest in a learners' dictionary and finds suggest + -ing and suggest (that) + clause, not suggest someone to. She rewrites: I suggest taking the bus and I suggest (that) you take the bus. That is consulting a reference resource to check form before the lesson freezes the error.

The same dictionary also supplies examples close enough to B1 to reuse. A university desk dictionary may define suggest accurately and still give an example you cannot put on that board without a five-minute vocabulary rescue.

Bilingual dictionaries: speed, with a ceiling

Use a bilingual dictionary when you share the learners' L1 and you need a fast equivalent, especially at A1–A2, or when a student has offered an L1 word and you want to see candidate English glosses. It is the right first tool for a quick meaning check.

Then, if the lesson will teach production, confirm the winner in a learners' dictionary or a collocation dictionary. Bilingual entries often list several English near-equivalents without showing which one takes an exam, which is a false friend, and which is the wrong register for a workplace email.

Classroom scenario: Tomasz, who teaches Polish teens, needs English for zdać egzamin. His bilingual dictionary lists pass, take, and fail in the same neighborhood of exam verbs. He checks a learners' dictionary: pass an exam means succeed; take an exam means sit it. The bilingual book got him into the neighborhood; the learners' dictionary chose the street.

Trap: Using a bilingual dictionary as the only source for a high-level collocation lesson. A C1 lesson on raise a concern, voice a complaint, and lodge an appeal will not fall out of a two-word L1 gloss of “complaint.” You need a collocation dictionary, or a learners' dictionary that lists common combinations. Translation gives you a noun; the lesson aim is the company the noun keeps.

Monolingual L2–L2 desk dictionaries

Open a proficient-user monolingual L2–L2 dictionary when the class is advanced and you need:

• A rare sense or a fine split between senses
• Confirmation of spelling variants
• A fuller picture than a short learner entry gives

Do not start here for a B1 clarification. The entry for set in a desk dictionary is a forest. Your B1 group needs one sense, one pattern, and one example. The trainer contrast is practical: learners' dictionary for graded classroom language; monolingual L2–L2 for proficient-user precision.

Collocation dictionaries

A collocation dictionary is organized around words that commonly go together: verb + noun (make a decision, do homework), adjective + noun (heavy rain, strong coffee), adverb + adjective (highly likely). Consult it when the planning job is natural combination, especially for writing and speaking production.

Classroom scenario: Nadia is planning a B2 email-of-complaint lesson. She wants I would like to make a complaint about… as the functional frame. She checks a collocation dictionary: make / file / lodge a complaint are attested; do a complaint is not. She builds a short matching task from those pairs, not from translation. That is a collocation reason, not a meaning reason.

Phonemic and pronunciation information

Phonemic script (the phonemic notation used in ELT dictionaries) and stress marks tell you how a word sounds and which syllable is strong. Teachers consult this when the lesson aim includes pronunciation, word stress, or a contrast such as noun versus verb stress. Many learners' dictionaries put transcription next to the headword. A dedicated pronunciation dictionary adds variant pronunciations.

Trap: Ignoring phonemic script when the aim is pronunciation. If tomorrow's slot contrasts record as a noun and record as a verb, a bilingual meaning check is the wrong job. You need the stress shift. Grammar books and thesauruses do not mark that.

Classroom scenario: Hugo is preparing a short pronunciation slot on photograph, photographer, and photographic. Meanings are already known. He copies the stress marks from a learners' dictionary onto the board plan. Without phonemic or stress information, the slot has no target — only three spellings.

Thesauruses — and why they are not a synonym machine

A thesaurus groups related words: near-synonyms, sometimes antonyms. Consult it to expand a lexical set or to stop yourself recycling the same adjective in a model story.

Trap: Treating a thesaurus as a synonym free-for-all. Childish and childlike are not interchangeable. Big, large, great, and grand do not sit in the same collocations. A great mistake and a large mistake are not equally natural. After the thesaurus suggests candidates, a learners' dictionary (or collocation dictionary) checks nuance, collocation, and appropriacy.

Idioms and phrasal-verb references

Idiom dictionaries and phrasal-verb dictionaries (or dedicated sections in learners' dictionaries) exist because these items are often not compositional. Give up is not a meaning a beginner can compute from give plus up. Teachers consult them when planning a set of phrasal verbs, checking whether an idiom is informal, old-fashioned, or regionally marked, and finding an example that is classroom-safe.

Classroom scenario: Mei wants one lesson on put off (postpone), put on (clothes or a show), and put up with. A general bilingual entry for put is a wall of senses. A phrasal-verb reference groups the particles, marks separability (put it off versus put up with it), and gives examples she can grade for B1.

Teacher need to best lexical resource

The bar chart below is a study checklist, not a published TKT percentage split. Cambridge does not publish a weight for “collocation dictionary versus thesaurus.” Study every job; the module can test any of them as a matching reason.

Exam-style thinking, independently taught

Items in this area are need to resource. If the stem mentions graded examples or typical patterns, choose a learners' dictionary. If it mentions a quick L1 check, choose bilingual. If it mentions combinations that sound natural, choose collocation dictionary. If it mentions sound or stress, choose phonemic information. If it mentions another word with a similar meaning, choose thesaurus — and remember the free-for-all trap in the distractors.

OpenExamPrep materials are independent study resources for teachers preparing for TKT Module 2. They are not Cambridge publications and they do not replace the official handbook or sample papers. Use this section to practise the matching habit the module tests: name the planning job, then name the lexical tool.

Using the six-check chart in tomorrow's plan

Treat the equal bars as a reminder that a single look-up rarely finishes the job. Meaning without form produces I suggest you to…. Form without collocation produces do a complaint. Meaning without pronunciation produces a silent stress error on photographer. A thesaurus without appropriacy produces childish smile when you meant childlike. Before you photocopy the worksheet, run the six checks against the one marker sentence you will write on the board. If a check is in the lesson aim and your chosen book cannot answer it, you have the wrong lexical resource.