Abstract:

This paper presents an innovation project carried out during the academic year 20/21 at the University of La Rioja, Spain. The project aims at improving the learning and teaching process of the students enrolled in the Degree in English Studies. Within this Degree, students take courses related to the history of the English language, in which they are meant to learn how to analyse texts from different historical stages. Differences between Old English, the language of the earliest written records, and Present-Day English (PDE) can be observed at many linguistic levels, including, spelling, morphology, semantics and syntax. For these reasons, Old English texts pose a challenge for students, who usually struggle to understand, analyse and translate them. In addition, most available Old English tools, including dictionaries, are not adapted to the academic needs of BA students, as they assume some previous knowledge and, sometimes, a good command of the Old English language on the part of the reader. There are two dictionaries abridged for student´s use, by Clark Hall-Meritt and by Sweet, both published at the end of the 19th century. These dictionaries do not provide the different alternative spellings of Old English words, which makes it difficult for students to identify and relate the dictionary’s entries with the words they encounter in the actual texts. Moreover, they are not available in electronical version, so they do not allow to conduct searches, which turns the students’ process of analysing a text into a time-consuming, and often discouraging, task. Against this background, this project has developed an electronic dictionary of Old English. At its present state, the dictionary is restricted to the verbal lexicon and contains around 5,000 entries. Linguistically, the verb is the category around which the other elements of the sentence revolve, so it turns out as the key for understanding and analysing the structure of sentences and, thus, of larger texts. Apart from translations into PDE, the dictionary also provides information on the attested alternative spellings of verbs, as well as its morphological class and its main inflectional forms. All this is aimed at helping the students identify the different occurrences of verbs more easily. This dictionary is designed in database format using the software Filemaker, which allows us to carry out simple and complex searches, that is, involving more than one field, which speeds up the process of looking up for words if compared to traditional paper-based dictionaries. Furthermore, this format allows the teacher to revise, update and expand the information contained. Its simple layout and easy-to-use interface also improve the experience of the user, who is not required to have any previous knowledge on databases. Overall, this project introduces the use of advanced applications in the classroom in an area characterised by the lack of updated and adapted tools by providing a useful electronic resource for both students and instructors alike. The dictionary will be introduced in the classroom during the following academic years, which will allow to assess it as for its content and layout, and to revise it if necessary.

Keywords:

Electronic dictionary, relational database, teaching resources, innovation project, Historical Lexicography.