In the 1990s, I was born and grew up in a small town called Sabak Bernam where English is an alien language. Thus, the level of proficiency among the students there has been low generally. Good English teachers are relatively scarce too.
As a kampung boy, I was fortunate that I met a private English tutor who has changed my life. He had grown up in the same town and he apparently came home from a city and taught English. As a result of his intriguing teaching method and my profound interest in English, I observed a dramatic improvement in my command of English. I have been carrying much of his knowledge until today, particularly the know-how to use an English dictionary.
Fast forward to 2025, I am a working professional and a freelance English tutor, teaching a few small groups of students English virtually on Saturdays. Most of my students come from rural areas where English is hardly heard or spoken. It is a shame to see all of them do not know how to use an English dictionary, or rather, they do not use it at all.
Nowadays, they are fortunate to have various online aids such as Google, free online dictionaries and dictionary pens to learn new words; but they only check their meanings and move on. They fail to understand the words well enough, such as their pronunciation, part of speech and use.
For instance, to arrive means to reach a place and it is usually followed by the preposition at before a place. One of my students omitted the preposition when he wrote a clause that went: we arrived the park. He knew the word but he did not know how to use it correctly. From his perspective, he intended to express his idea by mere translation from Chinese that is tantamount to we reached the park.
Therefore, I'd like to provide a brief illustration on how to use an English dictionary properly. Different dictionaries have different entries. If one looks up the word arrive in an English dictionary, the basic elements in the entry are generally shown in the snippet below that has been adapted from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, International Student's Edition:
These elements apply to the online dictionaries too. Today, with all the free online dictionaries available that English learners could be spoilt with, when you click the icon of a loudspeaker () as shown in the screenshot taken from www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com, you can listen and repeat the sound after it. Unlike my school days, I could only learn pronunciation via the IPA.
Speaking as a kampung boy who sees English as a foreign language, my humble advice to the other English learners, if you are serious in improving your command of English, please invest in a good English dictionary because to quote a mantra from my English tutor, it is your best English teacher. Most importantly, use it properly and it will definitely come in handy and be worth your money.
