Etymology of Arabic loanwords in English in Monolingual and Bilingual Dictionaries: Lexicographers' versus EFL Learners' Perspectives

Abstract

This study deals with the etymological information provided on Arabic loanwords in English by different kinds of dictionaries; monolingual, bilingual and bilingualized. It also reports on EFL learners' attitudes towards the relative importance of such information for understanding the meaning of these words. The participants were 200 undergraduate students majoring in Applied English at the University of Jordan and the data were collected through writing tasks, a questionnaire and structured interviews. The results showed that both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries vary in giving the word origin in its entry but bilingualized dictionaries do not provide any information in this regard. The findings indicated that most EFL students believe that the etymology of English words derived from Arabic can be very helpful in understanding their meaning. Based on these results, recommendations were made for improving the content of various dictionaries, and for integrating word origin in EFL vocabulary instruction..