MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARY AS A TOOL TO DEVELOP METALANGUAGE STRATEGIES

The research that follows concerns the peculiarities of multilingual dictionaries compiled by teachers and students alike while learning foreign and native languages. The importance of studying the role of such dictionaries in the process of multilingual education can be explained by a high demand for teaching aids which promote integration of knowledge and skills acquired by students in different language classes. The goal of the paper is to examine the didactic potential of multilingual dictionaries used in multilingual classes. The novelty of the research lies in the analysis of the role played by multilingual dictionaries in acquiring (by college or university students) such metalanguage strategies as comparison, transfer of language skills and self-education. The research resulted in a set of so-called contrastive exercises (based on the Russian –Tatar – English dictionary for junior learners) which promote a more intensive study of vocabulary. The conclusion is drawn that multilingual dictionaries can be very effective in the teaching process if they are used on a systematic basis and teach students how to use the words from the dictionary on the sentence and text levels, involving some research and creative activities with the word stock of the dictionary, introducing the work with the dictionary in all language classes and by all language teachers.