Customer Reviews

Longman Handy Learner's Dictionary of American English (LHLD)

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I teach English at a large Los Angeles-area high school. Most of the students entering my class are reading below grade level. I've bought several of these dictionaries over the past couple of years for students to use for vocabulary assignments and/or general reference. They have been, far and away, the most popular (and therefore, most used) of the dictionaries in the classroom. Students love the convenient size and easily understood definitions. Longman does an excellent job of making entries make sense. For instance, there are no lame defintions such as: "mysterious" means "full of mystery". Definitions can be a bit wordy, but they are written in basic English and students tend to understand them more readily than with other dictionaries. For comparison, the first entry for "mysterious" reads "mysterious events, behavior, or situations are difficult to explain or understand". Another feature which I like and no one has mentioned is the vinyl cover: durable, longer lasting than paperback covers of most inexpensive student dictionaries.

Keep in mind, however, if you want a dictionary that contains every single word you might come across in your reading, the Handy Learner's word count is good, but limited. You might purchase a good collegiate dictionary (New World, New Oxford American, Longman's Advanced are all excellent choices) to supplement the shortcomings of the Handy Learner's. I have several in my classroom, but students tend to shy away from anything heavy and hardbound. I've had a great experience with the Handy Learner's and will continue to buy them for student use, as they are frequently "borrowed" (which, I guess, is a good thing as it means that kids actually want to keep them to use for themselves).

In the past few years of my English learning. I always carried this pocket dictionary in my bag in order to quickly identify every unknown word I have met. Thanks to its convenient size and clear definition, nine times out of ten I all readily get over the reading difficulty that often frustrates English learners like me. Besides its portability and unambiguous definition, it also features phonetic symbols for every vocabulary,sample sentences and phrasal verbs for selected entries, and a concise list of irregular verbs. The only disadvantage I have found in this book is its publishing date. Though it still covers most of the daily words, probably you hardly find some fancy vocabulary here. This pocket Dictionary has already accompanied me through the course of ESL for over 8 years, and will continue to serve as the ESL learner's companion for my wife, a new learner keen to learn English as well.

Longman dictionaries are wonderful because they contain lots of understandable definitions and contemporary phrases. My students really find them very helpful.

I bought this book for my daughter and she is using it everyday and she love it. Learners dictionaries are always the best.