Adeola Agoke, Director of the African Languages Program and Assistant Teaching Professor of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has published a Proficiency-Based Dictionary of Yorùbá Language. This open-source, digital resource fills an important gap in language acquisition and learning .
Language learning involves the use of dictionaries, but the use of conventional dictionaries often introduces barriers to learning or heightened challenges for use by foreign language learners. Existing works of Yorùbá language dictionaries have been instrumental in supporting the linguistic needs of Yoruba language users who are either proficient in the language or have the tools to navigate the language. However, from a functional perspective, the structure and content of those works neglect the pedagogical needs of foreign and second language learners of Yorùbá. Agoke’s work fills this existing gap in language learning with the development of the proficiency-based dictionary, which is the first of its kind for Yorùbá and most African languages instruction, designed exclusively for the use of foreign language learners.
The dictionary, which includes organized lexicons of Yorùbá along with their meanings, sample sentences, pronunciations, some colloquial usage, and grammar explanations, is structured to provide contextualized vocabulary contents along with sequenced audio and visual contents drawing on the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) can-do statements. Using combined technology, users of this dictionary can listen to the audio-recorded words, and watch audio-visually recorded monologues and dialogues in Yorùbá. Yoruba learners in any US institution can access the vocabulary words as well as the audiovisuals simultaneously. They can also sort vocabulary based on their categorization (such as by nouns or verbs). This approach employs American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines to ensure that language learners can most effectively utilize the dictionary as they learn, and provides Yoruba learners across the United States with a tool for effective dictionary usage.
Beginning Yoruba learners at UW-Madison and other institutions have already started using Agoke’s recently completed tool to develop a continued understanding of the Yorùbá language, but Agoke said she will continue to broaden its reach by sharing it with other institutions in the United States where the language is being taught, as well as with the academic community of foreign language studies and African language instruction in particular. She is also currently working on an intermediate-level companion dictionary.
“I deeply appreciate the Department of African Cultural Studies for the grant support that was instrumental in bringing my project to fruition,” Agoke said. “Without your generous support, I would not have made it this far.”
Please find the link to access the dictionary here: https://wisc.pb.unizin.org/yorubadictionary/