Los diccionarios de ELE

Dictionaries for learners of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) began to appear towards the end of the twentieth century, following learners' dictionaries developed in English from the 1930s. This implied a promising, albeit insufficient, beginning for lexicography directed at non-native Spanish learners. At present, such dictionaries do not satisfy the range of needs these learners have regarding lexicographically relevant information. Within this historical context, the present chapter analyzes the role that different types of SFL lexical products play and could play in vocabulary acquisition. To this end, we first summarize the state of affairs regarding dictionaries of this nature based on their classification and denomination, origins, principal characteristics, a critical analysis of their functions and those of other partially useful existing lexical products for learners in this population. Secondly, we consider recent theoretical and methodological advances in Spanish pedagogical lexicography related to different analytical tools and compilations of data utilized to develop dictionaries. Thirdly, we discuss predominant challenges to be addressed in this field, such as: 1) the business model; 2) personalization of lexical product; 3) integration of the lexical product with other tools; and 4) development of the product as a learning tool not limited to consulting. Lastly, from a cognitive and input-processing perspective, we provide a critical analysis of the characteristics that should be integrated from the perspective of how to present lexical data in order to facilitate vocabulary learning in SFL.