New Delhi: As part of its expansion plans on the bilingual dictionaries front, Oxford University Press will soon launch an English-Urdu dictionary besides a mobile app for the English-Hindi version.
Despite stagnation of English dictionary sales because of online connectivity and availability, the Press says it has seen a growth in sales in bilingual dictionaries in the past 5-10 years.
"There are many people who want to learn English and the nuances of English by using their own language as a medium.
That is where we identify another very growing market – people wanting to improve their proficiency in English," says Ranjan Kaul, Managing Director of OUP India.
Oxford has published bilingual dictionaries in languages like Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Odia and Tamil and the Urdu will be the latest addition.
"The English-Urdu dictionary is being worked with the help of the Urdu Academy," Kaul told PTI.
The English-Hindi dictionary app is also in its final stages. Both these products will be launched this year. On the popularity of the Advanced Learners Dictionary, Kaul says, "It is a very useful learning tool. We have been changing the format and design of this dictionary to help writing."
He also talks about a programme 'Just For You' for the Adult ELT learners.
"We plan to have 12 versions of this using the bilingual medium. In these books, the complexities of English or the complexities of grammar are explained and sentences are also provided. This will help self learners. Besides grammar, we are looking at things like oral communication," he says.
Asserting that bilingual dictionaries in print is growing, Kaul says, "We are currently trying to redesign and reframe our dictionaries so that they are not just word meaning providers but are more like language learning tools."
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