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MED at Vientiane College in Laos

Vientiane College in Laos have adopted the Macmillan English Dictionary for all their academic pre-departure courses.

Each year Vientiane College conducts English language training for approximately 40 Australian Development Scholarship (ADS) students. These students have been through a rigorous selection process that begins with around 1000 candidates. The 40 students then undertake one year of English training if they are going to post-graduate studies or TAFE (Technical and Further Education) Colleges, or a university foundation year (English, Maths, Economics, Geography, Computer Science) if they are at undergraduate level.

At the end of the year they are required to sit an IELTS examination where they need to score 5.5 for TAFE, 6.0 for undergraduate and 6.5 for post-graduate courses at universities and colleges in Australia.

The students study from 8.00am–5.00pm, 5 days a week for 11 months. Approximately half the students are from the private sector and half from the public sector. However, it is often difficult to fill quotas from the public sector as the standard of candidates is generally low. The selection committee is also supposed to ensure a balance of gender and a representation of ethnic minorities.

The college has adopted the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners at the expense of the Collins COBUILD English Dictionary. The teachers particularly liked the MED for the following reasons:

• the meaning menus help students find definitions quickly

• clear illustrations

• a lot of information about each word

• many collocations

• inclusion of informal words

And what did the students think of the MED? They have listed the following reasons for why they like the dictionary:

• colour illustrations

• useful for academic writing

• helpful and many examples

• definitions are easy to understand

Students using the Macmillan English Dictionary during a workshop at Vientiane College