An Evaluation and Criticism of the Selection of Entries and Equivalents in Collin Turner’s A Thematic Dictionary of Modern Persian

Learner’s dictionaries are among the educational resources which are used in teaching a language to the speakers of other languages. Such educational or pedagogical dictionaries, which are known as valuable and efficient works, are compiled differently from general dictionaries. The aim of compiling such works as reference ones is meeting the needs of foreign learners. The study of a few available dictionaries in the field of teaching Persian language to speakers of other languages reveals that specifically in the realm of Persian to English dictionaries, Collin Turner’s A Thematic Dictionary of Modern Persian which was published by Routledge in 2003 has gained the users’ attention more than other works. Due to the inevitable importance of this dictionary, this paper firstly introduces the work in brief, then studies and analyzes the selection of its entries, equivalents, etc. The findings indicate that although this work wins recognition, it suffers from many shortcomings.