Lexique anglais-francais de l'enfance en difficulte

Annette Lindsay was a special education teacher in Toronto.

This English-French dictionary is a comprehensive attempt to offer French translations for English words dealing with all aspects of special education. It is primarily designed to help francophone educators and administrators to translate items consistently.

In addition to dealing with contemporary special education terminology, the volume includes expressions in the related fields of psychology, medicine, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry. The choice of words is comprehensive and thorough. They range from expressions as simple as “body type” or “madness” to 15 words relating to mimicry and 60 pertaining to sexuality. The authors restrict themselves primarily to nouns, noun phrases, and a few adjectives. This feature is somewhat disconcerting should the reader wish to find, for example, the translation for the verb “to stutter.” The only available expressions are those for “stutter” (the noun), “stutterer” or “stuttering.”

In cases of expressions peculiar to the special education discipline, such as “assess” or “test,” it would appear crucial to include the verb form. Presumably the authors’ assumption that the user is primarily francophone and therefore familiar with all derivatives of the words has led them to omit the verb forms. However, this omission may hinder non-francophones and thus unnecessarily restrict the book’s use by anglophones.

Another flaw is the omission of the “m” or “f’ to signify gender of the French nouns. Surely not even French speakers are so familiar with the more obscure words in special education parlance that they are aware of the gender of all nouns.

A lengthy explanation pertaining to the choice of “enfance en difficulté” to translate “special education” rather than using one of the many alternative expressions (such as “enfance exceptionnelle” or “enfance inadaptée”) is somewhat tedious. However, the authors are to be congratulated on their valiant endeavour to offer a precise exact rationale in an area riddled with vague generalities.

Another commendable feature is the authors’ invitation to users to offer suggestions for improving their efforts. This edition appears to be only the first attempt at establishing a concise, well-organized lexicon of special education related terms.