Sorry to bump this two year old thread, I'd like to add something here.
Among the dictionaries listed above the Kodansha's Furigana Dictionary is the most usefull for beginners. Because it has the spelling in Kana as well as in Kanji too. Plus each word has an example sentence for using that word. Its usefull enough to make you remember where to use the word in context.
For those who dont know anything, even the basic kana, viz Hiragana and Katakana, there is the Kodansha's Let Learn Hiragana (First Book of Basic Japanese Learning) and Lets Learn Katakana (Second Book of Basic Japanese Learning).
Both books are quite detailed in teaching you how to make sentence patterns, learning how to write foreign loan words correctly, with lots of examples and and exercises. If you doubt your spellings, the answers are given at the end of the book. These two books cover atleast 50% of JLPT level 4 imo.
To increase vocabulary, refer the Furigana dictionary. And also you have the usual anime where you just have to pay attention to what they say and how they say and in which tense they say.
