Using Dictionaries to Promote Learner Autonomy in Academic Environments

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Using Dictionaries to Promote Learner Autonomy in
Academic Environments

• Naoko Horikawa
• Katie McCurdie
• Abigail Pecore

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Content of the Presentation

• Background
• Our inspiration
• Instructor anecdotes
• Past research
• Dictionary survey
• Activities
• The ABCs
• Build a dictionary entry

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Our Inspiration

• Experience tutoring IELP students
• Students often have trouble using dictionaries
  effectively
• Students frequently use dictionaries that arent
  appropriate
• For their level definitions are hard to
  understand
• For their needs amount of information
• Students expect tutor to be a dictionary
• Are confident dictionary users more autonomous
  learners?

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Dictionaries in the IELP classroom

• 8 instructors
• Teachers spend varying amounts of class time
  teaching dictionary skills
• Teachers sometimes see an over-reliance on
  dictionaries
• Teachers encourage guessing the meaning of words
  from context

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As a teacher, what do you think about students
using dictionaries?
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What does research say about the effect
of dictionaries on language learning?
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True or False?

• Looking up words while reading impairs overall
  comprehension of the text
• Students remember the meaning of words theyve
  looked up better than those theyve guessed from
  context
• The best kind of dictionary is monolingual
• Students rely on dictionaries too much

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Using a dictionary vs guessing

• Its often difficult to guess the meanings of
  words from context, especially for beginning
  learners
• Advanced students were found to often look up
  words after they had already correctly guessed
  the meaning
• If students arent forced to infer meaning from
  context or use dictionaries, they often dont
  bother

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Benefits of dictionary use

• Using a dictionary while reading has been found
  to aid in vocabulary acquisition
• Students who used a dictionary learned more new
  words than those without a dictionary or marginal
  gloss
• Students remembered meanings of words theyd
  looked up more than those given in marginal
  glosses

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Challenges for students

• Information can be difficult to extract
• Definitions can be difficult to understand
• Choosing the right definition of words with more
  than one meaning is hard
• Learners often dont pay attention to grammatical
  information in entries

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What does it feel like to look up a word in a
different language?
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Dictionary Survey

• Participants
• 13 Level E (Entry)
• 15 Level 2 (Low Intermediate)
• -3 Level 3-5 (Intermediate-Advanced)
• Total 31 students
• Instruments
• Online survey using surveymonkey.com
• Paper-based survey

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Purpose of survey To discover

• How often students use dictionaries
• What motivates students to use dictionaries
• What kind(s) of dictionaries learners prefer
• If bilingual is preferred to monolingual
• What information students look for in a
  dictionary entry

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Findings 1

• How often do they use dictionaries?
• Everyday at least once (64)
• Every week at least once (25)
• A few times a month (11)

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Findings 2

• When do learners use dictionaries the most?
• Reading (80)
• Doing homework (64)
• When asked by a teacher in class (41)
• When do learners use dictionaries the least?
• During oral/aural activities (i.e. watching TV,
  conversations) (19 )

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Findings 3

• What kind(s) of dictionaries do learners prefer?
• Electronic (60)
• Online (42)
• Paper (14)

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Findings 4

• Monolingual vs Bilingual
• Over all, students reported that they preferred
  both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries.
• More Level 2 students use monolingual
  dictionaries than Level E students.
• Students find bilingual dictionaries easier to
  use than monolingual dictionaries

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(No Transcript)
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Findings 5

• What information do students look for in a
  dictionary entry?
• Definition (64)
• Translation (50)
• Parts of speech (50)

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Other observations

• The higher the level a student is, the more they
  use dictionaries when writing personal emails
  and/or writing on Facebook
• Lower level students use dictionaries to find out
  the phonological information more than advanced
  students

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Students voices Monolingual users

• When I use bilingual dictionary, i can
  understand easily. But, I prefer to use
  monolingual dictionary because it help me study
  English.
• Because it helped me to understand the meaning
  very well. English to English.

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Students voices Bilingual users

• The bilingual dictionary is easy to understand
• It makes me understand the meaning

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Students voice Online users

• we can find the word easily and it can sound the
  "native" speaker's voice.
• http//www.answers.com/dic.This link provides the
  list of meaning and even uses the word in a
  simple sentences.Typing the word is enough we
  donot need to search for it as in case of book.

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Students voice Electronic users

• Easy to carry, easy to use
• I can use it anywhere when I need it

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In sum

• Monolingual dictionaries are used just as
  frequently as Bilingual dictionaries
• Learners benefit from using both Bilingual and
  Monolingual dictionaries
• Learners use Electronic or Online dictionaries
  much more frequently than Paper based
  dictionaries

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Pedagogical Implications

• Encourage lower-level students to look up words
  whenever they need to
• Encourage guessing words from context more with
  higher-level students
• Inform students about different kinds of
  dictionaries and help them choose the right kind
  for their level and needs
• Give students practice finding a variety of
  information

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Pedagogical implications cont.

• Give students practice choosing the right
  definition of words with more than one meaning
• Teach students how to find and use grammatical
  information in entries

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Skills and knowledge necessary in order to fully
use a dictionary

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• 1) The alphabet (paper dictionary only)
• 2) Pieces of information within a dictionary
  entry
• 3) Parts of speech
• 4) Pronunciation
• 5) Spelling
• 6) Syllabification
• 7) Stress/emphasis
• 8) Grammatical use (N-count/noncount, V
  transitive/intransitive)
• 9) Synonyms/Antonyms
• 10) Choosing appropriate meaning
• 11) Collocations
• 12) Register
• 13) Frequency

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Activities

• The ABCs
• Build a Dictionary Entry

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• cell /s?l/
• ? N-COUNT
• A cell is the smallest part of an animal or plant
  that is able to function independently. Every
  animal or plant is made up of millions of cells.
  ? Those cells divide and give many other
  different types of cells. ?blood cells.
• ? N-COUNT
• A cell is a small room in which a monk or nun
  lives. ? Do you recall how many prisoners were
  placed in each cell?

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In Conclusion...

• Guessing words from context complements
  dictionary use
• Teaching dictionary skills can encompass other
  skills and knowledge
• Teaching students to effectively and
  appropriately use dictionaries increases learner
  autonomy