DictionarySkillsinEnglishLearning

霍鑫+红王潇

【Abstract】Dictionary skills are very useful and essential in learning a language， so there are some concrete recommendations about dictionary skills. This article reports on third-year college English students reaction to dictionary skills. And some points to develop dictionary skills are introduced in this essay.

【Key words】dictionary skills； English

1. Introduction and Background

As a college English teacher for 18 years， I have seen numerous anecdotal examples of dictionary errors such as these：“Bubble feet.” （Paojiao） and “Good good study， day day up.” （haohaoxuexi， tiantianxiangshang）. The examples illustrate what happens when an inexperienced language learner chooses the wrong equivalent from a bilingual dictionary while encoding into the second language. In order to prevent these interference errors， paying attention to the dictionary skills plays a very significant role in English studying for Chinese college students. And there is rare materials and little guidance on how to develop the skills.

Research into the role of dictionaries in English learning has been varied in orientation and methodology， leading， at times， to somewhat contradictory conclusions and recommendations. One study found that dictionaries were an essential learning tool， many also expressed concerns about dictionary use. Some felt that overdependence on dictionaries may lead to ‘individual word syndrome， which means encoding into the target language word-by-word， or fail to use the dictionary properly due to inadequate skills.

2. Procedures

The data to be discussed below were collected during three separate semesters in a third-year college students in Dalian University of Finance and Economy. They are all native speakers of Chinese. All lessons on using a dictionary were taught within the context of the course goal， which were to improve students grammatical knowledge base and writing proficiency in English.

Throughout the course， emphasis was given to the skills of looking up rather than of memorizing requisite grammar rules and vocabulary. The objectives of dictionary skills are as follows：

（1） Discredit the individual word syndrome， show students that word-for-word translations often fail to convey their intended message. Raise awareness of polysemous words.

（2） Show students the relationship between reference skills and writing， revising and editing.

（3） Show students the relationship between knowing grammar labels and being able to look up linguistic information.endprint

（4） Familiarize students with the strengths and weaknesses of an assortment of language reference books.

（5） Provide students with strategies-skimming and scanning dictionary entries， using abbreviations， and cross-checking or consulting multiple sources-for making accurate lexical selections.

（6） Show students that dictionaries contain not only lexical information but also grammatical information.

In order to assess the overall usefulness and effectiveness of dictionary-skills training， the learners were asked to fill out several feedback forms.

3. Qualitative Analysis and Discussion

Students comments on the various feedback forms also confirm that they found the lesson on using the dictionary to be very useful. Since， for the most part， the forms contained open-ended questions such as “About using a bilingual dictionary， I have learned…” or “About using a bilingual dictionary， I still dont understand…” a qualitative approach to the data analysis is necessary. The comments are organized around the following themes：attitudes towards the dictionary and dictionary skills lessons；knowledge and skills gained；the relationship of dictionary skills t writing and proofreading；and problems with the lessons.

3.1 Attitudes towards the dictionary and dictionary lessons

In general， learners attitudes towards the dictionary lessons were very favorable. IN fact， in response to the question， “The most important thing（s） I have learnt in this class is（are）…” several students mentioned referencing skills：

a. It is necessary to take each part of the sentence and break it down while consulting grammar and dictionary texts

b. Use of dictionary， proofreading， verbs

c. Using the dictionary. Learning to proofread my own English.

d. Editing my paper and using reference books

Not all attitudes were positive， however. On one form， a student wrote she didnt understand， “Why are they so difficult to use？Those who make those things have too much time on their hands.” As students were allowed to use a dictionary of their own choosing， not all students had dictionaries of equal quality， Some students were frustrated by the activities and exercises because their dictionary did not contain all of the information they needed or their dictionary was not organized in a way that make the information easily accessible. A few students complained that they couldnt answer questions in the tests because of limitations of their dictionary.endprint

The negative attitudes， perhaps， could have been avoided had the students all used the same dictionary. If the dictionaries used were the same， it will be sure all the learners had access to the same information， and it would be easier to anticipate what information learners would find in their dictionaries.

One clear benefit of allowing various kinds of dictionaries is that it gives them the opportunity to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each kinds. Each month， several learners come to this realization on their own， they seem to be more willing to spend money on a better one. Furthermore， when students work with partners who all own different dictionaries， they have the opportunity to consult several sources when solving a dictionary problem， a strategy that will be important when their writing requirements become more demanding.

3.2 Knowledge and skills acquired

The data show that learners became aware that bilingual dictionaries provide much more than just lexical equivalents in two languages. The skills raise ones consciousness of the polysemic nature of certain lexemes and how this affects which equivalents are appropriate in different contexts.

Here are some feedbacks below：

a. I never knew there was so much to them.

b. If used correctly， they have a wealth of information

c. Before I would use the first word I saw in the dictionary. Now I know to look further， and to cross-check my selection.

d. I didnt know that there are so many meanings

e. I need to learn how to figure out which word is appropriate in each context.

f. I learnt that you cannot use the first definition.

g. I learned to find the exact use for the word.

h. I learnt not to take the first word as it， but look for other words.

i. I learned to be careful when choosing words with more than one meaning.

j. You have to read the entire definition before you can be sure about anything.

In addition to general reference knowledge， specific information contained in dictionaries are learned. For example， nearly every learners indicated that the referencing of irregular verbs was something they had not known about before. One writes， “I never knew that the number next to the verb had a rule to go along with it.” This is important knowledge， because it would not be possible for learners to memorize every single irregular verb they might use. While most learners indicated that they already knew how to look up a nouns gender in the dictionary， a few did not. One wrote， “Thank look-up strategies that they had learned. Paying attention to the abbreviations， learning what the abbreviations stood for， reading the whole entry， cross-checking， and consulting multiple sources were the most frequently mentioned strategies. ”endprint

3.3 The relationship between dictionary skills and writing and proofreading

The dictionary exercises used on the course were developed primarily to reduce the occurrence of word-by-word translations， noun-modifier-agreement mistakes and misspelled conjugations in learners compositions. It was hoped that explicit instruction in using dictionaries and grammar reference books would lead learners to correct their own agreement and conjugation errors.

3.4 Problems with the lessons

4. Conclusions and Recommendations

The favorable findings in the data suggest that foreign language learners benefit from dictionary skills training. Specific skills and strategies examined in this article include raising learns awareness of polysemy， familiarizing learners with common abbreviations， encouraging students to consult multiple sources and encouraging them to consult their dictionary or grammar book to reduce agreement errors and verb conjugation misspellings. It is important to remember that these strategies were chosen to reduce frequent encoding errors and are by no means the only dictionary strategies that should be taught. Other aspects which may still important are pronunciation， spelling， capitalization， and accent marks， to name a few. For decoding， the strategy of looking for uninflected forms， which is how words are normally listed， One might also teach learners to attempt to guess meaning from context first and then use the dictionary to confirm their guess.

Based on the data presented above， several commendations can be made for introducing dictionary skills into a foreign language course. Most importantly， dictionary training should not be ad hoc. Rather， it should be tied to specific course objectives and fully integrated with other course content. In order to determine which dictionary skills to master， it is useful to administer a pre-test or survey of dictionary skills and meta-linguistic knowledge prior to the start of the course. Finally， dictionary skills are very important in ones learning English， and they should be improved and reinforced and used often.

References：

[1]Angel，T A.and Cross，K.Classroom Assessment Techniques.

[2]霍鑫紅，陈璐.Opinions on English Teaching and Learning.

[3]霍鑫红，田雪静.Study on the Effects of Mistake Correction in English Teaching.

[4]Walz，J.（1991）‘the dictionary as a secondary source in language learning.endprint