The effect of using monolingual English learners’ dictionaries on EFL students’ in-depth vocabulary knowledge

Abstract

Vocabulary learning is an important aspect in language learning. Learning new words is a primary concern for most EFL students. However, improving word knowledge is a complex activity. As a result, many EFL students depend on English-English dictionaries, paper and electronic, to improve their vocabulary knowledge. The previous years knew a burgeoning of many modern dictionaries that use large corpora; consequently, making the dictionary an essential means in EFL learning and teaching with regard to the first generation of dictionaries. The purpose of this study is to investigate students and teachers attitudes towards the use of modern language dictionaries. To achieve this two questionnaires were administered to nineteen teachers and eighty second year students of English at the University of Frères Mentouri, Constantine 1. In addition, an experiment was carried out to examine the effect of using monolingual English learners’ dictionaries in electronic and paper form on students’ in-depth vocabulary knowledge. Specifically, this experiment used a dimensional approach to investigate the degree to which students improved the in depth knowledge of 08 target words, through using English monolingual learners dictionaries, in both print and electronic form, while reading a text. The results show that EFL students’ in depth vocabulary knowledge improves when they use their dictionaries, namely electronic ones. Thus, using dictionaries as a learning tool deserves more attention in the context of EFL learning and teaching.