Estrategias en el uso del diccionario.

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The specific research question were as follows:

1.- What strategies and outcomes characterize the use of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries by EFL learners?

2.- How does the proficiency level of the studen realte to the strategies used and outcomes?

3.- Does the search for a giben Word provoke certain strategies and outcomes?

4.- Does the dictionary aid in performing Reading comprehension tasks?

5.- What type of dictionary do students at different levels of proficiency prefer?

6.- Are there strategies or outcomes specific to the use of a monolingual or a bilingual dictionary?

7.- In what ways might the dictionaries themselves be problematic?

Research Design

Subjects

The subjects were six students at the Pre-Academic Center of the Hebrew university of jerusalem. They were ar that time enrolled in a course in the Reading of academic text in english as a foreign language. Two students each were selected from high, intermediate, and low-level EFL clases.

Instrumens and data collection procedures.

1.- DIctionaries: Tree dictionaries were used by students in the study.

a. English- English: lower-level students used the Longman Active Study Dictionary of Englush, intended for beginners. Intermediate and advanced students used Collins Englush Learner’s Dictionary. These dictionaries were selected because they represented the dictionaries that the students were actually using in their current EFL clases and that they were thus accustomed to.

b. English-Hebrew: All students used the Megido Modern Dictionary.

2.- Tasks: Every student had to complete two tasks individually, each requiring the use of a dictionary. There was no time limit puto n these tasks. Task #1 consisted of ten sentences , each containing and underlined polysemic Word. Appendice A

Students had to look these words up in the dictionary (even when they claimed that they knew them), first in the monolingual and then in the bilingual dictionary. Learners were to provide verbal report protocol while searching for words in the dictionary, indicating the processes they were using in their search. The protocols were tape-recorded subjects were to give each Word meaning in their native language (hebrew) and to explain why they had selected that meaning. Meanings were to be provides in Hebrew as a way of checking wheter the words were actually understood.

In task #2, students were once again confronted with ten words to look up, this time in a passage written by Helen Keller( approximately 150 words see appendix B), and once again they were requested to provide veral report data. All words selected were uncommon to ensure the need for a dictionary. In this task, learners could select whickever dictionary they preferred, ore ven forgo the use of a dictionary if they so chose. Learners were also asked to summarize the passage in ther native language as a check for genrel omprehension beyond Word-level recognition.

Strategies and outcomes were tallied quantitatively on the basis of the recordes protocols. They were calculated for each student separately according to frequency of occurence.

3.- Interview: In both tasks, subjects were also interviewed, about their attitudes and preferences regarding the selection and use of the dictionaries, and as a part of the second task they were questioned as to why they chose a given dictionary (english-english or english hebrew.) appendix C

Findings

The followings are the finding by reseach question:

1.- Strategies and outcomes characterizing the use of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries bu EFL learners on task # 1.

The analysis of the data revealed a variety of strategies and outcomes both at the point when stuents were first confronted with the set of unknown words in the ten sentences and then during and after the search. They included:

- Before the search:

- Reading the sentene repeatedly before going to the dictionary.

- Translating the sentence into the native language

- Encountering a problema with other words in the sentence.

- Forgoing a decisión regarding the part of speech

- Formulating an incorrect expectationas to the posible meaning of a Word

- Formulating a correct expectation as to the posible meaning of a Word.

- During or a t the end of the search:

- Reading only the first definition in themonolingual dictionary. Sample quotations (translated from hebrew) (low student) “ I didn’t go on after the first definition. I thought all the rest were just examples. (advanced student) There are many definitions here, quite close in meaning. Usually I wouldn’t bother to find the precise one. I would make do with one that cobers the general idea.

- Encountering a problema with vocabulary in a definition in themonolingual dictionary. Sample quotation other low student: I don´t understand this definition. What should I do, Look up the meanings of words in the definitions? Where does it stop?

- Encountering a problem with terminology in the monolingual dictionary (abbreviations, acronyms, terms). Sample quotations. (low level) “ All these signs and abbreviations frighten me!” advanced student “ I like using the dictionary and do so quite often, but I don’t like all those abbreviations and symbols, whick make the search tiresome”

- Encountering an alphabet order problema especially internal to the Word being sought. Sample quotation: advanced student “ I have a problema with alphabetic order. I keep having to sing to myself that tune we learned in the first of our English studies in order to remember which letter comes next”.

- Encountering a problema with the monolingual or bilingual dictionary entry itself the desired meaning is not found.

- Encountering a problema with the formal for presentation of the definition in a given monolingual