English learners' dictionaries: An undervalued resource

Abstract

Many students are unaware of the value of learners' dictionaries and prefer to use bilingual dictionaries, which offer a quick and easy translation of unknown vocabulary. Nevertheless, they frequently find that bilingual dictionaries do not provide enough information to allow them to use new words productively By undertaking a vocabulary exercise using either bilingual dictionaries or monolingual English learners' dictionaries, ESL students at an Australian university were exposed to a new resource and evaluated the contribution it made to their use of unfamiliar English vocabulary The potential contribution that learners' dictionaries could make to their use of academic English was also assessed by the students. It was found that, though most students had little prior knowledge of learners' dictionaries, at the end of the session they rated the learners' dictionaries more highly than bilingual dictionaries in terms of the contnbution which each dictionary could make to their English writing skills.