Bilingualised or monolingual dictionaries? Preferences and practices of advanced ESL learners in Hong Kong

Bilingualised or monolingual dictionaries? Preferences and practices of advanced ESL learners in Hong Kong

• Chan, Alice Y. W. Dept of English, City University of Hong Kong

Language, Culture and Curriculum, 2010

Routledge

2010

• N Students & Student Services
  • NC Charactieristics & Conditions of Students; Opinion & Attitudes of Students, Problems of Adjustment
• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GB English Language

Bilingualism Dictionary Preference Use of Dictionaries

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

This article reports on the results of a questionnaire and interview survey on Cantonese ESL learners' preference for bilingualised dictionaries or monolingual dictionaries. The questionnaire survey was implemented with about 160 university English majors in Hong Kong and three focus group interviews were conducted with 14 of these participants. The results of the study showed that learners' own perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of the two types of dictionaries were largely in line with previous research findings, but some learners had mistaken beliefs about bilingualised dictionaries, especially about the alleged lack of definitions and usage information. Misconceptions such as these could be dispelled by ESL teachers who, by designing programmes which incorporate the use of bilingualised dictionaries, alert their learners to the bank of information such dictionaries can provide. Editors of bilingualised dictionaries could also adopt more eye-catching special features or highlighting techniques to attract users' attention to the usage information included. When encountering difficulties, learners should be encouraged to use both types of dictionaries.
[Copyright of Language, Culture and Curriculum is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2010.510196]

• English

Journal Articles

• 07908318

• 10.1080/07908318.2010.510196

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/05d15114

2010-12-24