Year: 2002
Type: article
Abstract: This paper reports on an investigation into the dictionary‐using habits of international students studying in the medium of English at a British University. Over a period of three years, six groups of students were set assignments requiring them to report on the way they had consulted dictionaries to find the meanings of unknown words in texts of their choice. Eighty‐nine assignments were analysed, to reveal subjects' choices of reading material, look‐up words and dictionaries. The data also showed that whilst the majority of words were looked up successfully, more than half the subjects were unsuccessful in at least one out of five dictionary consultations. Subjects were found to have particular difficulty in selecting appropriate entries and sub‐entries in their dictionaries. Some consultation problems resulted in serious errors of interpretation, which subjects were largely unaware of.
DOI: 10.1093/ijl/15.4.277
Author: H. Nesi
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1976790246