| This study describes an investigation of the effect of Korean EFL university students' topic interest on their dictionary use and vocabulary learning. Sixty-seven Korean university students who were learning English as a foreign language read two English magazine passages. A topic interest survey was used to designate a passage on marriage as having high topic interest and a passage on bell peppers as having low topic interest. A modified form of the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency was administered to determine the subjects' level of English proficiency. Subjects read both articles and recorded: the number of words they looked up for each passage, where they used a paper or an electronic dictionary, whether the dictionary was either mono or bilingual, and the purpose for the look up. The data were analyzed by high and low topic interest and by higher and lower English proficiency.;To test vocabulary learning, thirty-six target words (18 from each article) were designated by the researcher and the subjects' English teacher as difficult and probably unknown to the subjects. On the day the subjects returned the dictionary use records, they took a word recognition and recall test, a pre-knowledge of the target words test, and a multiple-choice vocabulary test on the target words. To test vocabulary retention, the subjects took the same multiple choice test three weeks later.;Mean score on the English proficiency test was used as a cut-off point, and the subjects were divided into two proficiency groups. Thirty-two subjects belonged to the higher proficiency group, and 35 belonged to the lower proficiency group.;Data analysis indicated that there was a significant difference in the number of words the subjects looked up in the dictionary, in their satisfaction level, and in the incidental and retention vocabulary scores depending on their topic interest. However, amount of searching was not influenced by the subjects' topic interest. The result also reveals that the type of dictionary did not affect the number of look-ups and the frequency of dictionary look-ups did not influence the vocabulary scores. It is concluded that vocabulary scores were related to topic interest; however, dictionary use does not seem to be the reason for the relationship. |
