An Investigation Into Dictionary Use Among Post-90s Students

Dictionary, as an indispensible learning tool for language learners, plays a significant role in the process of language learning and using. As Rubin and Thompson (1994) suggested in How to Be a More Successful Language Learner:Toward Learner Autonomy, resources that can effectively help learners with the acquisition of linguistic knowledge are language teacher, language textbook, dictionary, grammatical reference book and media resources. However, with the advancement of modern science and technology, learner's dictionary of English is expanding with many new trends. Various electronic dictionaries, multifunctional, portable and convenient, are especially popular with college students of new generation.This thesis adopts both qualitative and quantitative method to investigate the general status of dictionary use among Post-90s non-English major students. A questionnaire survey is undertaken by the researcher on the subjects chosen from Jiujiang University and vocabulary proficiency tests, including breadth of vocabulary knowledge (BVK) test and depth of vocabulary knowledge (DVK) test, are conducted. After that, the results of questionnaire and vocabulary proficiency tests are analyzed by statistic software SPSS. Statistic results of types of dictionary used, consultation frequency and purposes, looking-up habits and strategies, attitude toward dictionary use and vocabulary proficiency tests are received. Soon afterwards, a comparative analysis is made between statistic results of dictionary use survey and vocabulary proficiency tests. And statistic results of correlation between dictionary use and vocabulary proficiency. In the end. the tendency of dictionary use in Post-90s students and impacts of traditional and non-traditional dictionary use on vocabulary knowledge and learning strategies of Post-90s Students are further discussed.The results finally show that various electronic dictionaries are widely used by Post-90s college students and values of traditional paper dictionary, an important language learning tool actually, are underestimated. This has a great impact on the English proficiency of Post-90s college students. Therefore, English teachers should provide them with better and urgent guidance about dictionary use.