Investigating The Gap Between Dictionary Use And Dictionary Needs Of Chinese ESP Students

The present study investigated the gap between the problems encountered by Chinese ESP learners when using current English-Chinese specialized dictionaries on the one hand, and their perception of an ideal bilingual specialized dictionary on the other.Thirteen Chinese ESP (English for specific purposes) college students were first asked to translate three English passages into Chinese by using available English-Chinese general-purpose and specialized dictionaries. During the translation they were required to note down the following information about their consultation of dictionaries: (a) each word/expression they consulted in the dictionaries, (b) the specific type(s) of information they would like to know about the word/expression, (c) the dictionaries they consulted when looking up the word/expression, (d) the dictionary in which they found the needed information, (e) the type(s) of information that was(were) available, and (f) the type(s) of information that was(were) unavailable. Then, they were asked to respond to a questionnaire inquiring about the participants' views on usefulness and usability of the bilingual specialized dictionaries they had just used in translation. Finally, an interview was conducted in which the participants commented on the inconveniences they experienced in using English-Chinese specialized dictionaries and talked about their expectations about an idealized bilingual specialized dictionary.The major findings are: (a) there existed a wide gap between what the participants needed when performing translation task and what the current English-Chinese specialized dictionaries can offer; (b) there was a gap between dictionary usefulness and dictionary usability; and (c) dictionary users' reference needs can be further divided into task-induced reference needs and perceived needs. The implications of the above findings for the future bilingual specialized dictionary compilation were discussed.