A Survey Of High School Students' Dictionary Use And Vocabulary Learning

All languages consist of vocabulary, grammar and phoneme. Vocabulary is of major importance among them. Vocabulary can have a deep effect on learners' language learning. This thesis holds the view that dictionary use can contribute to vocabulary acquisition. Many researches have been done on the dictionary use and vocabulary learning. Few researchers pay attention to the users from high school students. To test the hypotheses that the effective use of bilingual dictionary can improve vocabulary learning, the author has designed an empirical study. Forty subjects were chosen from high school students with the similar vocabulary proficiency. They were divided into experimental group (EG) and the contrast group (CG). The experimental group were given two-month dictionary strategy training. The students were given the training during their regular English lessons. The teacher spared several minutes (less than 10 minutes) to present and practice dictionary strategies in vocabulary learning. The ways of training learners in dictionary use were designed according to Thornbury's skills and Luo Siming's theory. The dictionary strategy training is to show learners how to choose the correct dictionaries, help them determine what words have to be looked up, instruct them to search for the appropriate headword and finding the appropriate entry, direct them how to read and search the entry and find where the location of target information, and teach them how to extract the information and set down the needed information. Six instruments were employed in this study, including two written questionnaires designed to assess subjects'tendency of dictionary use before and after training, a pre-test of vocabulary levels used to test their vocabulary levels, three post-tests after training including a normal vocabulary test designed to assess their vocabulary size, a long-term retention test designed to assess subjects'retention of the target words, a vocabulary competence test designed to test subjects'vocabulary competence. The results indicate that most of the students lacked dictionary skills before training, and dictionary strategy training in class can improve the learners dictionary use skills; dictionary strategies can enlarge subjects'vocabulary size, improve subjects'vocabulary competence and have an active effect on their long-term retention of the target words.