Non-English Major Students’ Dictionary Use In Vocabulary Learning

Dictionary, as an indispensable reference or learning tool for language learners, plays a significant role in the acquisition of language learning and using. As a convenient resource, it not only offers help in consulting the meaning of the word to language learners, but also supplies information on collocation, syntax, pragmatics and etymology and so on, therefore, to help language learners build vocabulary and enhance their skills. However, with the advancement of modern science and technology, dictionaries are now taking on a tendency of diversity in language learning, such as traditional paper dictionaries and glossaries, electronic dictionaries and online dictionaries, monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, general-purpose dictionaries, special-field dictionaries, and so on. Especially various electronic dictionaries, multifunctional, portable and convenient, are especially popular with college students of new generation during their process of vocabulary learning.Vocabulary learning has become the single most important aspect of language learning in the past20years. Dictionary use is one of the most common practices among language learners during their process of vocabulary learning. However, most college EFL learners are not efficient dictionary users. Complaints are often heard about the confusion and frustration brought about by dictionary consultation, and although they have devoted a lot of time to memorizing words, it is difficult for them to master the word. Vocabulary learning is a big problem they are always facing. The problems may result from the fact that dictionary consultation for most of the college students and on most occasions occurs spontaneously after class and without the teacher’s guidance. As a result, college students often use dictionaries independently after class and individual students show much variation in their consultation attitudes, beliefs, looking-up strategies and habits in their college EFL vocabulary learning process.The present study aims to examine the situation of dictionary use in college English vocabulary learning process from the following aspects:1) types of dictionary use;2) frequencies and purposes consulting of dictionary use;3) strategies and habits of consulting dictionary use;4) attitudes toward dictionary use;5) and the main differences between successful language learners and unsuccessful language learners in dictionary use. The learners’dictionary use strategies and attitudes are collected through a questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire survey is conducted to investigate105university students. A vocabulary test is designed to show the learners’ vocabulary proficiency. And then an interview is carried out to obtain information from5successful language learners and5unsuccessful language learners in order to find the main differences between successful language learners and unsuccessful language learners on their strategies, habits and attitudes toward dictionary consultation. Then with the help of SPSS, descriptive statistics are used to show the general picture of learners’ dictionary use, a correlation analysis is made to find out how various dictionary use strategies related to vocabulary knowledge.Results indicate that various electronic dictionaries, especially mobile phone dictionaries are widely used by non-English major students. And they also prefer to use Chinese-English bilingual dictionaries only with Chinese explanations. It has been also discovered that consulting dictionary for the purpose of usage and derivations are beneficial to the development of vocabulary learning.Meanwhile, the research shows that compared with the unsuccessful learners, the successful learners are more skillful in dictionary use. Dictionary use, as a resourcing strategy in cognitive strategy, is necessary for language learners in achieving vocabulary knowledge. So college English teachers should encourage students to make best use of dictionary in their vocabulary learning, and also teachers should try their best to develop students’ skills in dictionary use.