Electronic Dictionaries

Nagat Zeinelabdin

Electronic Dictionaries

In an age when technology is rapidly entering every aspect of our lives, educators are constantly striving to find new approaches to integrate emerging technologies with education.  It has only been a few decades since computers were standardized in school education and made available for students. Small electronic tools, such as iPods and dictionaries, are constantly being acquired by students and coming into heavier use. Electronic dictionaries are one of such recent technologies that have come to the attention of educators.

Functions of electronic dictionaries:

Electronic dictionaries are becoming increasingly popular; especially among language learners. Like print dictionaries, electronic dictionaries may be used for a wide variety of functions, beyond word-to-word translation tasks, such as to:

• Provide a definition of a word within the same language (i.e., English to English),
• spell check a word,
• explain idiomatic expressions, and
• clarify word structures (i.e., prefixes and suffixes).

Advantages of use:

The type of electronic tool has several advantages when compared to print dictionaries. For example, electronic dictionaries provide quick and easy access to desired results; the user wouldn’t need to conduct the time consuming alphabetical list search as in print dictionaries. Also, electronic dictionaries are usually pocket-size and mobile.

Educators observations:

Many educators consider new technologies, such as electronic dictionaries, to be a distraction to their teaching methodologies. Many educators have recently complained from student use of electronic dictionaries; Instead of trying to figure out the definition of new words or phrases (a task that teachers consider as essential to the learning process), students rush to their dictionaries.  However, such a problem should be attributed to the teacher’s approach in regulating the use of electronic tools in the classroom; however, not in technology.

Research showed electronic dictionaries to be highly valuable in student learning, because they produce quick results and save time. Even in the learning process, electronic dictionaries are valuable ; in order to conduct word search, the user has to spell the letters of the target word, which by its self is considered a valuable student learning task.

Conclusive Remarks:

From my teaching experience, the use of printed paper dictionaries slows down the students’ performance. They make students consume significant time from the class time when look up words.

In class, while speaking or listening to a passage, students frequently find themselves needing to know instantly the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Lacking a quick word-search tool, they direct their questions to the teacher. This distracts the class and disturbs the focus of the lesson.

Only very recently, many students resort to the use of Google Translate feature in class, which served the same role of the electronic dictionary. It is also fast and does not require obtaining an additional machine; it is available on the computer screen.

Nonetheless, Google lacks several important features found in electronic dictionaries. For example, Google Translate does not always provide the varied possible definitions of words. Electronic dictionaries can deal with rich alternates of a word’s meanings. In my experience, as a teacher and as a regular electronic dictionary user, I find that students can benefit much more from using the tool over the use of Google feature.

References:

Fox, G., & Potter, E. (2006). Using bilingual dictionaries in the classroom. Med Magazine, 41. Retrieved from http://www.macmillandictionaries.com/med-magazine/August2006/41-Feature-Bilingual.htm

Kisito, F. (nd). The Advent of Electronic Dictionaries in ESL/EFL Learning. ESL Magazine : Read & Publish ESL Articles. Retrieved from the ESL Galaxy website http://www.esl-galaxy.com/electronicdictionaries.html

Martine, L. (nd). 21 Creative Ways to use Dictionaries in the Classroom (Himeji Dokkyo University) Rerieved from http://www.tht-japan.org/proceedings/2006/martine21-26.pdf

Yonally, D, & Gilfert, S. (1995). Electronic Dictionaries in the Classroom!? Bah, Humbug! (Nagoya University of Foreign Studies). Retrieved from The Internet TESL Journal Website http://iteslj.org/Articles/Yonally-ElecDict.html