Investigating the Use of Different Types of Dictionaries: Perceived Usefulness versus Practical Usefulness

This study explored the perceived usefulness and the practical usefulness of different types of dictionaries, and the probable correlation between these two variables. Seeking for learners‟ perceptions of the usefulness of four dictionary types, the researchers distributed a questionnaire among 94 intermediate learners of English at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz. The participants were then divided into six groups: printed bilingual, electronic bilingual, printed monolingual, electronic monolingual, blended group of printed monolingual and printed bilingual, and blended group of electronic monolingual and electronic bilingual. Having taken a vocabulary pre-test, developed based on Laufer‟s framework (2004), the six groups received 24 words in two sessions and studied them utilizing the related type of dictionary. Then they took three post-tests within different time intervals. This helped find out the practical usefulness of each dictionary type. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and ANOVA in SPSS. Results showed that „using electronic monolingual English dictionaries‟ enjoyed the highest perceived usefulness. And regarding the practical usefulness of dictionary types, no statistically significant difference was found between the overall gains of the six groups. Descriptive correlation analysis revealed that the increase in the practical usefulness of the dictionary use strategies was positively correlated with their perceived usefulness. This implies that Iranian intermediate EFL learners enjoy a high degree of familiarity with various dictionary use strategies; therefore, they can properly detect how useful each dictionary type can be in practice. Moreover, the findings evidence the value of learners‟ perceptions

Keywords:

dictionary types , perceived usefulness , practical usefulness