Estrategias en el uso del diccionario.

Processing Strategies and Problems Encountered in the Use of Dictionaries

Neubach, Abigail/Andrew D. Cohen

The dictionary is an accepted instructional aid in foreing language teaching. Its use us so widespread that its status is often taken for granted as far as teachers and students are concerned. Its potential as an aid to learning is usually not wustioned both learnes and teachers exprect the dictionary to solve problems created by unfamiliar vocabulary ítems that present themselves during the Reading process. Teachers’s attitudes toward the dictionary tend to be simplistic.  “ If  you don’t understand a certain Word, look it up in the dictionary” (see, for example, Scholfield). But what really happens when learners open their dictionaries?

There appears to be a lack of fit between expectations and realiti converning dictionary use. The reccomendation of teachers to learners to lool words up in the dictionary is base don the assumptions that (1) students  knows how to use a dictionary (2)  and the dictionary provides meanings. Students searches for words in the dictionary are base don the expectation that they will be able to find meanings without too much difficulty and that ideally these meanings will be accompanied by helpful examples of the Word used in context.  Yet students and teachers may be taking too optimistic a position if they think that dictionaries readily provide meaning for foreign words that are unknown or that the learner is insure of. In other words, the process of getting meaning is not so simple, in that cach search requires from the user a given level of linguistic proficiency, experience with dictionaries, prior Knowledge, and appropriate search strategies (Scholfield). It is also likely that in preparing the dictionary, the lexicographer assumes that potencial users will possess the necessary interpretive skills to use the dictionary effectively. A lexicographical metalanguage (gold). In actuality, there appears to be a lack of fit between the presuppositions of dictionary writers and the abilities of the users (Hartmann).

Although the gap between users needs and expectations of the dictionary and what the dictionary can actually offer has been dealt with in the research literature, the actual processing of dictionary entries by users seems to have been given somewhat less attention tan it deserves. It appears that certain presuppositions are made in the construction of dictionaries as to how they will be used and that such presuppositions may well be unfounded.

It is important to note that the dictionary probably cannot really help in the case of a completely unknow Word and can help only when one wants to check or recall a Word and can help only when one wants to check or recall a Word that is  already somewhat familiar to the user.  Using the dictionary, then may be frustrating in the  initial study of Word meaning as the definitions it gives are such that if learners have no conceptions of the Word to begin with, the definition may not help them very much because it may well contain words that are likewise unknow.

In order better to understand users apparent lack of efficeny in ditcionary use, it is necesary to examine what actually happens to students while they are using dictionaries during Reading.  The procedure is more complex than it might appear to be. When learners come across an unfamiliar Word and consider turning to the dictionary, they go through what amounts to a series of complex cognitive processes, where at every stage they have to make important deisions. First, a decisión has to be made whether the meaning can be inferred from contexto or whether the user needs the dictionary. More competent readers those who are good at inferring meaning from context are also likely to be more efficient dictionary users tan are slower readers. Hence, higher proficiency students probably make  les sus of dictionaries tan they might, while lower proficiency students, who need them more, are not able to use them effectively.

Once the reader decides to turn to the dictionary, the subsequent cognitive tasks can be quite demanding. The normal flow of Reading is interrupted for finding the Word, but the context where it appeared has to be kept in mind.

Furtermore, the search itself demands some technical skill, knowledge of external and internal letter order. C Broadhurst clalims that even such an “elementary skill” as habing a working knowledge of alphabet order must not be taken for granted.  The reader may also need to remove inflections in order to reecober the form being looled uup (Scholfield). When readers finally get to the desired Word, they still have to make some crucial decisions, a choice has to be made among the alternativespresented by the dictionary, and this choice has to be made according to the words function in context. With a tentative choice of the most  suitable definition, the reader must go back to the contet and make sure, by mentally replaceing the meaning for the world, that his is the correct meaning. No wonder, then, that such a process has great potential for error.

User difficulties help explain the dislike some learners have for the dictionary. In short, the task of finding the right meaning in the dictionary. In short, the task of finding the right meaning in the dictionary entails a complex set of processes, with potential  obstacles for users at every stage. Given the potencial obstacles, only a minority  of foreign language learners enjoy using monolingual dictionaries in the  target language. The majority  limit themselves to bilingual dictionaries and then only when they feel that they have no alternative. Few foreign language learners are truly aware of the linguistic resources that monolingual dictionaries provide them. These few tend to be competent learners, who may already know some or most of that information.

The problems discussed here simply underscore the importance of learning more about the needs of dictionary users as well as about the skills expected of them.

It is also necessary to examine to what extent the dictionary really helps its users, bearing in mind the problems mentioned. For example, found that using a dictionary did not influence performance in Reading comprehension among advanced EFL students.

In one of the few published “process” studies concerning dictionary use, J ard investigated how english as a second language students in a High intermediate level writing clase used  bilingual dictionaries. He collected both restrospective accounts of their  procedures in and out of class and examples of words they looked up in their bilingual  dictionary during class. He also obtained oral protocol data from two of his students while they were writing a shor in class composition, one of them using the bilingual dictionary while composing her text. Ard concluded that the use of a bilingual dictionary  leads to certain types of errors, depending on the differences between the user´s first and second language. Studies like this one motivated the current process oriented research  effort ainmed at further clarayfying  the sources of problems in dictionary use.

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