W 019 F

Introduction
In this research my aim is to get a picture on what do students use more often, dictionaries (D) or thesauruses (Th), for essay writing at the English Department of Janus Pannonius University (JPU). The idea came from an essay I needed to write about my dictionary. In it I needed to explain what type of dictionary do I have and how do I use it. Thinking about these question I found it worth making a research about how my peers apply their dictionaries and in addition their thesauruses. First I wanted to find out whether they use both (B) or just either of them; if either: which one do they prefer. Another aim was to get information on how and for what grammatical problems do they use dictionaries and thesauruses.

Method
I put a questionnaire together, containing eight questions (see Appendix A), based on a material I got at first semester’s language practice course and asked ten girls and ten boys to fill it in. I did not select the students; I chose them randomly from my course and lecture mates. I analysed the boys’ and girls’ answers separatly, then I compared their replies. I expected that they would differ greatly, but apart from some questions the answers showed that their habit of using dictionaries and thesauruses are similar.

Results and Discussion

Age, semester
BOYS GIRLS
Age : numb./ yrs 1/18; 2/19; 4/20;
1/21; 1/22; 1/25; 2/19; 3/20; 2/21;
1/22; 2/24;
Semester: numb./sem. 6/2; 3 /4; 1/6 9/2; 1/6

The differences in the semester numbers are due to the credit system at JPU. With the credit system the majority of the courses and lectures are not semester bound. This is why I could be at the same course with sixth – semester students, yet the majority were in the second semester.

First question
Which one do you have? Dictionary /Thesaurus /Both
BOYS GIRLS
Only dictionary 4 5
Only thesaurus 0 0
Both of them 6 5

From the chart we can see that none of the students had only a thesaurus, and half of them had both. They probably only had them but didn’t really used them which appears in the answers of the next question.

Second question
Do you know what Thesaurus means? Explain:

This question was simply on general knowledge. I have heard that people tend to think that ’’thesaurus’’ is a kind of saurus. So I asked my peers whether they knew the meaning of it or not.

The precise answer [kincstár (treasury)] came only from one person, from a girl. The other answers showed that most of the students – 3 boys and 6 girls – thought that thesauruses contained synonyms and antonyms; 1 boy and 2 girls thought that thesauruses are special dictionaries with explanations and synonyms of words; 4 boys and 1 girl answered that thesauruses are monolingual dictionaries with synonyms, and 2 boys wrote that thesauruses explained meanings of words.

The result shows that students generally don’t know what do they use. From the replies of the third question we can find the answer why.

Third question
Which one do you use more often? Dictionary / Thesaurus
BOYS GIRLS
Dictionary 9 10
Thesaurus 1 0

We can understand why they did not know the answer to the second question from these data. These indicate a clear preference to dictionaries. Almost all of the students use dictionaries more often than thesauruses. Surprisingly to me the only thesaurus preference came from a second – semester boy. Before I checked the headding I thought that it came from the only sixth – semester boy but it did not.

Fourth question
How long have you been using your Thesaurus?

The answers here varied from 0 through four months to 5 years. Two Bs gave proximate dates: ’’since intermediate level’’, ’’since I’ve been using [W]ord for [W]indows’’.
YEARS BOYS GIRLS
(0: invalid answers)

We can acknowledge the common short time uses as the counterparts of the answers to the third question. Those who use thesauruses, use it since they are at the University. Sometimes I myself find the thesaurus more useful than the dictionary though there are grammatical problems that I can solve more easily with a dictionary. With the next question I intended to find out what did others use for solving their problems with grammar.

Fifth question
For the subquestions of the fifth question see Appendix A
BOYS GIRLS
(0: invalid answers)

As for the preferences for different problems the chart shows that the use of the thesaurus is rather specific among students. Almost all of them thought that the solutions for grammar problems came either from the dictionary or from the thesaurus. Among these tasks was looking up meanings. This I contributed to the results of the third question. Yet another thought – provoking finding was that only one girl thought that both sources can be used for looking up spelling. I myself think that both are equally good for this task and don’t understand why my peers do not.

Sixth question
How do you choose the right word? Explain:

Not everyone answered this question. Those who answered gave many different ones. Their point of view varied from the meaning to the sound and look alike. Some gave replies that did not answer the question. The general criterion was that the word needed to fit into the context. I have three favourite explanations that I think worth presenting: ’’ by guessing or which one I like more by the sound or look’’, ’’after the sound of it’’, ’’I look at the context [and] the word which fits in it is the winner’’

Seventh question
What sort of Dictionary do you prefer? Bilingual / Monolingual
BOYS GIRLS
Monolingual 5 5
Bilingual 5 5

As for the random selection of my peers we can acknowledge the 50% division as a general proportion among students.

Eighth question
Do you know who published and when your Dictionary/ Thesaurus?
This question is originally not mine. It came only as a piquancy but after realising that even I don’t know these details I grew curious whether the others knew.
BOYS GIRLS
Knew publisher of either 5 7
Knew publisher of both 4 1
Knew none 1 2

Among the names given were Országh, Oxford and Webster. One Cambridge and one Collins also appeared.

Conclusion
The findings show that thesauruses are rarely used by JPU students. Those who answered as they have and use thesaurus didn’t know what it means and what it contains. I didn’t ask about the students background but, I know that primary – and secondary – school teachers don’t offer thesaurus as alternative to dictionary. Though a thesaurus doesn’t offer just synonyms and antonyms, as many of the my peers answered, it is very handy for building vocabulary and for checking spelling and in some cases pronunciation too.

I consider the 50% preference for bilingual dictionaries to monolingual may characterize students’ vocabulary building habits at JPU. Personally I prefer monolingual dictionaries because they can urge students to use their brain more and harder.

I hope that my findings will motivate teachers to encourage students to use thesauruses more often.