W 081 F

Introduction
"...using a dictionary is one of the basic things for learning a language" (Renkó 2). This is a complex research paper in which I would like to prove this declaration and to share my results that I gained from my research. In my view, learning a language without a dictionary is more difficult and takes more time and effort than with using one. The more often a learner uses a dictionary -- no matter if it is a monolingual or a bilingual one, the more successful he or she will be in progressing his or her knowledge of a language. On the basis of these thoughts I have started my research and I hope I will arouse all the people's interest in the theme who reads this work.

Method
I made interviews with students and a translator about how they use their dictionaries. I could not have completed this work without the patient collaboration of Haas Klára -- an English major and Italian minor at JPU, Czajlik Katalin -- an English major at ELU, Barkaszi Orsolya -- an English major at JPU, Szûcs Péter -- a Serbian major at ELU, Borsos Edina -- a German major at JPU, Bátki Andrea -- a French major at the university in Újvidek and Pisarov Ljubisa a Croatian-Hungarian translator. These people were my interviwees.

I chose the interviews instead of the questionaries because I thought asking my friends about how they use their dictionaries may lead to more relevant information than giving them questionaries. I think I was right because they give me personal and remarkable answers to my questions which I would not gained from the questionaries. This technology needs more time but is worth the effort.

Two of the interviews I made in April but the others I made in the first week of May 1998. When I started the interviews, I had some general questions in my mind. These were the questions:

1. What kind of dictionary do you use the most frequently? (monolingual, bilingual)
2. How frequently do you use it?
3. Do you like your dictionary? (If yes, why? If no, why?)
4. Do you bring your dictionary with yourself?
5. What other dictionaries do you use?

Between and after these questions my friends with whom I made the interviews told me more details about using their dictionaries.

The respondents of my interviews were not only students who study English. There were students who study Italian, Serb, German, French, English and a Croatian-Hungarian translator. I chose them because I was greatly intrigued by the similarities and differences about how they use their dictionaries. I thought consulting their dictionaries undergo a change together with the language they speak.

The translator is my boyfriend. He is one of those persons who are trilingual. I was interested in how frequently, why and when he uses a dictionary.

My respondents and I spoke Hungarian because it is our mother tongue and this was the language on which we could speak distinctly and continuously. I thought the interviews would not be successful if we spoke in English because some of my patients could be embarrassed; and of course in the case of Szûcs Péter and Bátki Andrea speaking English would be unaccomplishable because they do not speak English. In three cases we could speak in Serb or Croation but because of the reasons I wrote in the last two sentences, we omitted this possibility.
Results and Discussion
What was common in all of my interviews is the astonishment that showed all of my friends after I told them the topic. The conversation started a little bit clumsily. Some of them thought that I was not serious. After a while they eased off and answered my questions. It turned out that out of the seven persons five use both bilingual and monolingual but two of them only bilingual dictionaries. These dictionaries are the Herczeg Gyula (Italian), Zingarelli (Italian) -- in every year there is a new edition of it, Halász Elõd (German), Országh Laszló (English), Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (English), Longman Dictionary (English), Eckhardt Sándor (French), Hadrovics-Nyomárkay (Croation and Serb) types. Most of my interviewees don't have monolingual dictionaries at home so they use these types in the libraries. There are two reasons for why they don't have it at home: two of them don't need it, the others don't have the money for it.

To my question "How frequently do you use your dictionary?" the answers were different. Borsos Edina who is a German major consults her dictionary every day; Szûcs Péter -- a Serbian major looks up words in his dictionary once or twice in every two weeks. In my research these are the two extremities. I computed on the basis of my friends answers that on the average this seven people consult their dictionaries 6,28 times in two weeks. Szûcs Péter uses his dictionary rearly because he speaks Serb on a high level and usually he understands everything. He and Pisarov Ljubisa has to look up words in their dictionaries only if they want to translate a technical text expertly.

To my question "Do you like your dictionary?" most of them answered that they had never thought about this question. Finally they said that neither they like it nor they dislike it. Only Czajlik Katalin answered positively to this question. Her favourite dictionary is the Longman type, monolingual dictionary which she likes since it is modern, more understandable because of the examples and there are pictures in it. According to her the more you use it the more your knowledge will improve.

Out of my seven interviewees Haas Klára is the only person who carries her Herczeg Gyula type dictionary with herself. She told me that if there is an unknown word for her, she likes to know the exact meaning of the word. The others said that they don't carry their dictionaries with themselves because it wouldn't be comfortable.

I also asked the question "What other dictionary do you use?". Their replies were not so different. Most of them use thesauruses and a few of them: Barkaszi Orsolya, Bátki Andrea and Pisarov Ljubisa; use a dictionary which is on CD - ROM.

All of my friends who participated in this research, would like to have a computer and a dictionary program to be able to finish looking up words quickly. Those who have this dictionary program on CD - ROM said that using these programs is more comfortable and more quicker than the use of a traditional one.

Non of my interviewees consults a dictionary for idioms. They don't need it.

"... a big vocabulary automatically means a better argument or suggests a smarter writer." (Hubbard 140). I agree with Francis A. Hubbard and in writings using a dictionary will improve the style and the voice of the paragraph and the whole composition. Fortunately, there are various kinds of dictionaries at our disposal, so we can choose the one which we can use the most efficiently. "For many people, a technical vocabulary represents extreme precision in such fields as medicine, law, accounting, and various forms of engineering." (Hubbard 144). More information is available in the book from which I have taken this quotation.

Conclusion
The respondents have their own favourite dictionaries. The frequency of consulting it is different, but they realized the importance of using a dictionary to learn a language properly. During my research I found out that a dictionary is something personal, but people don't know it. People just buy them and they don't think about the fact that they chose the one which fits the best their needs and personalities.