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Introduction

The use of dictionaries is a basic requirement in learning a foreign language. Different dictionaries are helpful in solving such problems as finding the meaning of words, correcting grammatical mistakes, finding synonyms for words and finding the meaning of idioms. If students want to professionally acquire and maintain a language, they have to get in touch with these types of books. In this paper I will present the results of a survey on the use of dictionaries in the English Department of JPU.

Method

To get information about the dictionary use of students I compiled a one-page-long questionnaire which I gave to fourteen students on 4th May 1998. These students were all English majors at JPU and attended Horváth József’s “Writing and Research Skills” course. I asked them to fill out my questionnaire because I would have liked to know how other people of my age used their dictionaries in their studies. The questionnaire contained ten simple questions, of which the fourth and the tenth were multiple choice questions. Each of the other eight could be answered in a sentence.

The questions were:

1. Have you ever used a dictionary?
2. Which is your favourite dictionary? Why?
3. Do you use a monolingual or a bilingual dictionary?
4. What do you usually do when you find a word or expression that
you have never seen before?
a. I go and look its meaning up in a dictionary.
b. I try to guess what can it mean by using the context.
c. I just don’t care about its meaning. It’s enough if I
understand the other parts of the text.
d. I ask someone to tell me its meaning.
5. Do you think dictionaries help a lot in learning a foreign
language?
6. If you read a book in a foreign language do you look up all the
unknown words in a dictionary?
7. Would you like to use a dictionary software instead of a real one?
8. Do you think it would be easier to use such a software? Why?
9. Would you consult a dictionary if you did not know the correct
spelling of a word?
10. When did you use dictionaries the most frequently?
a. When I began to learn English.
b. When I was at intermediate level.
c. When I was at advanced level.

The answers given to these questions clearly reflect why, how, when and what types of dictionaries English majors usually use. (I enclosed the fourteen questionnaires to give the reader the chance to have a look at the answers.)

Results and Discussion

I compiled the questionnaire in a way that the answers would provide me with a complex picture of dictionary use at JPU. What I expected from the results of the analysis was to find relatively similar methods in dictionary use.

After having analysed the answers I realised that no huge differences occurred in them. Every student stated that a dictionary was an indispensable tool in learning and maintaining English language.

All the students answered yes to the first question, which means that they have already used dictionaries.

There were some differences in the answers to the second question. As the results show, the most popular dictionary among students was the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Five students preferred this because they said it was up-to-date, easy to use and detailed. There were four students who preferred Országh because they used it in their earlier studies. They thought it was much comprehensible to know the Hungarian meaning of a word than to read an explanation of its meaning in English. The remaining five students’ favourite dictionaries were either Webster’s or Collins-Cobuild. They said these were the most detailed and useful ones.
The answers show that the majority of students use both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The reason lies in the fact that when using a monolingual dictionary one runs into difficulties in interpreting a word the bilingual one helps to surmount the problems. Two people used only a bilingual and one used only a monolingual dictionary.

I was surprised looking at the answers to the fourth question. The number of students who would have looked the meaning of a new word up in a dictionary was almost equal to those who would have tried to guess for its meaning by using the context. I thought the
majority would look a new word’s meaning up in a dictionary, though I also would try to guess what can it mean by using the context. Only one person said he or she would ask someone else about the meaning of it.

All the students reported that dictionaries help a lot in learning a foreign language. They are essential if someone wants to be a competent user of that language.

The same answer was given to the sixth question by everyone. They said they would not look up all the unknown words in a dictionary while reading a book in a foreign language. They would look for the meaning of the relevant words.

Three people said they would not even try to use dictionary software, either because they thought it would be more complicated or they would simply not be able to get used to a computerised dictionary. Those who answered yes thought it would be much quicker to look up the meaning of a word using such software. In fact it would really be faster than thumbing through a thousand-page-long dictionary mumbling the alphabet in your head all the time.
The answers given to the ninth question prove that students used their dictionaries for writing purposes as well. Thirteen of them consulted a dictionary when they did not know the exact spelling of a word. There was only one person who gave a negative answer.

The analysis of the answers to the last question shows us a clear picture of the frequency of the use of dictionaries among these fourteen students. The more competent speakers people become the less frequently they use dictionaries. The main reason for this is that as people get to a higher level in the acquisition of a foreign language their vocabulary widens. They also become more capable of guessing the meaning of words by using the context.

Conclusion

I have analysed and presented the results of a questionnaire which can be useful for students and teachers as well. Teachers can get information about the way their students use dictionaries in their studies. Students can apply the experiences of others in dictionary use. As the answers show, English majors at Janus Pannonius

University use dictionaries for several reasons. They use them to find the meaning of words they do not know, to find out the correct spelling of words, and to solve all problems which can come up while writing or reading in English.

My main finding was the advantages of using both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries.

Looking at the results of the research we can draw the conclusion that there will always be a need for dictionaries among university students, no matter how proficient speakers students will be.