An investigation into the effect of English learners? dictionaries on international students' acquisition of the English article system

Abstract

Learners’ dictionaries are a resource which is often overlooked by both students and teachers of English as a Second Language. The wealth of grammatical information contained within them, however, can help students to improve their English language skills and, ipso facto, their academic writing. In this study, four groups of university ESL students participated in a session to improve their use of the English article system. Two of the groups used English learners’ dictionaries and two did not. The results of the study indicate that the students who used the dictionaries achieved a slightly higher number of correct answers in the given article exercises, and expressed a higher level of satisfaction with the session, than those who had not used dictionaries. It is therefore suggested that greater use be made of learners’ dictionaries in ESL grammar classes and that more teaching time be allocated to exploring and utilising this valuable resource.