THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ONLINE DICTIONARY SKILLS.

Wichuda  Kunnu; Aungkana  Sukwises; Chantima  Wangsomchok; Kanchalika  Treeklangdorn; Patcharaphan  Phuboonsri

Wichuda Kunnu Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand
Aungkana Sukwises Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand
Chantima Wangsomchok Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand
Kanchalika Treeklangdorn Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand
Patcharaphan Phuboonsri Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand

Keywords: dictionary, online dictionaries, monolingual dictionaries, dictionary using skills

Abstract

Dictionaries are a great resource for language learners. However, there is no explicit teaching how to use dictionary effectively in my context. This paper aims to explore students‟ attitudes toward dictionary workshop and develop students‟ dictionary skills. The participants were 44 first year English major students. A semi-structured interview was administered to get in-depth data. Training took 6 hours during “Reading Strategies” class. The findings revealed that most of the students never got dictionary using skills. The results also showed that the students were satisfied with the workshop. The strength of the workshop was the workshop not relying on one dictionary. The workshop mixed three online dictionaries: Longman Dictionary, Merriam Dictionary and dictionary.com. Each dictionary contained their strengths. Moreover, the results showed that the students tended to use online dictionaries because it is fast and easy to access.