7.2.3 Question Seven
How does the use of awareness activities change the students' purposes (skills) for using the dictionary?
In the interview conducted prior to the experiment, a hundred ten students indicated that they use the electronic
dictionary for the purpose of reading (74%) , 92 for listening (62%), 74 for writing (50%), 30 (20%)for speaking
and 16 (11%) for translation.
After conducting the experiment, the students' purposes for using the dictionary seem to have changed. Forty
four students (40%) indicated that they use the dictionary for reading. As for reading online, 60 students
indicated that they use the dictionary in the context of reading online (41%), a purpose totally missing in the first
interview. Forty two students (28%) indicated that they use the dictionary for the purpose of speaking with an
increase of 8% from the original percentage. Seventy eight students (53%) indicated that they use the dictionary
in the context of writing with a 3% increase in the percentage from the original figures. Forty eight students
indicated that they use the dictionary for the purpose of listening (32%). There is a significant decrease in the
percentage f using the dictionary for the listening purpose.
One may argue that students started to resort to online dictionaries while reading online, a more efficient
procedure than flipping through the pages of a print dictionary that may or may not contain the less frequent
word they are looking for. Also, one may notice that students started to use the electronic dictionary more for the
speaking skill. This could be due to the students' discovery that such dictionaries have a pronunciation feature
that is convenient and easy to use especially while reading online.