Investigating Student's Attitudes Towards Dictionary Use

Résumé: The aim of this study is to investigate third year students' attitudes towards dictionary use at the department of english, at Larbi Ben M'Hidi university, Oum-El-Bouaghi. It aims to describe how dictionaries are used among third year students, in terms of what type they mostly use, for what purpose and for what kind of task they mostly use a dictionary. Likewise, it sheds light on dictionary use in the department to raise awareness about dictionaries as an important learning tool, and to give insight to teachers about students' preferences and attitudes towards dictionaries. A questionnaire was designed to serve this purpose. The aim of the questionnaire was; first, to know students' choices and preferences concerning dictionary use, second, to further understand the reasons behind those choices and preferences. The results reveal that monolingual electronic dictionaries are the most favored and used types of dictionaries among third year students. Also, students most check the meaning, pronunciation and spelling of a word. In addition, they mostly use a monolingual dictionary for reading tasks. Furthermore, students mainly choose the type of dictionary that most fits their learning styles, the type that is more easy to use, and the type that provides them with the information they need and can remember. The results of this study shed light on dictionary use in the department of english, so that both teachers and students take it into consideration in their future dictionary use.

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