Vocabulary skills and online dictionaries: A study on efl learners’ receptive vocabulary knowledge and success in searching electronic sources for information

9Citations
Citations of this article
30Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

The study reported in this article examined Finnish EFL learners’ ability to search for lexical items and information in online dictionaries and on websites. The study was conducted as part of a project investigating upper secondary school students’ digital skills in relation to language learning. The motivation behind the study was that in Finland, the high-stakes school-leaving examinations, including foreign language tests, are currently being digitalized. The aim of the study was to uncover the relationship between word recognition skills and the learners’ ability to find lexical items and information in a series of online vocabulary tasks when the choice of the digital sources was not controlled. The results showed, for example, that overall word recognition skills and recognition of low-frequency vocabulary correlated positively with success rates in finding individual words in online dictionaries and factually accurate information on webpages, but not with finding appropriate collocations. Moreover, to succeed in 50% of the look-ups required scoring a minimum of 60% in the vocabulary levels test.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Niitemaa, M. L., & Pietilä, P. (2018). Vocabulary skills and online dictionaries: A study on efl learners’ receptive vocabulary knowledge and success in searching electronic sources for information. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 9(3), 453–462. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0903.02

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free