Why the english monolingual dictionary is under-utilised among students

Abstract

This paper mainly investigated English Monolingual Dictionary (EMD) use among second year students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (UTMKL) International Campus. The researchers wanted to discover the students' habit and attitude in EMD use; their knowledge with regard to the language learning resources available in EMD; their skill in using EMD, and finally, to discover whether they received any formal instruction in EMD use when they were studying in their former schools and tertiary education. A total of 169 students took part in the survey by answering a questionnaire. The results of the study suggest that the respondents were poor users of EMD. They rarely consulted the EMD; their knowledge of the language learning resources in the EMD was limited; most perceived their EMD skill as average, and there was no instruction in EMD when they were at tertiary education and previously when they were at school. © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.