Dictionary-Using Skills: A Plea for a New Orientation in Language Teaching

Herbst, Thomas; Stein, Gabriele

doi:10.1515/9783111340500-010

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The lack of training in dictionary use for L2 students has emerged in research studies from Herbst and Stein (1987) to Lew and Galas (2008). Two rather different types of training are noted by Welker (2010, p. 9):…”

Section: Empirical Research On Dictionary Usementioning

confidence: 99%

The lexical needs of ESP students in a professional field

Peters

Fernández

2013

English for Specific Purposes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines two kinds of questions relating to the lexical needs of professional ESP students:(1) what range of terms and words do they need help with?(2) what types of dictionary, bilingual and/or monolingual, can they make use of in solving lexical problems?The empirical data used in this study came from an in-class assignment with Spanish postgraduate students of architecture, showing that their lexical searches were less often for architectural terminology per se than for the shared terminology of science disciplines and academic discourse at large. In individual case studies, ESP students grappled with the special architectural senses of common English words, but were able to decode them with the help of both bilingual Spanish-English dictionaries and monolingual (English) dictio-naries, general and specializedwhatever their L2 proficiency level. This finding runs counter to the commonly held belief that only advanced students are able to make use of monolingual (L2) dictionaries. Working with different types of dictionary engaged the students in critical lexicography, and in synthesizing lexical material from multiple sources to satisfy their lexical needs. Such training makes for independent language learning, pre-paring students for the bilingual or multilingual workplace.

show abstract

Section: Empirical Research On Dictionary Usementioning

confidence: 99%

The lexical needs of ESP students in a professional field

Peters

Fernández

2013

English for Specific Purposes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Even undergraduates studying languages, whom one would expect to be more aware of syntactic constraints, do not seem to fare any better. Herbst and Stein (1987) reported that many German university students of English and even some teachers did not know that dictionaries contained information on the syntactic patterns of words.…”

Section: Encoding Information In Dictionariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dictionaries and Encoding Examples to Support Language Production

Frankenberg‐Garcia¹

2015

International Journal of Lexicography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Among attempts to classify dictionary reference skills (Whitcut 1986;Herbst and Stein 1987;Moulin 1987;Béjoint 1989;Bogaards 1993;Scholfield 1982Scholfield , 1999Nesi 1999;Nation and Paul 2013), the skill inventory proposed by Nesi (1999) provides the most exhaustive list of relevant skills based both on document analysis and empirical evidence. Therefore, it was thought to provide a basis for the further specification process of dictionary skills for the target group.…”

Section: Course Development: Target Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The issue of what constitutes dictionary reference skills has never been settled (Lew 2013); however, there is a general agreement that dictionary skills consist of multiple dimensions of knowledge and skills, including knowledge of various dictionary types and functions, the ability to critically evaluate them, and decision-making strategies as how to exploit them (Herbst and Stein 1987;Béjoint 1989;Horsfall 1997;Nesi 1999;Scholfield 1999). Skills may even include language learning strategies related to dictionary use, such as recording or storing dictionary information for vocabulary learning enhancement (Nesi 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A course in dictionary use for Korean EFL teachers

Bae

2015

Lexicography ASIALEX

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examines knowledge needs for dictionary reference skills among Korean teachers of English within the context of a 12-h in-service teachertraining course in dictionary use. As an integral part of the curriculum development project, the study looked into various aspects of English teachers' dictionary training needs, mainly by means of multiple survey instruments (i.e., before-and after-training questionnaires) and the qualitative analysis of the teachers' duringcourse comments throughout multiple phases of the training process. The traineeteachers' spontaneous questions regarding dictionary use as well as their duringtraining feedback provided particularly useful information about the skills that should be focused on to meet the perceived training needs of current Korean teachers of English. The study has identified a clear need for typological and functional knowledge about the various dictionaries available, for informed dictionary choices, and for skills to exploit electronic dictionary functions. Most of the perceived needs were found to be related to across-dictionary skills, rather than skills specific to a particular dictionary. From this study, it was also found that explicit skill training can be a very effective mode of teaching for specific usergroups such as non-native teachers of English.

show abstract

Dictionary-Using Skills: A Plea for a New Orientation in Language Teaching

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

The lexical needs of ESP students in a professional field

The lexical needs of ESP students in a professional field

Dictionaries and Encoding Examples to Support Language Production

A course in dictionary use for Korean EFL teachers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About