CCAAL at PLM33, Bukowy Dworek,

The challenge of electronic learners' dictionaries Włodzimierz Sobkowiak School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University CCAAL at PLM33, Bukowy Dworek,

Problem: l Only a few out of 712 EFL students in all types of schools in Poland have ever used an EFL MRD (Lew, forthcoming). l Only one in four university students "has used a computer dictionary of English recently” (Sobkowiak 1999) Might teachers be accountable?

Experiment: l Twenty-five in-service teacher-trainees doing their one-semester post-graduate study of TEFL in the School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, were asked in January 2001 about their experience of and attitudes toward electronic EFL dictionaries. l Twelve yes-no-? questions were asked, eight of them replicated from a much larger 1998 study of mine of students’ knowledge and attitudes toward such dictionaries.

Questionnaire: 1. Words can be searched by their sound in a computer dictionary 2. *Using computers with pupils in class must disrupt the flow of the lesson 3. *There is access to computer(s) where I teach 4. Speed is the main advantage of a computer dictionary 5. Pictures are the main advantage of a multimedia computer dictionary 6. One can search the whole text (including definitions and example sentences) in a computer dictionary 7. It's easier to use a computer dictionary than a traditional one 8. In a multimedia computer dictionary, phonetic transcription is useless 9. In a computer dictionary words having similar meaning can be listed 10. *I have used a computer dictionary of English recently in class 11. *I have at least one computer dictionary on my PC at home 12. Computer dictionaries cannot show phonetic transcription on screen

Data: Question 2. Using computers with pupils in class must disrupt the flow of the lesson 3. There is access to computers where I teach 4. Speed is the main advantage of a computer dictionary 5. Pictures are the main advantage of a multimedia computer dictionary 6. One can search the whole text in a computer dictionary 7. It’s easier to use a computer dictionary than a traditional one 9. In a computer dictionary words having similar meaning can be listed 10. I have used a computer dictionary of English recently in class 11. I have at least one computer dictionary on my PC at home Y N?

Results: l Not a single teacher "has used a computer dictionary of English recently in class", even though most (15/25) have one at home, as many as 19 have "access to computer(s) where [they] teach" and only three teachers agreed that "using computers with pupils in class must disrupt the flow of the lesson". l Correct answers to the more technical questions having to do with phonetic transcription, like 1 or 12, appear in less than half of the returns: thirteen respondents ticked in these questions. The less technical questions, like 6 and 9, were (usurprisingly) easier: 15 and 22 answers, respectively. l About half of the teachers value speed (question 4 — 12 's) and ease of use (question 7 — 12 's), but only five believe that "pictures are the main advantage of a multimedia computer dictionary".

Conclusions: l If it is indeed true that "student concerns about being able to cope with the demands of technology appear to cause some to choose less advanced language learning tasks", as Debski and Gruba (1998:54) discovered, it is the obligation of the teachers to change these attitudes. l If teachers themselves continue to have bad stereotypes and fears of educational technology, as appears from this pilot study, no amount of computing machinery lavished upon schools will help. l Teacher trainers should think about it very seriously: the main challenge of electronic learners' dictionaries is in the head of the teacher.

Questions? Comments? Thank you.