Question:
I taught for three years in Eastern Europe using British ESL texts, and I
found that they highly stressed bilingual dictionary work at appropriate
times, and done in a way in which the students wouldn't become crippled by
it. (There were also, for example, plenty of exercises on discerning the
meanings of texts and recordings on the fly without a dictionary.) I
found this very useful, mainly because as time went on, I found the
students better able to discern which dictionary definition was most
likely the correct one, and when they should even bother using the
dictionary at all.
Now I come back to the States (where I have never taught; I'm a linguist,
not a certified teacher), and I find ESL instructors have very hidebound
concepts of proper and effective method, most of which almost directly
conflict with my own experience. For example, when I mentioned dictionary
work to a supervisor when discussing an upcoming summer ESL class I'm
supposed to teach, I was told the students ideally weren't supposed to
have dictionaries in the classroom. Huh? Well, the department head
supposedly illustrates the inadvisability of having dictionaries in the
classroom with an anecdote about a man whose wife was going to have a
baby. After much searching in the dictionary, said that his wife was
fawning.
In my experience, this was no argument against dictionaries in the
classroom, but in fact an argument for them. In my classes in Eastern
Europe, such a goof was a sort of twofer. The student could be corrected,
the class would learn the meaning of "fawning" (which will never be in any
textbook) and then learn the more appropriate term from the teacher. I
had many cases like this, and if the student making the mistake isn't
sensitive, it can add a lot of fun to the class as well.
So what do people think about dictionaries in the ESL classroom?
Answer:
I'm a "no dictionary" teacher, but I don't know about the "hide-bound"
part (my Webster's Ninth New Collegiate lists "hidebound" as: "having an
inflexible or ultra-conservative character"). My reasons for preferring
that students consult their dictionaries on their own time are as follows:
-students have their dictionaries all the time. They only have me during
class-time. If they have their nose in the dictionary, quite obviously,
they will be missing out on what is going on in the class -- missing a
chance at practicing "listening comprehension".
I'm actually quite surprised that you, having taught Eastern Europeans,
wouldn't be familiar with the quite common East European insistence upon
"listening to a real American accent" in class (as a reason for not
paying attention to what their classmates say, most often)
Listening comprehension is one of the most difficult things for students
in the schools in which I've taught to acquire. Reading a dictionary
won't help in this area.
-Few people will have enough patience to wait around for a learner to
look up all the words necessary for a conversation, while most will
happily participate in that charming little game of describing the word
you want until someone guesses what it is. I commonly find that students
feel that they *must* seek immediate translations for words they don't
know, and the only way I know to teach them how to get the word from
someone who is unable to translate from the students' L1 is to have them
practice describing words to me until I guess what they are talking
about. This activity serves a multitude of purposes: the student is
speaking, forming original sentences based on her own knowledge of
English, and, at the same time, forming a personal definition of the word
to come. The student is communicating, and, through communication with me
or with classmates, the student will practice listening comprehension and
ultimately get the desired word or phrase (not all foreign words
translate directly into English, just as not all English words translate
directly into other languages)
- while the "dictionary" student is buried in her dictionary, I'm
certainly not stopping the class to wait for her to get ready to come
back to join us. The rest of the class continues on. I'm not going to
be terribly amenable to the idea of repeating what the "dictionary"
student has missed -- after all, the "dictionary" student is not in a
private class and all the others have been paying attention.
- A by-product of getting the word or definition from the teacher or from
another student (if I think the word is one that is known by most of the
students, i.e., it is one we've already studied) is that all of the
students in the class have the opportunity to practice listening to
English, to get an English definition of the word in question and to
reinforce their own knowledge/congratulate themselves on already knowing
the answer, or maybe even learn something new.
- there is one other thing that this method often does: There are some
students who seem to prefer death to speaking in class, however those
students *will* finally speak up if they feel that they simply must know
the meaning of a word and there is no other way to get it. (yes, some do
try to hang on for the break when they can haul out their little computers)
Since the courses I teach are in English for communication, not English
for filling in blanks, I can see few reasons for dictionary use in a
class which involves approximately 85% oral production/conversation.
I often take advantage of vocabulary/definition requests to test
students' listening by having some unsuspecting student tell me what the
word means after I've described it.
A few weeks ago I decided, in a class in which the majority of the
students disagreed vehemently with me on the subject of dictionaries in
class. I allowed those who wished to do so to use their dictionaries at
will, but I did not stop, and i did not go back for the material they'd
missed. Furthermore, I did give a quiz on all the words I'd covered in the
class at the end of class. I didn't have any dictionary problems after
that day.
To sum up, then: I don't allow dictionaries in the class. I'm not
hidebound - any student can use their dictionary, but they won't get any
extra attention from me if they do. When I teach a class in dictionary
use, of course I have the students use dictionaries. (I don't often teach
such classes, and when I do, the dictionary which the students use is an
English-English dictionary - I feel relatively certain that students who
are dependent on their bilingual dictionaries already know quite well how
to use them)
Submit Your
Own Answer!
