For instance Ahmed (1989), in a large survey of vocabulary learning strategies by learners of English in Khartoum, identified two kinds of unsuccessful learner. There is also some learning research that bears on this. Then there is the familiar argument that learners need to get into the habit of 'thinking in the target language': they will not be efficient comprehenders and users of English if they operate always via an extra step of translating into their first language, which use of bilingual dictionaries is likely to encourage. Those learners who use monolingual dictionaries also recognize this themselves (Bejoint 1981). Here dictionaries written completely in the target language are more obviously usable.ĭoes it matter what sort of dictionary learners use? Well, for one thing, many teachers and dictionary experts would agree that few bilingual dictionaries get close in quality of information to that found in the learners' monolingual dictionaries produced by major publishers such as Longman, Collins or Oxford. What is more puzzling is learners" persistence in using bilingual dictionaries when they meet an unfamiliar word when reading, or need to check some detail of a word they basically 'know' when writing (the focuses of attention in this article). Learners might seem to have some excuse for this when writing and totally stuck for a word or phrase for the meaning they want to express, but in fact even here, from early intermediate level onwards, they can now resort to a superior monolingual resource, the Longman Language Activator. Surveys of learners' use of dictionaries generally confirm the teachers suspicion that, way beyond the elementary level, many still prefer trilingual dictionaries to monolingual ones (Tomaszczk 1979). Why Shouldn't Monolingual Dictionaries be as Easy to Use as Bilingual Ones?
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