People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Mentouri Brothers University – Constantine 1
Faculty of Letters and Languages
Department of Letters and English Language
Thesis Submitted to the Department of Letters and English Language in Candidacy
for the Degree of “Doctorat LMD” in Applied Language Studies
Board of Examiners
2015-2016
Chairman: Pr. Youcef BEGHOUL (Mentouri Brothers University-Constantine1)
Supervisor: Pr. Zahri HAROUNI (Mentouri Brothers University-Constantine1)
Member: Pr. Riad BELOUAHEM (Mentouri Brothers University-Constantine1)
Member: Pr. Nawel ABDELATIF (University of Mohamed Lamine Debaghine- Setif 2)
Member: Dr. Haoues AHMED-SID (Mentouri Brothers University-Constantine1)
Member: Dr. Sara MERROUCHE (University of Oum El Bouaghi)
A Comparative Investigation of the Effects of CD-ROM and Printed
Dictionary Use on Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Retention of
University EFL Students: The Case of 2
nd
Year EFL Students at Mentouri
Brothers University – Constantine 1
Presented by: Mr. Chaker HAMDI
Supervised by: Prof. Zahri HAROUNI
i
To my great parents who devoted their life to my
education and have always wanted me to be
successful, I dedicate this work.
ii
Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to express my deep thanks to my supervisor, Professor
Zahri Harouni, for supervising this work. It is with deep gratitude and appreciation that I
wish to thank her for the accurate advice she put forward and for her endless patience with
me throughout the stages of this research.
I also wish to acknowledge my gratitude to professors Carolyn Madden and Judy
Dyer of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. Judy and Carolyn
lent a hand in countless ways, especially in providing me with unlimited access to relevant
and recent bibliographical references.
I would also like to extend my special thanks to my adorable wife Amina Kammas
and to my dearest friend Tareq Boudjadar. Amina and Tareq were greatly caring in
moments of difficulty and frustration and were my resort whenever I felt down or
experienced a research setback. Indeed, their encouragements contributed very much to
my confidence in the completion of this study.
I gratefully wish to thank the members of the board of examiners who have kindly
accepted to examine the present thesis. I also wish to thank all my teachers in the
Department of English for supporting me throughout my academic life, particularly
Professor Labed Nacif whose consistent support and encouraging advice from different
perspectives have inspired me and broadened my vision.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all the students who took part in this study.
This research work would not have been possible without their participation.
iii
Abstract
The dictionary is one of the common learning tools for foreign and second language
learners who use various types of dictionaries to help them work on their language
development. Yet, to my knowledge, the effects of dictionaries, either in printed or
electronic form, have never been systematically investigated in the Algerian context.
Consequently, in order to investigate whether dictionary support improves (affects) text
comprehension and vocabulary retention, this study compares readers’ foreign language
text comprehension and vocabulary retention across two dictionary conditions. Reading
time, dictionary usage (lookup frequency), degree of comprehension, and recall of words
were the dependent measures employed. The subjects of this study were 44 EFL
sophomores studying in the English Department at Mentouri Brothers University-
Constantine 1. They were assigned two reading tasks under two conditions: using a printed
dictionary (PD) at one time and a CD-ROM dictionary (CD) at another. The presentation
mode of the reading tests was on computer screen alone. I used a piece of monitoring
software to record the subjects’ lookups in the CD-ROM dictionary condition. The
monitoring software also took notes of the time each subject needed to finish the reading
task in both conditions. The recorded information was automatically saved in log files
concealed in the subjects’ computers, and a paired-samples t-test was then conducted to
test the research hypotheses. In addition, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was computed
to examine any correlation between the subjects’ lookup frequencies and their reading
scores in both conditions. As for the vocabulary retention tests, I administered a pretest
and posttest to the subjects in both lookup conditions (paper and CD-ROM), and an
iv
independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare memory for words. The analysis of
information retrieved from the log files revealed that the CD-ROM dictionary enabled the
subjects to read the passage in significantly less time than the printed dictionary. It was
also found that the subjects looked up significantly more words in the CD-ROM
dictionary than in the printed dictionary. However, the results indicate that the type of
dictionary does not significantly influence comprehension, and that no correlation exists
between the subjects’ lookup frequencies and their reading scores in PD and CD
conditions. With regard to vocabulary retention, the findings revealed that printed
dictionary lookup fosters better recall of vocabulary. It was concluded that CD-ROM
dictionaries would be effective and motivating aids to reading comprehension but could be
less effective to vocabulary retention.
Keywords: CD-ROM dictionary, printed dictionary, log files, reading comprehension,
vocabulary retention
Dostları ilə paylaş: |