People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Board of Examiners
- Acknowledgements
| 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 Yüklə 4,04 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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