171
The findings also indicate that CD use was more motivating and exciting to
the subjects and thus encouraged them to look up significantly more words while
reading (p =
.043). Indeed, searching through PD pages to look up a word would
naturally require more time than simply keying the word in the CD search space and
hitting the ‘Find’ button. Thus, the subjects might have been unwilling to use their
PDs so often while reading
. However in the CD, the ease and speed of search seemed
to have stimulated them to look up as many words as they wanted
.
However, the results from this study do not provide substantial evidence that
dictionary type affects text comprehension, as the subjects’ performance in reading
was fairly the same regardless of the type of dictionary they used (p =
.390).
Similarly, the findings indicate that no correlation whatsoever exists between the
subjects’ lookup frequencies and their reading scores in PD and CD conditions, and
that the increase in the subjects’ look-ups does not necessarily suggest and increase in
their reading scores ( r = - 0
.129, - 0.338).
With regard to vocabulary retention, the results suggest that PD use had a
positive effect on the subjects’ recall of words
. On the other hand, significantly lower
recalls were found on lookups performed with access to CD (p = 0
.018). This
difference in word retention could be attributed to the relatively longer search process
involved in using the PD which appears to have helped the subjects process lexical
items more elaborately, thereby creating strong memory traces of looked up
vocabulary which ultimately led to better retention; unlike the case with the CD, in
172
which the quick and almost effortless lookup process could have resulted in the
looked up words being shallowly processed and thus not retained for a long time.
While readers of the present study might have suggested that post-
questionnaires should have been administered to the participants to understand their
background in reading and dictionary use, and to explore their attitudes towards the
dictionaries they used throughout the tests, I did not consider using this investigative
technique (i
.e. questionnaire) because it was neither appealing nor suitable in view of
the underlying research objectives
. In addition, the reliability of questionnaire
responses to elicit data could be questioned, especially if administered to students
who are unaware of the importance and real value of giving truthful responses
.
I adopted this premise based on my previous experience using questionnaires
in a similar research work, as the majority of informants gave false impressions to
appear somewhat better and ideal, on the contrary of their actual performance which
proved otherwise; thereby revealing inverse correlations between the informants’
perceptions and their real behavior and performance
.
It was eventually evident that using questionnaires as an investigative
technique does not yield very reliable results, particularly if administered to students
.
Seemingly, not using a questionnaire in this study is a reason why this dissertation is
not voluminous, as incorporating a questionnaire would have entailed a lengthy
qualitative analysis and in-depth discussion
.
173
Limitations of the Study
I experienced a few research setbacks in the course of doing this study
.
Some
were due to potential methodological shortcomings on my part, while others could be
attributed to unwanted circumstances and stressful conditions surrounding the data
collection process, which were beyond my control
.
However, any similar research
work could have gone through such setbacks and limitations
.
The present study is
limited in a number of ways:
1.
While computer monitoring and experiments tend to produce accurate and
objective data, these methods are not free from limitations
.
A major drawback of
computer monitoring is its inability to record the learners’ strategic dictionary
lookup behavior
.
In addition, experiments create more or less artificial learning
conditions
.
Therefore, the students’ awareness of participating in a study may
cause them to act differently, and in many cases perform better than they would
actually do in ordinary situations
.
2.
This study examined only 44 Algerian students studying English as a foreign
language at the same university
.
This sample size is not large enough to make the
findings of this study applicable to other students in similar contexts
.
Therefore,
the dictionary use behavior of the subjects may not have been typical of Algerian
university students
.
Due to time constraints and bureaucratic hindrances in the
department of English, I could not implement a systematic sampling method to
174
obtain a sample that is representative of sophomore students
.
The methodological
decision of the sample size was motivated by pure pragmatic considerations since
the students who took part in the study were regularly taking classes with me in
the same computer laboratories where the present study took place
.
3.
This study did not assess the overall English proficiency level of participants
before administering the reading and vocabulary tests
.
I assumed that the class
study level could serve as a fairly reliable indicator to accept that the two groups
participating in the study were equivalent in terms of language proficiency
.
4.
Due to the gender imbalance in the group of participants who took part in this
study (14 males, 30 females), the issue of gender as a factor that may influence the
study’s results was not considered
.
5.
The vocabulary posttest was administered only a week after the pretest
.
Due to
time limits, I could not administer another set of vocabulary tests a few weeks
after the pretests in order to examine how words were retained over a longer
period of time
.
6.
Unfortunately, I went through a few bureaucratic obstacles in the course of
conducting this study, as at times I could not even have access to the language
laboratories to set up the computers and get everything prepared
.
These unfair
practices, though dampened my spirits and enthusiasm many times, have pushed
me to move forward to complete this study
.
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