156
Figure 27
.
Pictures
window in CD application
The
SMART thesaurus contains synonyms and other related words for any
entry in the CD
.
Using SMART thesaurus helps the user to understand more fully
the meaning of the words he or she looked up, learn alternative words or phrases,
and get to know more about a subject (Figure 28)
.
The panel on the left shows all
SMART thesaurus categories that contain or are related to the word the user looked
up
.
For example, for the word ‘fast’ two categories are displayed,
Fast and rapid
and
Short in time
.
The user should highlight a category to display all the words in
that category on the right hand side of the window
.
157
Figure 28
.
Smart thesaurus
window in CD application
The user can choose to view just the words on the right hand side of the
window, without their definitions, by clicking
View as list
.
To display definitions
again, the user should click
View full entries
.
The Extra Examples window provides further examples of entry use in
context
.
The Verb Endings feature provides information about how
to form any verb
correctly in the present tense, past simple, and past participle (Figures 29 & 30)
.
158
Figure 29
.
Extra Examples window
in CD application
Figure 30
.
Verb Endings window in CD application
159
The
Look Up feature recorded in the log file in Figure 26 means that the
subject double-clicked on a word which is part of the definition of another word to
learn about its meaning
.
The use of this feature has been recorded in a few log files of
the subjects
.
When using the CD, the subjects may not understand some words in the
definitions
.
Thus, they may look up the meaning of the unknown word by double-
clicking on it, which opens the Look Up window
.
The Look Up window provides a
definition of the word, without the subjects having to close the window they were
using
.
If they need more information about the word, they can see the full dictionary
entry by clicking
Show in main dictionary (Figure 31 on next page)
.
5
.
7
.
Findings from the CD Lookup History-List
Though I was hoping that the analysis of History-List information would
reveal further lookup patterns, comparison of subjects’ recorded lookups in the CD
History-List with those recorded by the monitoring software did not yield any
significant differences that should be mentioned
.
In addition, despite my clear
instructions not to shut down the computers when finishing the reading tasks, a few
subjects seem to have mistakenly switched their computers off, thereby closing the
CD application and clearing its History-List
.
161
5.8. Pedagogical Implications
Although the findings from the present study arouse some concerns about
CDs, as they appear to have influenced students’ retention of looked up words
negatively, this should not suggest that the use of CDs should be discouraged in L2
learning
. Instead of discouraging CD use, teachers may advise their students to use a
CD and a PD
for different language skills, regarding each dictionary’s pros and cons
.
On the one hand, students could use CDs in reading, for instance, which may
allow them to look up words and read more quickly and almost effortlessly
. The
speed of search in a CD may reduce interference as it helps students keep context in
mind when they stop reading to look up a word
. Similarly, the ease and speed
involved in CD use may push students to develop a positive attitude towards
electronic dictionary lookup and encourage them to have several CDs on their
computers
. Indeed, and based on my humble experience in using CDs of different
titles, moving between several CDs on the computer screen to compare different
definitions proved to be a good strategy to learn word meanings more precisely and
effectively
.
On the other hand, students could be encouraged to use a PD particularly in
writing and vocabulary learning, as these tasks require students to deal with word
spelling and grammatical or usage information more elaborately than they do while
reading
. In addition, findings from the present study and previous studies suggest that
subjects tend to process information more carefully when they look up words in a PD,