The Use of a Monolingual Dictionary for Meaning Determination by Advanced Cantonese ESL Learners in Hong Kong
The Use of a Monolingual Dictionary for Meaning Determination by Advanced Cantonese ESL Learners in Hong Kong
复制标题
香港高级粤语 ESL 学习者使用单语词典确定意义
DOI：
10.1093/applin/amr038
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发表时间：
2012
影响因子：
3.6
通讯作者：
A. Chan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Chan
本文报告了一项研究的结果，该研究调查了高级粤语英语作为第二语言（ESL）学习者使用单语词典来确定在不太熟悉的语境中使用的熟悉英语单词的含义。32名香港大学英语专业学生参与了一项词典查阅任务，任务包括9个英语句子，每个句子包含一个目标词项，其意义取决于所处的语法语境。不同的自我报告协议被用来挖掘参与者的思维过程和/或收集他们对词典有效性的评价。研究结果表明，学习者在使用单语词典确定词义方面取得了一定程度的成功，但词典的促进作用相当有限，学习者对典型词语搭配的关注和对词典信息的忽视等问题可能会阻碍决策。这样的字典行为可能会影响第二语言习得，需要注意。建议ESL教师提醒学习者注意语法联想在语言理解中的重要性。
This article reports on the results of a study which investigated advanced Cantonese English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' use of a monolingual dictionary for determining the meanings of familiar English words used in less familiar contexts. Thirty-two university English majors in Hong Kong participated in a dictionary consultation task, which included nine English sentences each containing a target lexical item the meaning of which depended on the grammatical contexts they were in. Different self-reporting protocols were used to tap into the participants' thinking processes and/or to gather their evaluation of the effectiveness of the dictionaries. The results of the study show that learners demonstrate some degree of success in the use of a monolingual dictionary for determining word meanings, yet the facilitative effects of a dictionary are quite limited, and problems such as learners' preoccupation with typical word collocations and their ignorance of dictionary information may hinder decision making. Such dictionary behavior may affect second language acquisition and requires attention. It is suggested that ESL teachers alert learners to the importance of grammatical associations in language comprehension.