Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, Vol 33, No 1 (2010)

Font Size:  Small  Medium  Large

M. EAST, DICTIONARY USE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING EXAMS (IMPACT AND IMPLICATIONS)

Brian Ridge

Abstract


Dictionary use by language learners has been a vexed subject, as much for reasons surrounding the ‘fairness’ of allowing such use as it is over the usefulness of bilingual dictionaries.
East also notes that he has witnessed occasions, during his extensive experience of teaching senior secondary school and tertiary level German, where the dictionary in exam situations for writing tasks seems to be more a foe than a friend, as it rapidly consumed time available to complete the exam task. And a further aspect of his study is the actual proficiency in using a bilingual dictionary, a proficiency that relies on some
level of linguistic proficiency, but which should ideally boost linguistic proficiency in the L2. The big questions are whether such dictionary use aids or inhibits acquisition of proficiency; or how such use may require changed views on overall curriculum; and whether students view dictionary use as helpful. Everyone knows of or has experienced dictionary howlers, and these often colour the debate over allowing dictionary use by
language learners under assessment conditions, but this, as East notes, in turn points to wider arguments over the purpose of assessment itself, as being either for ‘“professional
and learning purposes” or for “managerial and accountability” purposes’ (p. 9). East’s study then works through discussions and analyses of his research data probing matters like how test takers use dictionaries, what test takers think of having a dictionary at hand during exams or tests, whether it is fair to have dictionaries in writing exams, and whether student ability level alters the picture.

Full Text: PDF