Improving EFL Students' Speaking and Writing

by Teaching Dictionary Skills and Maximizing Dictionary Use1

Ferry Hidayat, LBPP-LIA Harapan Indah

Abstract

Speaking and writing of EFL students can be improved through many ways and strategies, one

of which is through teaching them dictionary skills and maximizing their use of dictionary. The

writer of this paper chose these two strategies because his reference research suggest that, by

doing so, students' writing and speaking are improved quite significantly. To test whether or not

these two ways succeed in bettering his students' skills, he did a classroom action research

(CAR) between January and April 2014. The CAR results indicated the two strategies were

successful. In this paper, he shared his reference research, CAR results, and successful

strategies.

Keywords: English as a Foreign Language (EFL), English as a Foreign Language (EFL)

Lexicography, English Language Teaching (ELT), Dictionary Skills, Dictionary Use, Second

Language (L2), Classroom Action Research (CAR)

1. Introduction

For both native speaker learners and EFL learners, writing skill is a difficult skill to

acquire (Hadfield & Hadfield 2008:116). It becomes even more difficult for EFL learners in

Indonesia since English is a foreign language to them. Writing effectively in their mother tongue

has already been, as a general rule, a difficult task, let alone writing in a language having very

different writing system from the language they acquire naturally.

Being aware of the difficulty, EFL teachers in Indonesia rise to the challenge and do

their best in helping their students overcome the toughness of writing in English.

There are many methods and strategies employed in so doing. Jeremy Harmer (2005)

listed five approaches to apply in writing classroom. First of all, product approach, which

focuses on teaching students to produce modes of writing by imitating, copying, and

transforming models of typical written products. Second, process approach, which favours

teaching students to write by guiding them through procedures or stages of writing, begun with

brainstorming and ended with finalizing the draft. Third, genre approach which, like product

approach, emphasizes on teaching students to write by identifying writing genres, mastering

their characteristic conventions, proceeding with the mastery of specific language use which is

common to those genres. Fourth, creative writing, which teaches students to write creatively and

imaginatively in the form of language art products such as poetry, haiku, a short story, or the

like. Finally, cooperative writing, which encourages students to write cooperatively with their

classmates or in groups in the form of group writing projects using computers, where students

draft, peer-edit, revise, and produce a blog or Wikipedia article (Harmer 2005: 325-327).

The process approach, however, according to David Nunan—an EFL pedagogy

expert—is considered the wisest of all and the nearest to the real world of writers (Nunan 1994).

He stated: ‘competent writers do not produce final texts at their first attempt, but that writing is

a long and often painful process, in which the final text emerges through successive drafts.’

(Nunan 1994:87).

This is not the case with speaking skill. Being a productive skill as writing skill,

speaking skill is considered less difficult to EFL students, since speaking requires less rigid

1 Presented at International Conference of Linguistics (Konferensi Linguistik Internasional), University of

Airlangga, Faculty of Humanities, Surabaya, Indonesia, 23-24 August 2014, with some slight typo

corrections.

accuracy than writing (Hadfield & Hadfield 2008). Surprisingly enough, however, the discourse

of the role played by dictionary use and by dictionary skills in teaching writing and speaking to

EFL students, is absent in the writings of EFL teaching experts like Jeremy Harmer (2004),

David Nunan (1994), Jill Hadfield & Charles Hadfield (2008), and H. Douglas Brown (2000).

This discussion, conversely, is clearly demonstrated in the field of pedagogical lexicography

(Hartmann 2002:107), or as Cowie called it, ‘EFL lexicography’ (Cowie 2009:386). In this

branch of lexicography, the interconnection between dictionary use, dictionary skills, and EFL

writing and speaking is largely exposed. Studies undertaken by lexicography researchers such as

Hilary Nesi (1987), George M. Jacobs (1989), Martin East (2008), Chikako Takahashi (2012),

and Adrian Underhill (1980), definitely contribute to teachers’ effective writing and speaking

instruction. This paper makes an effort to bridge an academic gap between EFL teaching

pedagogy and EFL lexicography and to show that insights gained from the lexicographical

studies will benefit EFL writing teachers as well as speaking teachers alike, particularly in the

improvement of their students’ writing and speech quality.

2. Reference research

Lexicographical studies on dictionary use and dictionary-skills instruction for teaching

writing skills and teaching speaking skills authenticate the truth that the use of dictionary and

the teaching of dictionary skills in classrooms improve the writing and speech quality. By way

of illustration, regarding writing skill, Idoia Elola et al. (2008) found that dictionary use and

dictionary-using skills by students has a positive effect, especially when making vocabulary

choices in their L2 writing. They tended to be more successful in their choices if they consulted

the dictionary (Elola et al. 2008:78). Chikako Takahashi (2012) reviewed and summarized

studies on the efficacy of dictionary skills training on writing carried out by Martin East (2006),

Laufer and Hadar (1997), Harvey and Yuill (1997), George M. Jacobs (1989), and Bishop

(2001). After reviewing all the studies respectively, Takahashi concluded dictionary skills

training is potentially useful for reading and writing alike, which language teachers should be

aware of (Takahashi 2012:130). George M. Jacobs in his ‘Dictionaries Can Help Writing—If

Students Know How to Use Them’ (1989) found that dictionary skills utilized during error

correction before writing and during writing a draft, can lead to an improvement of the students’

writing and greater dictionary use (Jacobs 1989:8). Similarly, concerning speaking skill, Adrian

Underhill (1980) stated that maximization of dictionary use facilitate learners to have correct

pronunciation while speaking since it is by the dictionary that learners will get informed on the

correct pronunciation by means of its phonetic symbols (Underhill 1980:16).

3. Methodology

3.1. A classroom action research (CAR)

To further test the efficacy of teaching dictionary skills and the effect of maximization

of dictionary use in writing and speech quality of EFL learners as suggested by studies above,

a classroom action research (CAR) was undertaken by the writer of this article. The purpose of

the CAR is to test whether or not teaching dictionary skills and maximization of dictionary use

in his classroom improve his EFL learners’ writing and speech quality (or rather, their oral essay

presentation).

3.2. Participants profile

Participants of the CAR are 12 EFL students with upper intermediate level of

proficiency (namely, Higher Intermediate 4), learning on Mondays and Wednesdays on weekly

basis at LIA School of English (LBPP-LIA Harapan Indah, Bekasi). They go to Senior

Secondary Schools around Jakarta and Bekasi, majoring in Natural Sciences and Social

Sciences, aged between 17-20. Between January-April 2014, they attended a class whose final

learning objectives were writing an effective argumentative essay and presenting it in an

effective oral presentation.

In questionnaires distributed before the CAR, it was revealed that 7 of them owned 1-3

dictionaries, while 4 of them owned 4-6 dictionaries, and 1 of them owned more than 6

dictionaries. Dictionaries owned are mostly learners’ English-English ones (printed, electronic,

Android-based apps), English-Indonesian ones, Indonesian-English ones as well. They also

often consulted online dictionary; the most famous among them is undoubtedly Google

Translator. Frequency of dictionary lookup is that 10 of them stated they look up dictionary on

weekly basis 1-7 times, whereas 2 of them claimed to look up more than 16 times a week. When

asked about benefits they would gain in dictionary use, they answered as follows: knowing word

meaning (12 students); knowing correct pronunciation (9 students); knowing parts of speech (8

students); knowing word contexts in sentences (7 students); knowing antonyms (7 students);

knowing register [formal/informal word] (7 students); knowing technical slang (5 students);

knowing idioms (5 students); knowing synonyms (3 students), and knowing word etymology (3

students). When asked about purposes of their dictionary consultation, they responded as

follows: finding word meaning (12 students); finding correct pronunciation (11 students);

identifying parts of speech (11 students); ensuring words are put in correct contexts (10

students); finding synonyms (9 students); finding antonyms (9 students); finding meaning of

idioms (8 students); searching for etymology (6 students); searching for technical slang (6

students); ensuring the correct register (5 students). When asked if they had been trained in a

deliberate dictionary skills training by their schoolteachers and LIA teachers, their response was

as follows: trained once (5 students); trained about 2-5 times (5 students); never trained (2

students). When asked if they read the front or back matter of dictionary they owned,

a unanimously negative response was received. When asked about the most frequent problems

they encountered during consultation, their answer is as follows: failure to find the looked-up

words (12 students); failure to look up quite quickly [less than 2 minutes a word] (11 students);

confusion due to too many meanings found (11 students).

The objective of questionnaire in the pre-CAR stage is to find possible class problem,

on which teachers can give intervention so as to overcome it. From the questionnaire above, the

writer found that the class had some problems related to dictionary use and dictionary skills.

They owned more than one dictionary, and looked up dictionary on weekly basis almost

frequently. However, they only had little training in dictionary skills and had never read the

preliminaries of dictionaries owned. Consequently, they encountered problems when consulting

dictionary such as failure to find the looked-up words, failure to look up quite quickly [less than

2 minutes a word], and getting confused as too many meanings are found. This problem calls for

teacher’s intervention that is carried out in during-CAR stage.

3.3. Data-finding method

Data-finding methods utilized in pre-CAR stage, during-CAR stage and in the post-

CAR stage are questionnaires distributed before, during, and after the CAR among the study

participants. To accompany the questionnaire, an overall test of dictionary skills taught in the

classroom is conducted in the post-CAR stage, to ensure that students acquire the skills

successfully.

4. CAR activities

The hypothesized intervention for solving the class problem is that the writer should

teach them dictionary skills and maximize their dictionary use in order to improve their writing

and presentation quality throughout the class term (January 6-April 2, 2014), so that when

tested, they can show their improved performance.

4.1. Teacher’s intervention

First of all, the writer prepared the stages of writing for students to do in the process of

writing production, such as drafting, peer-editing, producing another draft, and finalizing the

essay and listed the common activities that will be done by students in the stages (see Table 1),

and so did he for the stages of oral presentation (Table 2). Then, he collected and found

reference works that can help students in all the stages they go through in writing and in

speaking, such as dictionaries (offline or online, electronic or printed), thesauri (offline or

online, electronic or printed), and online concordancers, then went back to the list written, and

wrote the reference works that would be used by students to help them finish activities in all the

stages successfully (Table 3 and Table 4). Afterwards, the writer then prepared a complete

lesson plan for teaching dictionary skills and maximizing dictionary use, together with teaching

writing skills and oral presentation skills (see Table 5). In addition, he prepared exercises for all

dictionary skills practice in the stages of writing and of oral presentation, prepared

questionnaires after completing the teaching of dictionary skills and giving knowledge of

dictionary features, and finally prepared a test of all dictionary skills.

Table 1: Stages of writing and activities within them

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

4.2. Interviews after intervention

1. After being taught dictionary skills for checking spelling errors, they are asked to

practice the skills by peer-editing the first draft of their classmates’ essays. Then, after

practice, they are asked some questions by the teacher. Here is their answer:

a. Do you use dictionary to check spelling errors in your friends’ essays?

NO : 12 students

YES : 0 student

b. Why not?

It’s easy, so I don’t need to check with dictionary : 10 students

I am lazy to open dictionary only to check spelling : 2 students

2. After being taught dictionary skills for checking grammatical errors, they are asked to

practice the skills by peer-editing the first draft of their peer’s essay. Then, after

practice, they are asked some questions by the teacher. Here is their answer

a. Do you use dictionary to check grammatical errors?

NO : 0 student

YES : 12 students

DRAFTING

Students are asked to choose from available topic choices a topic to write about.

They work towards thesis statement

They write introductory part (background) of the first paragraph

They write body paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

They write a concluding paragraph

PEER-EDITING

Students correct essay format/organization

They correct spelling errors

They correct grammatical errors such as plurals/singulars, subject-verb agreement,

pronouns, collocation, colligation etc.

PRODUCING ANOTHER DRAFT

They write another draft based on corrections done

FINALIZING THE ESSAY

Students improve the text by varying the words with their synonyms

They correct usage and grammar one more time

They look up for the correct word to convey

They look up for alternate expressions to use

b. Which reference work do you prefer to use to check the errors?

Printed dictionary : 0 student

CD-Rom version : 0 student

Online dictionary : 0 student

Online concordancer : 12 students

c. Why do you use online concordancer?

Because it can be used to check more than one words : 12 students

Because it is easier than using printed dictionary : 12 students

Because you only do the typing, not look up : 12 students

Looking up the printed dictionary may be tiring : 12 students

Table 2: Stages of presentation and their activities

3. After peer-editing of spelling and grammar, they are asked to revise their essays and

write the second draft. After their writing the second, they are asked some questions by

the teacher. Here is their answer:

a. Do you think your writing quality is improved after the correction?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

b. Do you want to use again dictionary or concordancer to check the errors?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

PREPARING PRESENTATION

Students study organization/common structure of an oral presentation

They learn expressions to use in presentation parts

They memorise the text (the previously-written essay)

They prepare a MS Powerpoint file

FIRST PRESENTATION REHEARSAL

They use the correct structure of the presentation

They use the expressions learned

They use the MS Powerpoint file

They do the presentation by memorization

FIRST SELF-EVALUATION

Students correct pronunciation

They find synonyms (varying from the words of the text to those of the presentation)

They check presentation organization

SECOND PRESENTATION REHEARSAL

They use the correct pronunciation

They use the synonyms

They improvise the presentation (not by memorization anymore)

SECOND SELF-EVALUATION

Students correct pronunciation

Students find synonyms

PRESENTATION

c. Do you feel more confident to write the 2nd draft after correction?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

Table 3: Reference works to use in the writing stages

4. After being taught dictionary skills for varying the words in their essays using thesauri,

they are asked to practice the skills by finding the synonyms and change the original

words with the synonyms . Then, after practice, they are asked some questions by the

teacher. Here is their answer:

a. Which thesaurus do you prefer to use?

Online thesaurus : 12 students

Printed thesaurus : 0 student

b. Why online thesaurus?

Because it is easier than using printed thesaurus : 12 students

Because you only do the typing, not look up : 12 students

Looking up the printed thesaurus could be tiring : 12 students

DRAFTING

Students are asked to choose from available topic choices a topic to write about.

They work towards thesis statement

They write introductory part (background) of the first paragraph

They write body paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

They write a concluding paragraph

PEER-EDITING

Students correct essay format/organization

They correct spelling errors (any good dictionary will do, like ALDCE, LDOCE, the

online www.merriam-webster.com)

They correct grammatical errors such as plurals/singulars, subject-verb agreement,

pronouns, collocation, colligation etc. (ALDCE, LDOCE, and the online concordancers

like www.lextutor.ca/concordancers/text_concord, www.collins.co.uk/corpus, or

www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk).

PRODUCING ANOTHER DRAFT

They write another draft based on corrections done

FINALIZING THE ESSAY

Students improve the text by varying the words with their synonyms (thesauri like

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, Webster’s New World Dictionary, and The

Oxford Thesaurus: An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms, also the online

www.thesaurus.com, www.merriam-webster.com, www.learnersdictionary.com, etc.)

They correct usage and grammar one more time (ALDCE, LDOCE, and the online

concordancers like www.lextutor.ca/concordancers/text_concord,

www.collins.co.uk/corpus, or www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk).

They look up for the correct word to convey (Longman Essential Activator, or any

good dictionary such as ALDCE and LDOCE.)

They look up for alternate expressions to use (Longman Essay Activator or Longman

Essential Activator [especially its Communicator part])

5. After being told that thesauri often do not give the synonyms with exact meaning like

the original words, students are taught dictionary skills for finding the correct synonyms

by using activators. Afterwards, they are asked to practice the skills by using activators.

After practice, they are asked some questions by the teacher. Here is their answer:

a. Can you check the meaning of synonyms easily using activators?

NO : 12 students

YES : 0 student

b. Why not?

We have to look up : 12 students

Not all synonym is explained : 12 students

Table 4: Reference works to use in the presentation stages

4

PREPARING PRESENTATION

Students study organization/common structure of an oral presentation

They learn expressions to use in presentation parts (Longman Essay Activator)

They memorise the text (the previously-written essay)

They prepare a MS Powerpoint file

FIRST PRESENTATION REHEARSAL

They use the correct structure of the presentation

They use the expressions learned

They use the MS Powerpoint file

They do the presentation by memorization

FIRST SELF-EVALUATION

Students correct pronunciation (any good dictionary with phonetic symbols like

ALDCE, LODCE, or CD-Rom version of theirs with audio facility, any online

dictionary with sound, such as www.merriam-webster.com, or specialised dictionary

like Daniel Jones’ English Pronouncing Dictionary or Longman Pronunciation

Dictionary)

They find synonyms (thesauri like Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, Webster’s

New World Dictionary, and The Oxford Thesaurus: An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms,

also the online www.thesaurus.com, www.merriam-webster.com,

www.learnersdictionary.com, etc.)

They find alternate expressions to use during presentation (Longman Essay

Activator)

They check presentation organization

SECOND PRESENTATION REHEARSAL

They use the correct pronunciation

They use the synonyms

They improvise the presentation (not by memorization anymore)

SECOND SELF-EVALUATION

Students correct pronunciation (any good dictionary with phonetic symbols like

ALDCE, LODCE, or CD-Rom version of theirs with audio facility, any online

dictionary with sound, such as www.merriam-webster.com, or specialised dictionary

like Daniel Jones’ English Pronouncing Dictionary or Longman Pronunciation

Dictionary)

Students find synonyms (thesauri like Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary,

Webster’s New World Dictionary, and The Oxford Thesaurus: An A-Z Dictionary of

Synonyms, also the online www.thesaurus.com, www.merriam-webster.com,

www.learnersdictionary.com, etc.)

They find alternate expressions to use during presentation (Longman Essay

Activator)

PRESENTATION

6. After being taught dictionary skills for finding alternative expressions to use in essay

using communicator in activators, they are asked to practice the skills by finding

alternative expressions using the communicator. After practice, they are asked some

questions by the teacher. Here is their answer:

a. Do you think it’s easy to find alternative expressions using communicator?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

b. Why?

It is arranged on functions : 12 students

c. Do you feel lazy to look up communicator?

YES : 3 students

NO : 9 students

7. After being taught dictionary skills for checking pronunciation errors in the first

presentation rehearsal, they are asked to practice the skills by listening their peer’s

presentation, identifying pronunciation errors, and using dictionaries for correction.

Then, after practice, they are asked some questions by the teacher. Here is their answer

a. Which dictionary do you prefer for correcting pronunciation?

Printed dictionary : 0 student

CD-Rom version : 2 students

Online dictionary with audio : 10 students

b. Why online dictionary with audio?

You don’t need to understand phonetic symbols : 12 students

Just click, no look up : 12 students

You don’t need to install on computer : 10 students

8. After correcting pronunciation errors, varying the words with synonyms, varying the

expressions using communicators in the 1st rehearsal, they are asked to revise their

presentation and practice the second rehearsal. After the 2nd rehearsal, they are asked

some questions by the teacher. Here is their answer:

a. Do you think your presentation quality is improved after the correction?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

b. Do you want to use again dictionary with audio, online thesaurus, and

communicators to check the errors?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

c. Do you feel more confident to do the 2nd rehearsal after correction?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

9. After correcting pronunciation errors, varying the words with synonyms, varying the

expressions using communicators in the 2st rehearsal, they are asked to revise their

presentation and practice the finalized presentation. After the final, they are asked some

questions by the teacher. Here is their answer:

a. Do you think your presentation quality is improved after the correction in the 2nd

rehearsal?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

b. Do you want to use again dictionary with audio, online thesaurus, and

communicators to check the errors?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

c. Do you feel more confident to do the final presentation after correction?

YES : 12 students

NO : 0 student

Table 5: A complete lesson plan of writing and speaking

Date Lesson Learning Outcome/Goal

6/1/2014

Previewing a lesson of how to write an argumentative essay Students remember and know how to

write an argumentative essay

8/1/2014

Essay topic selection

Formulating a strong thesis statement

Drafting the 1st paragraph

Students can formulate a strong thesis

statement as taught

13/1/2014

Drafting body paragraphs 1, 2, 3, and 4

Students draft the body paragraphs

15/1/2014 Drafting a concluding paragraph

Checking the structure/format and organization of the

essay (peer editing)

Checking the unity of paragraphs (peer editing)

Students have correct organization and

correct format of essay and have the

required unity of paragraphs within the

essay

20/1/2014

Checking the unity of paragraphs (continuation)

Checking the coherence of paragraphs (peer aditing)

Students have the coherence required

within their essay

22/1/2014

Correcting spelling errors in essay (peer editing)

Introducing some dictionaries (offline or online) for

checking spelling errors

Teaching dictionary skills for checking spelling errors

Practise using the dictionaries for checking spelling

errors (peer editing)

Students can identify spelling errors in

their peer essay and apply the dictionary

skills for checking spelling errors

27/1/2014 Correcting grammatical errors in essay

Introducing some dictionaries (offline or online) for

checking grammatical errors

Teaching dictionary skills for checking grammatical

errors

Practise using the dictionaries for correcting grammatical

errors (peer editing)

Students can identify grammatical errors

in their peer essay and apply the

dictionary skills for correcting

grammatical errors

29/1/2014

Correcting grammatical errors in essay (continuation)

Teaching dictionary skills for checking grammatical

errors

Practise using the dictionaries for correcting grammatical

errors (peer editing)

Students can identify grammatical errors

in their peer essay and apply the

dictionary skills for correcting

grammatical errors

3/2/2014

Correcting grammatical errors in essay (continuation)

Teaching dictionary skills for checking grammatical

errors

Practise using the dictionaries for correcting grammatical

errors (peer editing)

Students can identify grammatical errors

in their peer essay and apply the

dictionary skills for correcting

grammatical errors

5/2/2014

Writing the second draft based on corrections made

Students can improve the text based on

the corrected mistakes and errors

10/2/2014

Improving the text by varying the words with their

synonyms

Introducing some dictionaries or thesauri (offline and

online) for varying the words

Teaching dictionary skills for varying the words

Practise using dictionaries or thesauri for varying the

words in essay

Students can vary the words in their

essays, use dictionaries or thesauri to

help them do it , and apply dictionary

skills for varying the words

12/2/2014

Correcting usage and grammar one more time

Introducing the online concordancers for correcting

grammar and usage

Teaching dictionary skills for correcting grammar and

usage using the concordancers

Practise using the concordancers for correcting

grammar and usage

Students can identify usage mistakes and

grammatical errors, apply dictionary

skills taught for correcting usage and

grammar

17/2/2014

Finding the correct word to convey in essay

Introducing activators for finding the correct word to

convey

Teaching dictionary skills for finding the correct word

to convey

Practise using the activators for finding the correct word

to convey

Students can apply dictionary skills

taught for finding the correct word to

convey by using activators

19/2/2014

Finding alternate expressions to use in essay

Introducing essay activator and communicator for

finding alternate expressions to use

Teaching dictionary skills for using the activator and

communicator

Practise using the activator and communicator for

finding alternate expressions to use

Assigning to finish the essay

Students can apply dictionary skills for

finding alternative expressions to use in

essay and can write the essay better

based on the corrected mistakes, on

varied synonyms, and varied expressions

24/2/2014

Submitting the finished draft of essay

Preparing presentation of the written essay

Studying organization/common structure of an oral

presentation

Finding expressions to use in presentation parts by

practising using Longman Essay Activator

Students know the correct

organization/structure of an oral

presentation and can apply dictionary

skills taught for finding expressions to

use in their presentation

26/2/2014

Memorising the text (the previously-written essay)

Preparing a MS Powerpoint file

Students master their presentation text

(the essay) and can put the extract of the

presentation in slides of MS Powerpoint

file

3/3/2014

Rehearsing presentation (the first)

Correcting pronunciation

Introducing dictionaries with phonetic symbols and

audio facility for correcting pronunciation

Teaching dictionary skills for correcting pronunciation

Practise using dictionaries for correcting pronunciation

Students practise the presentation, can

identify the pronunciation errors, and

can apply dictionary skills for correcting

the pronunciation mistakes

5/3/2014

Rehearsing presentation (continuation)

Practise using dictionaries for correcting pronunciation

Finding synonyms

Practise using dictionaries or thesauri for varying the

words in presentation

Students can apply dictionary skills for

correcting pronunciation mistakes, can

apply the skills for varying the words in

presentation, and can apply the skills for

finding alternative expressions to use

during presentation

Finding alternate expressions to use during presentation

Practise using Longman Essay Activator for finding

alternate expressions to use during presentation

10/3/2014

Rehearsing presentation (continuation)

Practise using dictionaries for correcting pronunciation

Practise using dictionaries or thesauri for varying the

words in presentation

Practise using Longman Essay Activator for finding

alternate expressions to use during presentation

Students can apply dictionary skills for

correcting pronunciation mistakes, can

apply the skills for varying the words in

presentation, and can apply the skills for

finding alternative expressions to use

during presentation

12/3/2014

Rehearsing the presentation (the second)

Improvising the presentation

Students can do presentation better

based on the corrected mistakes and can

improvise the presentation without

memorization

17/3/2014

Rehearsing presentation (continuation)

Improvising the presentation

Practise using dictionaries for correcting pronunciation

Practise using dictionaries or thesauri for varying the

words in presentation

Practise using Longman Essay Activator for finding

alternate expressions to use during presentation

Students can apply dictionary skills for

correcting pronunciation mistakes, can

apply the skills for varying the words in

presentation, and can apply the skills for

finding alternative expressions to use

during presentation

19/3/2014

Rehearsing presentation (continuation)

Practise using dictionaries for correcting pronunciation

Practise using dictionaries or thesauri for varying the

words in presentation

Practise using Longman Essay Activator for finding

alternate expressions to use during presentation

Students can apply dictionary skills for

correcting pronunciation mistakes, can

apply the skills for varying the words in

presentation, and can apply the skills for

finding alternative expressions to use

during presentation

24/3/2014

Presenting the essay

Students can do the presentation better

based on the corrected mistakes and on

improved vocabulary and varied

expressions

2/4/2014

A test of all dictionary skills taught

5. Results

5.1. Writing stages

When peer editing the first draft of their classmates’ essays, they (all of them) did

not want to use dictionary to check spelling errors since they believed they could do

the checking without dictionary help. After the writer checked the peer-edited

essays, he found that his learners’ ability to check spelling errors without dictionary

assistance was fairly excellent. Their ability must be due to their high level of

English proficiency.

In peer-editing of the 1st draft of essay, they (all of them) used reference works to

correct grammar mistakes. For a start, they were seen underlining words they

thought wrong, then they corrected the errors without dictionary help if they knew

to correct them. However, when they failed to correct, they started opening the

reference works. None of them were seen to use printed dictionary, nor electronic

one or CD-Rom version of dictionary. They preferred to use an online concordancer

(namely, www.lextutor.ca/concordancers/text_concord). Reasons behind this are

online concordancers can be used to check two-word mistake and above; they are

lazy to look up for correction of grammar errors in more than 1 essay they peer-

edited (one person has to peer-edit 11 essays, excluding his/her own).

After the correction of grammar errors by using the online concordancer, they felt

more confident in writing the 2nd draft.

In self-editing session, after being taught dictionary skills of how to use thesauri for

varying the words in their essays, students were seen to use thesaurus for this

purpose. However, they (all of them) chose to use an online thesaurus (that is,

www.thesaurus.com). It is considered easier to use than the printed thesauri

available.

In self-editing session, when taught that not all synonyms given by thesauri have the

similar meaning to original words in their essays, they were seen to get worried.

However, when taught dictionary skills of how to use activator to find the exact

meaning, they were seen to get less worried. Sadly, in practice, they failed to locate

some synonyms and their meanings since not all synonyms were explained in

activator. As a result, they did not use activator anymore. Instead, they still wanted

to find synonyms from online thesaurus, but did not want to crosscheck if their

meanings are similar to the words previously written.

In self-editing session, when taught dictionary skills of how to vary expressions

used in their essays by using communicators, they were seen to do the varying well.

During practice, they (all of them) were seen to succeed in using the communicators

in order to vary the expressions used in their essays.

5.2. Speaking stages

In the first presentation rehearsal, when checking and correcting their peer

pronunciation, 10 of them were seen to use an online dictionary with sound

(www.merriam-webster.com); while 2 of them used CD-Rom version of Cambridge

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (CALD). Their choice is based on their inability to

read phonetic symbols, although phonetic symbol reading was taught beforehand.

When asked to find synonyms and alternate expressions for their presentation, they

were seen to master dictionary skills required. It must be due to their recurrent

practice in writing stages.

In the 2nd rehearsal, they were seen to be more confident because their dictionary

skills enabled them to improve their presentation quality.

5.3. The end-of-the-class overall test

When given a test essay to check in the matter of grammar mistakes, to vary words

with synonyms, and to vary expressions with alternative ones, they were seen to

master all dictionary skills taught upfront. They were seen to masterfully use the

reference works available.

When given a recorded oral presentation and its audio script, intended for testing

their mastery of dictionary skills in correcting pronunciation, in varying words and

varying expressions, they were seen to know well how to use reference works for so

doing. This mastery must result from their recurrent practice of the dictionary skills

taught.

6. Discussion

The CAR results achieved by the writer confirmed Idoia Elola et al.’s findings in their

study (2008) that dictionary use and dictionary-using skills by students had a positive effect,

especially when making vocabulary choices in their L2 writing (Elola et al. 2008:78). The

writer’s EFL students’ choice of word was improved when taught dictionary skills of how to

vary words and expressions in their essays and in presentations using online thesauri and printed

activator. In addition, the CAR results also authenticated George M. Jacobs’ findings that

dictionary skills utilized during error correction before writing and during writing a draft, could

lead to an improvement of the students’ writing and greater dictionary use (Jacobs 1989:8). The

students’ use of an online concordancer in the writer’s class for correcting grammatically-

mistaken longer words led to a progress of writing quality. Moreover, the CAR results shown

above corroborated Adrian Underhill’s statement that maximization of dictionary use facilitated

learners to have correct pronunciation while speaking since it is by the dictionary that learners

will get informed on the correct pronunciation by means of its phonetic symbols (Underhill

1980:16). The participants of this study were shown to acquire better pronunciation after their

recurrent consultation of dictionaries with sound/audio facility.

For EFL students with upper intermediate level of proficiency, correction of grammar

mistake in one-lexis level is shown not necessary; what is really necessary for them is correction

in level of two-lexis, three-lexis, four-lexis, or even sentence level or at least phrase level. To do

this, most printed dictionaries fail; only concordancers with real authentic sources can do so.

Phonetic symbols, instead of easing students’ problem of pronunciation correction,

precisely stifle them in so undertaking. Only dictionaries with audio facility are preferably used

by the stifled students.

Today’s students are shown lazy to look up; they prefer to just click. They only want to

look up the easy reference to look up, as it is the case with the communicators.

The successful results of the CAR are made possible because of the integration of

teaching dictionary skills and maximization of dictionary use into teaching of EFL writing and

of EFL speaking.

7. Conclusion & suggestion

Teachers of EFL who aspire to improve their students’ writing and speech quality can

consider the utilization of a ‘lexicographical approach’—that is, teaching dictionary-

using skills and maximization of dictionary use—as an alternative, promising approach.

Phonetic symbol teaching to improve EFL students’ pronunciation does not give much

fruits to students that are too lazy to break mysterious code of the symbols. Teaching

them how to correct pronunciation using dictionary with sound is proven to be more

fruitful.

The communicator part of the activators is demonstrated to be enormously effective in

providing students with varying expressions since it is arranged on functions. The

communicator makers are strongly suggested to make it more complete with much more

varying language functions in the future.

The thesaurus makers of the future should write headwords with synonyms in the entries

that have the most similar and the nearest meaning to their headwords, so that thesaurus

users do not need to crosscheck if the synonyms provided in the entries really have the

similar meaning to the headwords or not, which is time-consuming and exhausting to

do.

The dictionary makers of the future should consider the making of CD-Rom version of

their dictionaries with features of a clickable concordancer that enables students to

correct grammatically-mistaken long phrases, long collocations, as well as long

colligation, and a clickable audio that enables students to correct pronunciation in long

connected speech as today’s students prefer to just click to lengthily look up.

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