Introduction
Writing English
assignments tends to be a serious problem for many students. Many of them
compose English assignments by writing in Thai first and
then translating into
English. The quality
of their written
assignments, however, is quite poor partly because they contain many
poor word choices as well as grammatical
mistakes.
Problems
encountered
After the subjects finished writing their Thai
essays, they were asked to translate them into English. In translating, all six
subjects encountered problems using their dictionaries;
-
Could not find words (39.45%)
-
Not sure word to choose (26.61%)
-
Translation did not match (13.76%)
-
Not familiar with words (8.26%)
-
Unable to spell words (8.26%)
- -- Could not retrieve words (3.67%)
Recommendations
for Teacher
a. Teachers should train their students to try to
change the part of speech if the target word cannot be found.
b. It is important
for teachers to
raise awareness about
the differences between
L1 (Thai) and L2 (English) in terms of derivations.
c. For
phrases or connectors,
teachers may have
to suggest students
start by using
a formal word as a headword and not to use colloquial words since these
might not appear in the electronic
dictionary.
d. If the target word is long and the students
cannot find its meaning, teachers should make sure that they know how to break
it down into smaller units that still contain the sense or the meaning of that
target word.
e. Teachers should train their students to avoid
starting a headword with a negative unit.
f. Teachers
should raise students’
awareness of the
potential of utilizing
synonyms in their first language
when they cannot find the target word.
g. Teachers
may train their students how to ‘check
other words in the same entry’, i.e. by writing the words they find on a
piece of paper and checking all of them to see which one is the most
appropriate to use in the context.
Conclusion
In this study, the
subjects’ most common problem using electronic dictionaries was the
inability to find
words, a problem
exacerbated by their
evident lack of
compensatory strategies.
Thus, teachers should
be aware of
the need for
dictionary training, which should include essential strategies for
all kinds of dictionaries as well as the computer skills needed
to use electronic
dictionaries effectively. Another
finding was that
there were several inherent problems with the electronic dictionaries
used in this study, which should be considered by electronic dictionary
compilers. If they improve dictionaries to achieve or
even exceed users’
expectations, students and
teachers will definitely
be among the main beneficiaries.
