Thursday, March 13, 2008

English Dictionaries: Text, Electronic, or Online?

Dictionaries are important tools to help ESL/EFL learners improve their language skills, but given the choice, which do you prefer to use and why: a traditional textbook dictionary, an electronic dictionary you can carry, or an online dictionary? Please share your ideas, including the specific dictionary you find most useful, and explain your reasons for using it.

Randall

5 comments:

  1. I prefer to use Online Dictionaries.First of all, I can listen to the pronunciation of a word.I do not need to spend much more time to look up for a word among the pages,so saving time is really worthwhile.Finally, they have more up-to-date vocabularies which I was not able to find in Text dictionaries for instance some idioms or phrasal verbs.These are the reasons that I like using Online Dictionaries.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I often use a traditional dictionary. My dictionary is very fit in my hands. I am kind of biased against using an electronic one. I feel it's so lazy way to learning tool.I am not good at using that kinds of gadget,though.
    However,I like looking up words with Online.When I am not for sure one pharase,I enclose in parentheses such as " "it shows very specific examples.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd like to choose online dictionaries nowadays if I read something in English but hard to understand. First, it's convenient to look for the word online, because we just need to tap the spellings of the letter of phrases into computer and enter.But but if we want to get the explanations from the traditional dictionary,we have to turn to the pages and look through the lines, which is an unefficient way and costs us too much time. Also ,if we use electronic dictionaries, we have to push the small button to enter the spellings of the letters. Smallness and easy-carring is the good aspects of electronic dictionaries,but because of this, the buttons are also too small to use.I can't stand once I constantly put the wrong spellings of letters which really irratates me and wastes my time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It depends on the situation, really. I often use online dictionaries 'cos I'm often online and besides that, they're faster, easier to use and seem to give you more details about the word you're looking up. I wish I also had an electronic one but it's quite expensive here in Brazil.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Usually I use an electronic dictionary. First my dictionary is small, so i can carry to school. secondly I think it's easy to use than text dictionary. Finally, if I using electronic dictionary than I don't have to check speeling because it chage automatically and I don't have to waste my time to check speeling. These are why I m use electronic dictionary.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for posting a comment. I appreciate your interesting in sharing your ideas.

Best,

Randall

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.