Language Learners ' Use of a Bilingual Dictionary : A Comparative Study of Dictionary Use and Needs

This paper compares and contrasts dictionary use and needs of language learners at the University of York in the United Kingdom and at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Five aspects are discussed in this study viz. dictionaries used, instructions and guidance on dictionary use, the functions for which students use a dictionary, information categories sought or lacking, metalanguage in the dictionaries and how it has been used to explicate the information cate-


Introduction
Dictionary use and needs are of great interest to both the lexicographer and the dictionary user.Research lexicographers seek to determine the needs of dictionary users in order to influence dictionary compilation accordingly.On the other hand, users of dictionaries want dictionaries which will meet their lexicographical needs.
The needs of dictionary users can be determined from the purposes for which the dictionary is used.Hartmann (1987) argues that although lexicographers have acknowledged a number of functions of the dictionary as guiding their work, until recently their understanding of these has not been informed by objective evidence on the real requirements of real users.According to Wiegand (1977), the functions of dictionaries may be determined more by the communicative needs of the dictionary users than the conventional information categories supplied by dictionary makers.The communicative needs of a dictionary user are: writing, speaking, reading and listening.A dictionary user needs a dictionary either for comprehension (reading and listening) or for production (writing and speaking).
The basic task of a bilingual dictionary is to provide L2 equivalents of Ll lexical items.A bilingual dictionary is either monodirectional or bidirectional.A two-language dictionary is monodirectional if it serves the needs of the native speakers of one of the two languages.It is bidirectional if it attends to the needs of the speakers of both languages (Tomaszczyk 1988).Theoretically, a bilingual dictionary serves speakers of both languages of the dictionary.An Ll-L2 dictionary is a reading dictionary for the native speakers of L2, and a writing dictionary for the speakers of Ll, and vice versa.
The objective of this paper is to analyze the dictionary use and needs of bilingual dictionary users as reflected in lexicographical data collected at the University of York in the United Kingdom and at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.The analysis will try (1) to establish dictionary users' needs and use of bilingual dictionaries in general, and of French and German bilingual dictionaries in particular, (2) to compare and contrast the dictionary use and needs of English speakers learning either French or German, and Swahili speakers learning French and (3) to determine ways of improving bilingual French-English, French-Swahili, and German-English dictionaries from the perspective of the foreign language learner.
The lexicographical research on language learners' use of bilingual dictionaries involved 56 students learning either French or German at the University of York (henceforth YU), and 14 students learning French at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).

Research coverage
In this study, five aspects of dictionary use were investigated: (1) dictionaries consulted by language learners, (2) instructions and guidance on dictionary use, (3) the purposes for which a dictionary is consulted, (4) information categories sought or lacking in the dictionaries used, and (5) lexicographic metalanguage in the dictionaries and how it was interpreted.
The results of these investigations are as follows:

Dictionaries used
The majority of the students at YU learning German or French mentioned the Collins dictionaries as the dictionaries they use most.Although the aim of the research was not to determine the reasons why a particular dictionary was preferred to others, various reasons may be given for this.The Collins dictionaries are more readily available to learners than many other dictionaries, hence they are more frequently used by language students, and most likely by their language teachers too.They are considered better than their competitors in terms of the information rendered and the method in which the information is presented.It is interesting to note here that a considerable number of students of French at the UDSM used CREDU et al.It scored the second highest percentage of students making use of it.Although this dictionary is no more than a bilingual word-list, it has no competitor, therefore students have no choice but to use it.It should be stressed here that bilingual dictionaries are very important works of reference in translation classes, hence where there is only one dictionary, as is the case with CREDU et al. for French learners at the UDSM, students would naturally use it.

Instructions on dictionary use
Skills in dictionary use are rarely taught to language students.Many language students know very little about the dictionaries they use, e.g. the information the dictionary can offer and how such information can be retrieved.It therefore Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher ( dated 2011) http://lexikos.journals.ac.za takes them a lot of time to obtain any information they want from a dictionary, a factor which has attributed to the fact that dictionary use is seen by s'ome students as boring and taking more of their time than they are willing to give.For a language learner to be able to use a dictionary successfully, requires specific competence because the dictionary contains a wide range of information (Herbst and Stein 1987).According to Herbst and Stein a dictionary is a reference book, hence its users require specific reference skills to be able to retrieve information from it.They argue further that although teachers use dictionaries as valuable and indispensable linguistic tools, they do not teach their students how to use them to their best advantage.Instructions offered on how to consult a dictionary are usually limited to how they can look up a lexical item.The dictionary user is asked to scan through the pages of the dictionary to the first letter of the lexeme he/ she is looking up, and then to keep on scanning until he/ she finally finds it.This information is not enough and will no doubt make dictionary use boring.Herbst and Stein note (from their experience in Germany) that when a monolingual English dictionary is first introduced in a class, it is accompanied by two to three lessons on skills in dictionary use.Some teachers rarely provide regular instruction in the use of dictionaries.They simply refer students to the dictionary without explaining in detail how the information could actually be retrieved.
Our hypothesis was therefore: Language learners are not taught how to use a dictionary.To test this hypothesis, two questions were asked: Were you taught how to look up a lexical item or an idiomatic expression in a dictionary?(2) Have you ever been taught how to get the information you want in an entry such as n (noun), vt (transitive verb) or a derivative of a base word which is represented by an affix e.g.-ness?
The responses showed that 73% of the French and German students at YU were not taught how to look up a lexeme in a dictionary.About the same percentage (74%) of the French students at the UDSM indicated that they were instructed how to use a dictionary.The trend is repeated again in the second question above.86% of the students at the YU indicated that they were not taught how to retrieve information encoded in alphanumerical symbols in an entry, while 57% of the UDSM students learning French said they were taught how to interpret the lexicographical information rendered in a dictionary entry.The responses of YU students do not necessarily mean that they were never instructed on how to use a dictionary, otherwise they would not have been able to use a dictionary at all.One would argue that they got informal instruction either from friends or relatives at home, but not in school from a teacher.This is possible because most homes in the United Kingdom are literate and own and use dictionaries (Quirk 1973).A child is therefore exposed to dictionaries at an early age long before he / she needs to use them as aids to lan-guage learning.On the other hand, many families in Tanzania are not literate and do not own dictionaries.Dictionaries are usually found in schools, hence students have to be taught how to use them when the need arises.This seems to explain why the instuction is still vivid in their minds while their counterparts in the United Kingdom are not even aware that they were taught how to use a dictionary, even if it was not done by their teachers.
Dictionary-using skills can be acquired through instructions given by the language teacher or through the students themselves reading the front matter which usually contains a wealth of information on how to retrieve lexicographical information from the dictionary.Whether one is instructed or not, it is very important for a dictionary user to read the front matter in order to understand the arrangement of the entries and the metalanguage used in that particular dictionary.Unfortunately, many language students do not read the front matter.Indeed, this is the main reason why many dictionary users do not know their dictionaries.
The subjects indicated that they do read the guide to the use of a dictionary.89% of the YU students make reference to the guide, but only when they failed to interpret symbols used in an entry.This was in response to the question whether they first consult the instructions on how to use a dictionary whenever they acquire a new dictionary, or do so only when they cannot interpret the codes in an entry for a word they are looking up.71% of French students at the UDSM first read the guide before using a dictionary for the first time.The responses from the students of the two universities show that because the YU students were not formally taught how to use a dictionary, they were not made to realize the need to know its structure, contents and metalanguage before consulting it.' On the other hand, the UDSM students were made aware of the importance of first reading the guide before using the dictionary.There is no doubt, therefore, that this was the reason why they studied it.Notwithstanding the fact that a dictionary user knows the significance of the front matter, its length is a factor that can deter him/her from reading it.Many dictionary users may not have the time to read through all the detailed explanations about the dictionary.Moulin (1983) was also of the same opinion when he observed that a dictionary is consulted when the user is not excessively pressed for time.A concise and clear introduction will encourage the reader to go through it.
A good dictionary is user-friendly.Such a dictionary is one which (1) enters all lexical items the expected user would want to look up, (2) puts every lexeme selected for the dictionary in its appropriate place where the user can easily find it and (3) provides at the point of entry the lexicographical information that the user needs.A dictionary which lacks some lexemes or information required by the user, or which cross-refers the user from one entry to another within the dictionary, is not user-friendly.Many language students need user-friendly dictionaries.88% of the YU students and 64% of the UDSM students preferred all the necessary information of a headword to be clearly shown in the entry.This information should be presented in simple codes which the user can easily decode without frequent reference to the front matter.
The guide on how to use a dictionary is only useful if the instructions are thoroughly explained and well elaborated on.Most of the YU students (71%) were of the opinion that the guide in their dictionaries was quite clear, that they were able to understand it, and that it helped them to retrieve information encoded in the symbols in an entry.
A few students were however not satisfied with the instructions in their dictionaries because these were not self-explanatory.Almost all the UDSM students (93%) were of the opinion that the guide in their dictionaries was very useful because it helped them interpret the codes and symbols in the entry.

The purposes for which a dictionary is used
Dictionary users have different reasons for making reference to a dictionary.As we have already noted, a dictionary may be used for encoding or decoding a language.Language learners use a dictionary most when they read or write, and less when they speak or listen to someone.Language learners consult the dictionary in order to spell words correctly or to check their meanings when they write.The research revealed that 96% of the respondents at YU consulted the dictionary when writing and 88% used it when reading.Some 30% used it when speaking and 23% referred to it when listening to a speech or lecture.
Similar results were observed at UDSM. 93% consulted the dictionary when writing and 79% used it when reading.None of them used a dictionary when listening to someone speaking.The findings confirm the purposes for which a language learner uses a dictionary: writing and reading.

Information categories sought in dictionaries
The information that French and German learners look for whenever they consult French-English, German-English or French-Swahili dictionaries, includes: gender, pronunciation, orthography, conjugation, collocation, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, lexical equivalents, example sentences, irregular forms of lexical items and stylistic uses of lexical items.The frequency with which the information categories above were looked up in the dictionary, was tested.Using the codes (1) for most frequently, (2) for less frequently and (3) for never, the subjects were asked to indicate the information they made reference to by putting the code in the appropriate information category.
The results of the test showed that meaning or lexical equivalents of the headwords in L1 was recorded as the information most frequently sought by the language learners.98% of the YU students and 79% of the UDSM students looked up this information.Other information sought frequently by the YU students was: gender 80% and spelling 68%.This observation is consonant with the findings of Kipfer (1987) that dictionaries are used chiefly as a guide to meaning and spelling and occasionally pronunciation.Less frequently sought information which recorded high scores, was: collocations, stylistic labels, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, irregular forms of lexemes, example sentences and pronunciation, in that order.Very interestingly, no information was categorized as never sought by the majority of the YU students.Almost every kind of information was looked up but with varying degrees of frequency.
Besides meaning, information most sought by the UDSM students, comprised the following categories: correct spelling of lexemes 93%, gender 79%, and irregular forms of lexemes 50%.In the category of less frequently sought information, the research results were as follows: pronunciation, example sentences, conjugation, and collocation of lexical items.Information which the UDSM students learning French did not look up very often in the dictionaries, was stylistic labels and comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.

Data analysis
An examination of the research findings shows some interesting observations: (1) Dictionary users do not look up the same information every time when they consult a dictionary.Moreover, some information categories which are important to a learner of one language, may not necessarily be important to a learner of another language.(2) The functions of a leamer's dictionary are basically twofold: (a) to help the language student to decode, and (b) to encode the language which the dictionary user is leaming.
A decoding dictionary provides the semantic information of the entry words.A bilingual dictionary is no doubt a decoding dictionary.This explains why semantic information (lexical equivalents) was rated by the German and French learners as the most frequently sought information.An illustrative example sentence is another kind of lexicographical information which helps the dictionary user to decode the headword of which the definition. is not clear.An example sentence complements the definition by implicitly stating some missing semantic features of the headword and by making the definition clearer.
The argument that a dictionary is a tool for language leaming is proven by the encoding functions for which it is used.According to our data, gender and spelling were considered the most frequently sought information.Gender was put in the second position of the category of information most frequently sought by students of both universities.The importance of checking the correct gender of a noun in both French and German languages cannot be overempha-sized.I<nowledge of it is very necessary for a learner to be able to construct a grammatically acceptable sentence.This is an area which language learners would want to be sure of before using a lexeme, failure of which would expose one's linguistic incompetence.In both languages, for example, a noun has an influence on the form of an article or a pronoun appearing together in one sentence.A change of gender would affect their forms in the same sentence, hence distort the cohesion of the lex-. .emes in the sentence.For example, in German, the articles der (the masculine) and das (the neuter) change into dem (dative case).The feminine article die, changes into der (dative case) in a sentence or phrase.Failing to adhere to the appropriate gender of a noun would no doubt make the sentence ungrammatical.
A dictionary is a good reference work for checking the accepted or standard spelling of lexical items.Whenever a language learner is in doubt of the orthography of a lexeme, he checks it in a dictionary.The UDSM students rated it in the first position (93%) as the most frequently sought information, but the YU students placed it in the third position of this category.The difference is not surprising, because English and German belong to the family of Germanic languages, hence they have many lexical items with similar spelling.Likewise German, French and English belong to the Indo-European group of languages.Thus they have some common words as well.Many words from one of these languages have been adopted in the other.All these factors make the vocabulary of one language familiar and intelligible to speakers of another language.Therefore the problem of spelling for English students learning either French or German is not as great as that experienced by Swahili speakers learning French.
Swahili is a Bantu language and differs very much from French, because they have nothing in common except for a few French words which have been adopted in Swahili.
An illustrative sentence is very useful in encoding a language.A language learner can, through the example sentence, see the lexical items which are always found together with the headword, and identify the place of the headword in a sentence, and its relationship with other lexical items in a sentence.
An example sentence was rated in the third position as one of the most frequently sought types of lexicographical information by the YU students, and less frequently sought by the UDSM students.This disparity could be explained by the fact that the YU students use the dictionary more often as an aid for learning a language on their own than their counterparts at the LTDSM.
Private learning of a language would require one to .read the example sentences in order to find out the collocates of the entry words, and thus make one's sentences by analogy.This is possible because most of the YU students had been learning more than one foreign language, and some had been studying a foreign language for more than ten years.This is not the case with many of the UDSM students.They depend wholly on their language teachers and do not look up this information very often.Moreover, some of their dictionaries do not provide elaborate example sentences (d.CREDU et al.).
Pronunciation and verb conjugation were rated by all the students as less frequently sought information.CREDU et al.'s Dictionnaire Franfais-Kiswahili and Collins German-English Dictionary do not offer pronunciation.Unlike French dictionaries which generally provide pronunciation, German dictionaries have no provision for this information because it is claimed that the language is written as pronounced, hence there is no need for the information.The omission of this information has probably contributed to its low rating.Since languages have exceptions which do not follow the norm, it is important for German dictionaries to single out those lexical items whose pronunciations do not follow the rule, and indicate how they are pronounced.These exceptions cause the dictionary user to seek information on their pronunciation.
Verb conjugation is hardly indicated in French and German dictionaries because it is considered to be material for grammar books.(Sometimes it is inserted as an appendix to a dictionary).Each of the personal pronouns in these languages has its own verb form (present tense) conjugated from the base form.
For example, the German verb sein (to be) has the following forms: singular, bin, bist and ist, and plural, sind, seid and sind.Although verb conjugation follows a pattern which is in most cases very consistent, language learners cannot be expected to remember the pattern or consult a grammar book whenever they want to use a conjugated form.A leamer's dictionary should incorporate this information.Since English learner's dictionaries provide this information, e.g.do, does and also the forms doing, did and done, French or German dictionaries should also.
Stylistic labels in a dictionary was the information type which was categorized as not having been looked up by the UDSM students and which was rated as less frequently sought by the YU students.Style is an area of considerable complexity for the foreign language learner and an area in which errors are regularly made (Carter 1989).The explanation for this disparity of need could be the orientation one has with language usage.Students who are used to stylistic usage of lexical items are very cautious when using certain items, hence they would try to be sure that a word is used in its appropriate context.It seems the YU students are more cautious in this respect than their counterparts at the UDSM who do not realize its significance.Although Swahili words like those of other languages can be classified into different usage styles, this aspect is not seriously taught in Swahili classes.Hence no usage restrictions such as "dialect", "substandard", "formal", "derogatory", "offensive", "jocular", "archaic", "slang", '!colloquial", etc. are marked in Swahili dictionaries.Dictionary users therefore cannot be expected to appreciate the stylistic use of words.
A collocation is a grouping of words which naturally go together through common usage, e.g.heavy smoker, free of charge (Summers 1987: 193) language learner be familiar with words which collocate, A dictionary should help he/she get the right word which collocates with the word he/she wants to use.
Most of the subjects categorized collocations as less frequently sought information.In this category, 50% of the UDSM students and 71% of the YU students registered this opinion.The correct use of collocation is an indication of the extent to which one has mastered a language.For example, it is important for a speaker to be informed of the fixed collocations such as breach of the peace, bring to a halt, etc. and prepositions which collocate with certain lexical items: graduate from, harmful to, reason for, etc.This information is very important although it is not looked up as often as other information because not every word has fixed collocates.Although verbs more often collocates with prepositions than any other grammatical category, not all verbs collocate with prepositions in every context (d.go home and go to school, or look up, look at, look for, etc.).Thus less frequently sought information does not necessarily imply that the information in question is insignificant, only that it is not looked up in a dictionary as often.
Tests on the verb, noun and adjective Three categories of words, verb, noun and adjective, which usually have irregular forms, collocate with other words or have special characteristics, were tested to determine the type of information looked up in each of these categories.
The results showed that in a verb entry the language learners consult the dictionary to look up word class labels, phrasal verbs, verb conjugations and fixed expressions.The UDSM students less frequently looked up only the word class labels and phrasal verbs, while the YU students looked up all the information listed above, fixed expressions very often, and the rest, less frequently.
In noun entries, gender was the information that was rated as the most frequently looked up by all the students, a confirmation of their responses to question 3 above.Information about nouns less frequently sought by the YU students was collocations and irregular forms, and by the UDSM students collocations and countability and uncountability.
None of the information in adjective entries was looked up very often.The YU students looked up usage restrictions, collocations and irregular forms of adjectives less frequently, while the UDSM students only looked up usage restrictions less frequently.
The research further tested the frequency of looking up example sentences or illustrative phrases in entries of different word classes.The verb, adjective, adverb, noun and preposition was tested.The YU students indicated that they looked up illustrative sentences or phrases in verb (89%) and noun (77%) entries most often, and less frequently in adverb, adjective and preposition entries.The UDSM students looked up example sentences under noun (57%) headwords most frequently, and less often under adverb and preposition headwords.
illustrating a verb is very important because it collocates with other word categories: a noun when it functions as an object or adverbial noun, a preposition or prepositional phrase, and an adverb.In the verb entry a leamer's dictionary should therefore indicate whether: (1) it is transitive, i.e. it takes a noun as a direct object or nouns as indirect and direct objects, e.g.Moshi killed a lion; Juma bought Mary a golden ring; and (2) it takes an adverb or a preposition to form verb phrases, e.g.put down, put off, put on, look for, look up, look after, etc.
Verbs form many of the fixed collocations which are either idiomatic expressions or fixed expressions, e.g.breach of contract, look down, look back, etc.Many verbs, especially those used quite often, take various complements of different categories.No other category is as heavily complemented as the verb.The research findings showed that not every lexical item entered in a dictionary needs to be illustrated.Example sentences in a dictionary have a purpose.It is therefore very important to emphasize here that every dictionary writer selects the information that will suit the needs of the users for whom the dictionary is written.
When the subjects were asked to state the information lacking in the dictionaries they use and which they think needs to be incorporated in their dictionaries, YU students recorded a sketch grammar of the target language (50%), idiomatic expressions (46%), verb conjugations (45%), usage notes (41%) and verb tenses (41%).The majority of the subjects did not express their views on this question.This may be interpreted to mean that none of the information tested was lacking in the dictionaries used by the majority of the YU students.Even the supplementary question that asked them to state any other information not given in the questionnaire prompted only a few to propose the inclusion of etymology.The UDSM students indicated the information lacking in their dictionaries as follows: usage notes (86%), verb conjugations (71%), idiomatic expressions (64%), verb tenses (57%), and pronunciation (43%).
A comparison of the views expressed by the UDSM and YU students shows that they all indicated idiomatic expressions, verb conjugations, usage notes and verb tenses as missing in their dictionaries.All this information is necessary for a good mastery of a language.Interestingly, the UDSM students indicated pronunciation, while the YU students did not rate it as significant.The YU students indicated that they needed a sketch grammar of the target language, which the UDSM students considered insignificant.This difference of opinion can be explained by the linguistic background and orientation of the two groups as already expounded above, i.e. the English students at YU learn foreign languages from their teachers as much as on their own.A sketch grammar of the target language would be of greater importance to them than to students who depend wholly on their teachers.The UDSM students' first and second languages are Bantu or other African languages with nothing in common with French, a Romance language.Hence a French learner from Tanzania would want guidance on how to pronounce French words more than an -English student learning French, because the two languages have some common lexemes, of which some may be spelt and pronounced more or less the same.

Conclusion
This paper has shown the significance of a learner's dictionary containing information which is consonant with the learners' needs.It also pointed out that language learners do not always look for the same information when they consult a dictionary.The various information categories discussed have indicated that certain information types are looked up more often by some language learners than by others.Further examination of the dictionary use and needs of language learners have shown that they have more problems with some categories of words, e.g. the verb, than with others.This implies that even at the level of the lexeme, all word categories do not get the same treatment.Some are rendered with very elaborate information while others are not.
. In these examples, the members of each set collocate with one another.None of the members can collocate with synonyms of their partners.Smoker cannot collocate with big, nor canfree of collocate with cost.It is therefore important that a' http://lexikos.journals.ac.za