The Effectiveness of Using Dictionaries as an Aid for Teaching Standardization of English-based Sports Terms in Serbian

Abstract

This paper reports on the effectiveness of a new teaching method employing dictionaries as an aid for teaching the standardization of English-based sports terms in Serbian. The research was conducted among the students of a sports faculty in 2017 by means of a questionnaire distributed to the students both at the beginning of the second half of an ESP course and again at its end. Its aim was to measure the students' progress related to the acquisition of standardized sports terms in Serbian as an indicator of the effectiveness of the new teaching method. The findings generally indicate a certain degree of improvement of the students' knowledge of standardized sports terminology, though a less than satisfactory amount of progress regarding their linguistic competence. Even though the outcomes did not fully meet the goals set in advance, they do provide solid arguments for further efforts in developing and monitoring dictionary use in teaching the standardization of English-based sports terms in Serbian within the ESP curriculum and, even more importantly, for the systematic education of dictionary usage as part of the mother tongue curriculum.