Assessing dictionary skills

Abstract

This article discusses the role of dictionary skills in language learning as part of professional reference skills and as life-long language learning skills. It advocates for the integration of these skills in the language teaching and assessment cycle in a systematic way. Drawing on Nesi’s (Dictionaries in language learning. Recommendations, national reports, and thematic reports from the TNP sub-project 9: dictionaries, 1999) and Lew’s (Electronic lexicography in the 21st century: thinking outside the paper, 2013a) stages of dictionary use skills, it suggests that assessing dictionary skills is necessary if we want to study and analyze these skills in dictionary users under a common framework. Research on the use of dictionary skills in different countries and under several situations as well as responding to different reference needs can only be systematized if dictionary skill assessment is carried out under the same general assessment criteria. Several dimensions for assessing dictionary skills are considered.