Chinese EFL learners’ use of mobile dictionaries in reading comprehension tasks

Abstract

Although mobile dictionaries are widely used in English as a foreign language (EFL) education, few studies have examined the different types of mobile dictionaries that Chinese students use. This study looks at monolingual, bilingualised and bilingual mobile dictionaries used by Chinese university EFL learners when completing a reading activity. Mixed methods were used to investigate the engagement of 125 learners with three different dictionary apps. A self-report questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to understand learners’ uses and motivations when using mobile dictionaries. Results of the questionnaire show that most learners look up almost exclusively the first entry definition, the Chinese translation of the target word and, to a lesser degree, part of speech information. Spelling, example sentences and other aspects of vocabulary knowledge were largely ignored by the participants in the study. The interview data allowed us to hypothesise that three strategies are shared by the participants across the three study conditions: (1) the “so-called relevance” strategy, (2) the “choose the first definition” strategy, and (3) the “availability principle” strategy. This study addresses gaps in mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) research, providing language teachers, researchers and policymakers with ways to understand how mobile dictionaries are used in English language learning.