A Study on the Impact of Online Monolingual and Bilingual Dictionary Use on ESL Learners’ Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention

Abstract

This experimental research comparatively analyzed the impact of online monolingual and online bilingual dictionary use in vocabulary acquisition and retention. Forty Engineering undergraduates in their first term at B1 level in proficiency were divided into two comparison groups: Online Monolingual Dictionary (OMD) and Online Bilingual Dictionary (OBD) groups. Then both groups were exposed to an unknown set of ten academic words using an online monolingual dictionary and an online bilingual dictionary (English-Sinhala/English-Tamil) respectively. After the treatment/exposure, the same vocabulary tests: pretest, immediate test and posttest, were administered in both groups to check the effectiveness of the treatments. While both classes significantly acquired and retained vocabulary under each online dictionary use, the independent sample t -test determined a statistically significant difference in the vocabulary retention of the online monolingual class over the online bilingual class at the immediate test as well as at the post test. The findings confirmed the hypothesis that online monolingual dictionary use is effective over online bilingual dictionary use in vocabulary acquisition and retention.