| Abstract |
We address three questions: Can the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (MEDAL), an ESL dictionary, meet the needs of native speakers of English? How do American college students perform on a comprehension task of "hard words" using either the MEDAL or the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (MW)? Is the MEDAL easier to comprehend and use than the MW? The results demonstrate that of the 350 American college students tested, the groups aided by either the MEDAL or the MW performed well compared to the group aided only by a reading passage with the target words, and all three groups did much better than an unaided control group. The MEDAL users scored slightly higher than the MW users, performing much better on seven "hard words." This suggests that American college students might consider buying an ESL dictionary with adequate vocabulary coverage, such as the MEDAL. |
| BibTex |
@InProceedings{ELX06-110,
author = {Don R. McCreary, Elise Amacker},
title = {Experimental Research on College Students' Usage of Two Dictionaries: A Comparison of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners },
pages = {871-885},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 12th EURALEX International Congress},
year = {2006},
month = {sep},
date = {6-9},
address = {Torino, Italy},
editor = {Elisa Corino, Carla Marello, Cristina Onesti},
publisher = {Edizioni dell'Orso},
isbn = {88-7694-918-6},
} |
