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However, according to Liu (2010), in her article “Research on the correlation between the use of dictionary and second language writing ability,” the actual utilization rate of dictionary is not as high as people may imagine. What’s more, students have a various range of requirement for dictionary. After the otherness study between the high-score group and the low-score group, Liu found that there existed obvious differences between the two groups of students in the practical use of dictionary.
This contradictory situation may be explained by the finding of Cai (2006), who found that some students just use dictionary to get access to Chinese meaning of a word, rather than try to accept the English linguistic habits and the way of thinking. They ignore collocations and contexts of words. They are more likely to do Chinese to English translation instead of English writing. Therefore, students should master efficient skills in the process of using dictionaries and use them according to the actual requirement (Liu, 2010: 57-58).
2.3 Previous Research
Boonmoh’s (2012) research reported on the relationship between utilization of pocket electronic dictionaries (PED) and English writing abilities. He put emphasis on the thinking process of students when they use PED for production. A think-aloud protocol, observation, and retrospective interviews were used as data collection methods. There were totally 13 college students participated in the research, eight of whom were asked to read a passage in Thai. Using dictionaries in their PED, they were asked to write a summary in English. The remaining five participants followed the same procedure, but after the summary task was completed, they were asked to review their summaries using the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, and the English–English dictionary in their PED. The experimental study revealed how the participants tackled the reading passage and wrote summaries, the problems they encountered, and the strategies they used to solve these problems. It was found that some participants failed to display (extended) knowledge of the PED they were using (Boonmoh, 2012: 43-44). Besides, the research revealed factors that may have promoted dictionary lookup success. The deficiency of the research was that the number of subjects in the research was relatively small, which made the data less reliable. Besides, control variable was another shortage in this research.
Liu (2010) put emphasis on the correlation between the utilization of dictionaries and the second language writing quality by researching 79 university English majors. The frequency of dictionary use during the second language composing process was measured, and the correlation analysis was conducted between dictionary use and second language writing quality, as well as between proficient writers and non- proficient writers. The study revealed that the frequency of dictionary use was relatively low in the process of English writing, that inappropriate dictionary use skills showed negative correlations with the second language writing quality, and that difference existed in the dictionary use between proficient writers and non- proficient writers (Liu, 2010: 58). In another paper of Liu (2011), the writer did a further research on the dictionary use of college students in the process of English writing. The research used quantitative and qualitative research method to find out the use of dictionary of English majors in writing English compositions. After combining the quantitative research which analyzed the reason and frequency of dictionary use with the qualitative research which assessed students’ compositions, it was concluded that students used dictionaries differently in English writing according to own needs. Writers with high proficient English skill used dictionary to promote the quality of text, while those with low proficient skills were lack of motivation and skill (Liu, 2011: 122). The writers’ two researches were interrelated and thus made a complete research; however, it was lack of the solution of the current situation, such as the proper way of dictionary utilization.