| Abstract: |
The aim of the paper is twofold. First, it aspires to compare the usefulness of a monolingual English learners' dictionary in electronic and paper form in receptive and productive tasks. Second, it sets out to assess the role of dictionary form in the retention of meaning and collocations. The investigation concerns the paper and electronic versions of a recent monolingual English learners' dictionary, COBUILD6 (2008). The study reports on an experiment, in which 64 upper-intermediate and advanced students took part. The test consisted of two tasks: receptive and productive. To complete them, each subject was assigned to work with one version of the dictionary. It turns out that COBUILD online was more useful in both tasks. The results of an unexpected retention test prove it to be a better learning tool as well, since it significantly enhanced the retention of both meaning and collocations. |