The ability of dictionaries, either in printed or electronic form, to enhance text comprehension has not been systematically investigated. Consequently, in order to investigate whether dictionary support improves text comprehension, this study compared readers' first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) text comprehension across three dictionary conditions and two proficiency levels. Recall, dictionary usage and reading times were the measures employed. Subjects were anglophone members of the Canadian Armed Forces military personnel with high-intermediate to advanced French second-language skills. / Procedural texts were used: subjects read both an L1 and an L2 text in each of three conditions: (a) no dictionary access; (b) access to hard-copy dictionaries; and (c) access to on-line computerized dictionaries. The number of words looked up varied greatly by language, by proficiency level and by dictionary modality, with a far greater number of words accessed in L2 than in L1, by intermediate- than by advanced-level readers and in the on-line rather than in the hard-copy dictionary condition. The variance in dictionary usage was explained by the two-way interactions between language, proficiency level and dictionary condition. / Reading times were higher for intermediate-level readers than for advanced-level readers, and when L2 rather than L1 texts were read. These reading time results are consistent with the patterns of dictionary consultation, where intermediate L2 reading produced the most look-ups. / Most readers expressed a preference for on-line dictionaries, reporting that the ease of access led to faster and better text comprehension, but this impression was not confirmed by the findings. Analyses of recall protocols indicated that there was no main effect for the type of dictionary consulted. Similar levels of recall were found on all passages read with access to dictionaries, regardless of the language of presentation. Significantly lower recalls were found on passages read with no access to dictionaries, with L2 recall lower than L1 recall. This study indicates that the type of dictionary accessed does not significantly influence comprehension. The high number of L2 dictionary look-ups does suggest that readers may use dictionaries to compensate for weaker second language vocabulary skills, resulting in similar levels of text comprehension across languages.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.40129 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Goyette, Els Spekkens |
| Contributors | Lajoie, Susanne P. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001500208, proquestno: NN12375, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds