College life.

"It is not important for students to learn how to work with dictionaries.” I disagree with this assertion. I have no doubt that the single most important resource students have for learning languages is their dictionary. But teachers should teach students to use their dictionaries effectively and to understand that their dictionaries are not just lists of words with their meanings.  So there are several reasons why we should teach dictionary skills.

            The first, it will give students greater control over their own learning, and shift the responsibility of learning to the student. But we are not born knowing how to use dictionaries well, thus students need to gain the knowledge and skills to get what they can from the dictionary effectively. It helps students to disentangle information in the dictionary by making things explicit to them.

            Secondly, dictionaries naturally generate a great deal of thinking about meaning and language. Also in my mind dictionary training can help students explore personal preferences and learning styles and may also lead students to new modes of study. So by exploiting dictionaries as a source of interaction, we can help students develop their confidence as dictionary users and as language learners. An important benefit of this is that students will be exposed to a great deal of language that will help them experience and explore it.

            But I would like to say, that sometimes students should not use dictionaries. It is too useful for students to try to unknown words guess before looking in a dictionary. In my mind It forces the student to think more deeply about the word and it also makes the students better guessers. Also it increases mental effort so the chances of remembering the word will be higher.

            In conclusion I would remark that it is important for students to learn how to work with dictionaries effectively. Learning to use a dictionary is an important part of the elementary student's education. This skill obviously helps the student discover the meaning of words, but it also helps them understand sequence and order. These more abstract skills are important throughout life.