Awareness of Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Perception Changes of Iranian Learners of English: Dictionary Use Strategies in Focus

This study sought to look for probable perception changes in learners about dictionary use strategies after utilizing them in practice; meanwhile, it explored the practical usefulness of each dictionary type; and finally the possible correlation between these two variables was considered. First, we distributed a questionnaire on learners’ perceptions of different dictionary use strategies among 94 Iranian B.A. students of English at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran. The learners were then divided into six groups: printed bilingual group, electronic bilingual group, printed monolingual group, electronic monolingual group, blended group of printed monolingual and printed bilingual, and blended group of electronic monolingual and electronic bilingual. We investigated the practical usefulness of each dictionary type through a pretest-treatment-posttest procedure while letting the participants experience the use of different dictionary types in practice. Then, the participants were asked to note their perceptions of different dictionary types again using the same questionnaire they once completed in the beginning. The collected data were analyzed by ANOVA, paired t-test, and Pearson’s correlation in SPSS. Results showed no statistically meaningful difference between the overall gains of the six groups. And, no significant change was observed in learners’ perceptions of these strategies. This insignificance leads to the fact that changes in learners’ perceptions, as one of the variables, does not follow a specific track, hence making it difficult to correlate with the other variable (practical usefulness). The findings suggest that learners are familiar enough to dictionary use strategies and are aware of the efficacy of these strategies.