A PolyU study has found that while paper-based dictionaries are more effective for word learning than electronic dictionaries, the combined use of both is superior.

We all need to look up the meaning of a word sometimes, and nowadays electronic dictionaries on mobile phones, tablets and computers are very convenient. But are they as effective as traditional paper-based dictionaries? Not so, according to Dr Daisy Zou of the English Language Centre and her team, but they do have an important place alongside their paper counterparts.

Word knowledge is very important for second language users. Dr Zou explained that while language elements such as grammar don't always have to be perfect when communicating, "the absence of the correct word often impedes the conveyance of a message completely".

The team conducted two experiments on local undergraduate students, using one short text on healthy eating and another on small class education, both of which contain the ten same underlined words. In the first experiment, the participants were divided into two groups and were asked to read the healthy eating text and look up 10 underlined words with either the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's Dictionary (group one) or its electronic version (group two). The second experiment split other participants into four groups to read both texts. This objective was to determine whether repetition and the use of both paper and electronic dictionaries had any effect on understanding the words. The first group read both texts, looking up the chosen words in the paper dictionary. The second group did the same but used the electronic dictionary. The third group used the electronic dictionary with the first text and the paper dictionary with the second, while the fourth group did the opposite.

What the research team found after testing for meaning retention of the participants a week later has shed light on the ongoing discussion about whether paper or electronic dictionaries are more effective. The participants clearly retained more word meanings when using the paper dictionary, those who used a dictionary twice retained more than those who only used it once and the most effective method of learning was using both the paper and electronic versions of the dictionary.

This hybrid approach to word learning is consisted of repetition of finding the meaning of words and variation methods of looking up in the dictionaries. This will be a great boon for second language education.

The findings of Dr Zou's study were published in the Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Hybrid Learning. ♦