- A dictionary is a reference book that lists words alphabetically and provides their meanings, pronunciations, and other information. It is used to look up unknown words, confirm meanings, and check spellings. - Using a dictionary has advantages like increasing knowledge and vocabulary, but it also has disadvantages like requiring training to use effectively and not specifying the current usage of expressions. - Learners should only look up words that seem important to understanding after finishing the surrounding text, and wait to look up new words from class until after the lesson to avoid interrupting comprehension.

1. Use of Dictionary
Dr Bhavin Chauhan

2. Definition
• A dictionary is a reference book about words and as such it describes the
functioning of individual words (sometimes called lexical items). It does
so by listing these words in alphabetical order in the form of headwords,
the words listed as entries in the dictionary.

3. Typical comprehension uses are:
• Looking up unknown words that are encountered when listening
or reading
• Confirming the meanings of partially known words
• Conforming guesses from context

4. Typical production uses are:
• Looking up unknown words needed to speak or write
• Looking up spelling, pronunciation, meaning, grammar, constraints
• on use, collocations, inflections and derived forms of partly known words.
• Confirming the spelling, pronunciation, meaning etc. of known words.
• Checking that a word actually exists
• Finding a different word to use instead of a known one (a synonym)
• Correcting errors and mistakes

5. Reasons for using a dictionary
• look up the meaning of an English word you see or hear
• find the English translation of a word in your language
• check the spelling of a word
• check the plural of a noun or past tense of a verb
• find out other grammatical information about a word
• find the synonym or antonym of a word
• look up the collocations of a word
• check the part of speech of a word
• find out how to say a word
• find out about the register of a word
• find examples of the use of a word in natural language

6. Advantages of Using Dictionary
• Trained learners in the use of dictionary can effectively continue to make
progress in their learning beyond the classroom.
• The knowledge of the user will be increased, along with his/her
vocabulary.
• The bilingual dictionary enables the students to understand the meaning
of the words quickly and almost effortlessly
• Help to generate text and is a resource for vocabulary acquisition.

7. Advantages of Using Dictionary
• Can help students to develop more natural command of English.
• Can serve as a focus for communication and classroom interaction
• Develop autonomy and confidence in learners.
• A handy tool for researching different meanings.
• Generate a great deal of thinking about meaning.

8. Disadvantages
• Learners may tend to overuse the dictionary.
• Being the dictionary a special kind of reference, it will require some
learner training before they can use it effectively.
• Often most of dictionaries do not specify if an expression is in current use.

9. Disadvantages
• Untrained user of dictionaries may encounter the following drawbacks.
• Unfamiliarity of the layout
• Unawareness of the phonemic script
• Getting the right meaning of the word according to context
• Waste of time

10. Knowing when to use the dictionary
• If you look up every new word you see or hear, you will spend your whole
day with the dictionary in your hand. That’s no good! You have to be
clever and choose the right words to check and the right time to do it. Try
to follow the advice below and you will become a much more efficient
language learner:
• When you find a new word while reading, finish the sentence (better: the
paragraph). If you haven’t guessed the meaning and it still seems
important, then you can look it up. To avoid interrupting your reading for
too long, you should find its meaning in your own language using a
bilingual dictionary.

11. Knowing when to use the dictionary
• When you hear a new word in class (or the teacher has written it on the
board), wait and continue listening. What the teacher says next may help
you to understand the word. If you look in your dictionary, you will not
hear what comes next, and this will make understanding the lesson more
and more difficult.
• If you think the word is very important, you could copy it from the board
or write how you think it is spelled. Then later you could ask the teacher
or another student what it means.