FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

FINAL PROJECT’S TITLE

The use of dictionaries as a tool to improve reading comprehension skills

Thesis to qualify for:

Master in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and Máster Universitario en

Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera

Presented by:

Jorge Leonardo Vargas Renza

COFPMTFL2442257

Director:

Lidia Casalini

PITALITO, HUILA, COLOMBIA

June 29th, 2019

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 Acknowledgements

First, I want to thank God for making it possible for me to develop this project, feeling sure
that without His help I would not have been able to finish it.

Second, I would like to express special thanks to my parents Enrique and Esther, my
siblings Alexander and Yudy, and my beloved girlfriend Angelica, who have been a great
support for me through this process and have had the patience and love to understand hard
moments during this study.

Finally, I would like to express my deepest thanks to each one of my students who were
part of this study. Likewise, I would like to thank my tutor, Lidia Casalini, for her valuable
and meaningful feedback during this process.

Each of them have been a great help from the beginning until the end of my Master’s
Degree.

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The use of dictionaries as a tool to improve reading comprehension skills

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 Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1

2. JUSTIFICATION OF ACADEMIC AND PERSONAL INTEREST ................................... 2

3. RESEARCH QUESTION AND OBJECTIVES ............................................................... 5

3.1. Research Question .................................................................................................... 5

3.2. Aims of the Study ....................................................................................................... 5

3.2.1. Main aim of the project. ...................................................................................... 5

3.2.2. Specific aims. ..................................................................................................... 5

4. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................. 6

4.1. Bilingualism in Colombia ............................................................................................ 6

4.2. General Reading Features ......................................................................................... 7

4.2.1. Language competences, skills and reading subskills. ......................................... 7

4.2.2. Reading comprehension. .................................................................................... 8

4.2.3. Assessment techniques for reading comprehension. .........................................10

4.3. Contextual Guessing .................................................................................................11

4.4. Short Texts ...............................................................................................................14

4.5. Vocabulary Knowledge .............................................................................................14

4.6. ICT: Information and Communication Technologies ..................................................16

4.7. Learning Features .....................................................................................................17

4.7.1 Learning to learn. ...............................................................................................17

4.7.2. Autonomous learning. ........................................................................................18

4.8. Dictionary Features ...................................................................................................20

4.8.1 The use of the dictionary. ...................................................................................20

4.8.2. Types of dictionaries: monolingual and bilingual. ...............................................21

4.8.2.1. Monolingual dictionaries .................................................................................21

4.8.2.1.1. Advantages .................................................................................................21

4.8.2.1.2. Disadvantages .............................................................................................21

4.8.2.2. Bilingual dictionaries .......................................................................................21

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 4.8.2.2.1. Advantages .................................................................................................21

4.8.2.2.2. Disadvantages .............................................................................................21

4.8.3. Using the dictionary. ..........................................................................................22

4.8.3.1. Understanding definitions of terms .................................................................22

4.8.3.2. Looking up for a word .....................................................................................22

4.8.3.3. Pronunciation: audio and phonetic symbols ....................................................23

4.8.3.4. Visual aids: pictures........................................................................................24

4.8.3.5. Showing irregular forms and examples ...........................................................25

4.8.3.6. Grammatical categories ..................................................................................26

4.8.3.7. Basic terminology ...........................................................................................27

5. METHODOLOGY.........................................................................................................29

5.1. Description of the Research Approach ......................................................................30

5.2. Description of the Research Type .............................................................................30

5.3. Description of the Research Tools ............................................................................31

5.4. Qualitative Research Tools .......................................................................................32

5.4.1. Workshops. .......................................................................................................32

5.4.2. Direct observation..............................................................................................32

5.4.3. Journal. .............................................................................................................33

5.4.4. Diagnostic test. ..................................................................................................33

5.4.5. Quantitative research tools. ...............................................................................34

5.4.5.1. Survey ............................................................................................................34

5.4.5.2. Questionnaires ...............................................................................................34

5.4.5.3. Close questions ..............................................................................................34

5.4.5.4. Open questions ..............................................................................................35

6. STUDY ........................................................................................................................36

6.1. Context of the Research ...........................................................................................36

6.1.1. Type of institution. .............................................................................................36

6.1.2. Participants’ profile. ...........................................................................................36

6.1.3. Sample population. ............................................................................................37

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 6.1.4. Resources and facilities. ....................................................................................38

6.2. Corpus and Data Collection ......................................................................................38

6.2.1. Journal previous application of training sessions. ..............................................38

6.2.2. Journal during training sessions. .......................................................................41

6.2.3. Survey and questionnaires. ...............................................................................43

6.3. Research Tools Used for the Analysis ......................................................................43

6.3.1. Statistical software.............................................................................................43

6.3.2. Photographs and video recording. .....................................................................43

6.4. Description of the Research Plan ..............................................................................44

6.4.1. Exploration. .......................................................................................................44

6.4.2. Planning. ...........................................................................................................44

6.4.3. Evaluation. ........................................................................................................45

6.4.4. Improvement plan. .............................................................................................45

7. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .....................................................................................46

7.1. Analysis on Survey of Students’ Perceptions on the Use of Dictionaries and Reading
in English .........................................................................................................................46

7.2. Analysis of Diagnostic Test .......................................................................................50

7.3. Results after the Application of the Dictionary Training Sessions ..............................52

7.3.1. Session 1: general characteristics of dictionaries. .............................................52

7.3.1.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about general characteristics of dictionaries?...............................52

7.3.2. Session 2: grammatical categories (parts of speech).........................................53

7.3.2.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about grammatical categories or parts of speech? .......................53

7.3.3. Session 3: syllables (prefixes, roots, and suffixes). ............................................55

7.3.3.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about syllables (prefixes, roots, and suffixes)? .............................56

7.3.4. Session 4: pronunciation. ..................................................................................57

7.3.4.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about pronunciation? ...................................................................57

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 7.3.5. Session 5: meaning. ..........................................................................................59

7.3.5.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about meaning? ...........................................................................60

7.3.6. Session 6: contextual guessing. ........................................................................61

7.3.6.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about contextual guessing? .........................................................62

7.4. Analysis on Questionnaire Likert ...............................................................................64

7.5. Analysis of Final Test ................................................................................................69

8. CONCLUSIONS ..........................................................................................................72

9. References ..................................................................................................................81

10. APPENDICES ............................................................................................................87

Appendix I: Surveys .........................................................................................................87

Appendix II: Diagnostic Test ............................................................................................95

Appendix III: Journal ........................................................................................................97

Appendix IV: Workshops..................................................................................................98

Appendix V: Final Test on Reading Comprehension Using the Dictionary .....................109

List of figures .................................................................................................................111

List of Tables .................................................................................................................112

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 1. INTRODUCTION

Over the past of the years, there has been a growing importance among public
educational institutions to improve processes to satisfy students’ needs. The Colombian
government has traditionally obliged students to take a standardized exam to measure the
quality of public institutions. This exam is mainly based on reading comprehension, but
students have shown difficulties in this ability. This research project wants to contribute to
the improvement of the reading comprehension in English and it is just another step in the
sequence of previous and future works that have been and carried out by curious
researchers looking for the improvement of teaching and learning processes in the region.
The benefited individuals are students from high school who have just begun the process
of learning a second language in secondary.

The aim of this project is to design activities to promote the intelligent use of digital
dictionaries and train students on contextual guessing in order to understand short texts in
English taken from the “Way to Go Student’s Book” for sixth grade published by the
Colombian Ministry of Education. Four key stages will be covered in this study. First, the
main contributions and theories on reading comprehension, vocabulary teaching,
contextual guessing, using technology in education, and knowledge about education will be
reviewed to support the theoretical framework on which the diagnostic test, training
sessions, and final test are based. Finally, the training sessions design and the methodology
will be outlined, as well as the students’ profile and the work plan necessary to carry out the
project.

In brief, this research project is aimed at contrasting students’ capabilities to

understand short texts by taking into account a first measurement carried out through a
diagnostic test at the beginning of the project. The contrast will be made against the final
test after developing a training period on dictionary use and contextual guessing along six
sessions. At the end of the project, some findings are expected regarding reading
comprehension, vocabulary teaching, and the use of contextual guessing to get the
meaning of words without using the dictionary.

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 2. JUSTIFICATION OF ACADEMIC AND PERSONAL INTEREST

Before starting this project a direct observation was carried out in the classroom
during the ordinary development of curricular English classes and activities. Taking into
account the two weeks of observation in real context, it was concluded that sixth-grade
students lack of specific abilities to comprehend short texts in English. This is due to their
lack of basic lexical sets such as colors, numbers, dates, days, months or even family
members.

One of the reasons why students present a minimum number of lexical sets is
students’ lack of language exposure, which does not promote vocabulary acquisition, then
it is necessary to present language explicitly. Possible reasons may be that second
language learning in San Jose School is not a strong area, it is clearly observed just by
having a look at the institutions’ walls. Unfortunately, students do not have their own space
in which they can share at least their written productions. Creating an English wall would be
a meaningful idea because students from the entire school may look at English posters and
wonder about the meaning for example, of simple phrases. This situation may catch
students’ interest in the second language, which is extremely important because they can
experience a more realistic context. According to Spolsky (1989, p. 23) input has to be
sufficient in terms of quantity because he establishes that “the more time spent learning any
aspect of a second language, the more will be learned”. Therefore, it is necessary to train
students how to use one of the only resources they have at first hand so that they can
decode short texts and understand them. This resource is a bilingual dictionary which is
already installed on the institution’s computers.

In most Colombian public schools, one of the main difficulties teachers and students
have suffered is the lack of resources. However, in this work students will get the most out
of a digital offline dictionary as one of the few and unique resources to improve their reading
skills. For me, it is really helpful for any language learner to know the parts or characteristics
that words have. In this way, this project is developed having in mind different features such
as contextual guessing and on unknown words students find in their English Please 6th
grade textbook, provided by the Ministry of Education. Language learners should first know
how to look a word up in the dictionary, thus they will be guided on this process by
developing the following sessions: general characteristics of dictionaries, grammatical
categories (part of speech), syllables/parts (prefixes, roots, and suffixes), pronunciation
(along with phonetic symbols), meaning (definition and examples), and contextual guessing.

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I strongly believe that these sessions will help learners understand how a word is composed
in order to guess the meaning of words just by looking at their structures such as
identification of affixes or suffixes. Once students have developed the stages proposed in
this project, they are expected to get a different perspective on what a word involves.

According to my teaching experience, I have realized that knowing the previous

features is the first step one student may take before attempting to read or write a short text
or develop any linguistic task. Moreover, I have been an English teacher for 3 years and
along my career, I have taught to different levels of education in various schools. This time,
I want to help learners providing them with some activities to develop their practices in the
future and meet their needs as English learners. It is vital for the purposes of students’
learning processes to have in mind most of these aspects in order to promote better
practices in the future. Unfortunately, students do not know many of the aforementioned
features and this becomes a great problem in English or Spanish classes. This is a reason
why I chose these aspects as some important factors to learn and acquire through
meaningful exercises.

In addition, English has taken growing importance in modern society because

enterprises or institutions require English as a requisite for getting a job or for being enrolled
at university. In this way, students from San Jose School need to learn English skills to face
current requirements of learning an L2. Thus, this project is expected to contribute students
to carry out a better acquisition of vocabulary and become better at reading. Additionally,
this project is intended to use a traditional tool like the dictionary which does not use Internet
connection to improve reading skills. As this dictionary is an offline tool, it supplies the
difficulties of Internet connectivity present in most public schools in Colombia.

All of the above is the reason to develop this proposal with the aim of improving the
poor results shown by students in last semester’s tests. In addition, to enrich students’
vocabulary it is necessary to increase exposure to the language through posters inside the
classroom and the whole institution. These are the main reasons for applying a strategy
with which students will learn to use a dictionary to understand short texts comprehensibly
and also to guess meaning from a given context. This project is expected to facilitate the
teaching-learning processes and to enhance students’ performance in English.
Furthermore, to provide other teachers with strategies to use the dictionary to improve
vocabulary teaching in other institutions.

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 Additionally, there is a special interest in developing this project due to the desire of
helping the school community. These students need to know how to become better
language learners by using the only but meaningful resource, the dictionary. Thus, being
part of a project whose aims are to proof some theories which may help improve students’
reading skills is the perfect opportunity to put into practice all knowledge acquired during
the Master.

At the end of the application of the activities, it is expected that through the
understanding of short texts either it is by contextual guessing or by looking up words in a
dictionary students would acquire unconsciously English vocabulary and language forms.
It has been discussed that reading helps the production of written forms, and this is what
this project also intends to do.

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 3. RESEARCH QUESTION AND OBJECTIVES

3.1. Research Question

In which way may the use of the dictionary improve the reading comprehension of
short texts in sixth grade students from San José Secondary School from Oporapa - Huila?

3.2. Aims of the Study

3.2.1. Main aim of the project

To analyze the use of the dictionary as a tool for improving reading comprehension
of short texts in sixth grade secondary students.

3.2.2. Specific aims

 To design activities using the dictionary to promote the improvement of the reading
comprehension of short texts.

 To apply the activities proposed through the use of the dictionary to improve the
reading comprehension skill in sixth grade students from San José Secondary
School.

 To describe students’ performance and attitude during and after the application of
the dictionary training sessions.

 To evaluate students’ capability to understand short texts before and after the
application of activities using the dictionary.

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 4. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This section is intended to provide a theoretical overview on the issues of this project
regarding the background of its main constructs. Also, it is mentioned a variety of important
terms about Colombian education. Apart from this, the main constructs are reviewed:
reading comprehension and contextual guessing, vocabulary knowledge, and the use of the
dictionary through the teaching of dictionary skills. The main focus here is to provide
concepts on reading comprehension and contextual guessing, and also what is required to
understand short texts, strategies to know vocabulary, and provide ways to cope with the
lack of vocabulary by teaching students how to use the dictionary.

4.1. Bilingualism in Colombia

Over the past of the years, English in Colombia has had an increasing impact on
the community. Diverse bilingual programs have been promoted to teach this second
language to students belonging to public education. This issue obliges English teachers
and professionals in language education to develop research that lead to find out ways that
contribute to the English teaching and learning. Thus, in our country teachers should guide
this process towards the development of the skills that learning a second language implies
to carry out a meaningful and practical teaching.

In this way, in Colombia we have the Law 115 (General Law of Education, 1994)
that establishes second language teaching as a fundamental area in the country’s
education. This Law focuses on the acquisition of conversational and reading elements,
and also it recommends the promotion of the oral skill to support Colombian people in the
look of training citizens capable of communicating in English. Moreover, the promotion of
the Ministry of Education (M.E.N.) has been of significant help since the creation of the
National Bilingual Program in 2004. At that time, this project established as cited in Truscott
(2006), “Colombian citizens will be able to communicate through English with internationally
comparable standards. This will contribute to the insertion of the country in the process of
universal communication, the global economy and cultural openness” (M.E.N. presentation,
2006).

More recently, in the year of 2016, the Ministry of Education launched

another program that included the provision of standardized textbooks catered with a wide
range of digital and printed resources. These textbooks were designed for secondary

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education from 6th to 11th grade. These were divided into two levels: “Way to Go” from 6th
to 8th and “English, please” from 9th to 11th grade.

For the purposes of this project, the book that is going to be used is “Way to Go” for
6th grade (M.E.N., 2016). This material is taken and adapted to use its short texts which are
contextualized with Colombian cultural topics. The aim of this project is to help students
comprehend these texts, which is what the Ministry of Education requires. During the
observation stage, when students were given a short text, they showed to be reluctant
because they got frustrated looking at the quantity of unknown words. As soon as they
realized the exercise would be reading a text, their attitude changed immediately to
negative. This project would try to minimize the impact texts produce on students.

4.2. General Reading Features

4.2.1. Language competences, skills and reading subskills

Recently education has gained increasing importance in the way that everything is
measured according to the competences the learner accomplishes at the end of a course.
Taking as an example any field or context, competences are an indicator of what knowledge
the individual possesses for developing a given task. For instance, in education and
especially in second language teaching and learning there are also competences which
give institutions, programs, teachers, and students a clear evidence of the scope they were
able to reach.

In this way, taking into consideration that this project is based on the teaching of
English it is necessary to find crucial information about what English competences are and
especially the one that is intended to be promoted here in. Competences in languages are
based on the different skills which try to join through “separated” abilities important language
features to be learned. There are basic skills, they are the following: reading, listening,
writing, speaking, and the ones considered as the fifth and sixth skills vocabulary and
grammar.

Thus, learning a language supposes to learn all of them at the same pace, but in
this project, the reading skill was the chosen to work on. There are many subskills which
are intended to be improved, nevertheless this project focuses especially in one of them.

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According to Cambridge English (n.d) in one of their booklets dedicated to explain TKT
(Teaching Knowledge Test) some of the subskills for reading are the following:

 Reading for detail.

 Deducing meaning from context.
 Note-taking.
 Skimming.
 Proofreading.
 Intensive reading.
 Editing.
 Reading for gist, global understanding.
 Inferring attitude, feeling, and mood.
 Predicting.
 Scanning.
 Using interactive strategies.
 Summarizing.
 Paraphrasing.

All of these subskills are intended to accomplish a high proficiency in reading, but
they also require hard work and instruction as the learning process advances. In this project,
the one chosen was “deducing meaning from context”, which is going to be named as
“contextual guessing”.

4.2.2. Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and

constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. In
this process there are three main elements which play a different role, the reader
who is doing the comprehending, the text that is to be comprehended, and the
activity in which comprehension is a part. (Snow, 2002, p. 11)

Snow also says that each one include some features, for instance the reader “may
include all the capabilities, abilities, knowledge, and experiences that a person brings when
reading. The text refers to any printed or electronic text, and the activity purposes,
processes, and consequences associated with the act of reading”.

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 Based on Van den Broek & Espin’s work (2012, p. 315-325) reading comprehension
is a complex interaction among automatic and strategic cognitive processes that enables
the reader to create a mental representation of the text. This author adds that
comprehension “does not depend only on characteristics of the reader, such as prior
knowledge and working memory, but also on language processes, such as basic reading
skills, decoding, vocabulary, and sensitivity to text structure, inferencing, and motivation”.
(Cited in Moore, n.d.).

Moreover, according to Alyousef (2005, p. 143-154) (cited in Muñoz and Gonzalez,

2010, p. 69-85) reading comprehension “is an interactive process that takes place between
a reader and a text and that leads to automaticity, or reading fluency”. This author points
out that reader and text interact dynamically as he/she tries to elicit the meaning. There are
various kinds of knowledge used in reading comprehension: linguistic or systemic
knowledge as well as schematic knowledge.

Additionally, “six general skills and knowledge areas necessary for reading
comprehension were identified: automatic recognition skills; vocabulary and structural
knowledge; formal discourse structure knowledge; content/world background knowledge;
synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies; metacognitive knowledge; and skills monitoring”.
(Alyousef, 2005, p. 143-154).

In reading comprehension there are various processes to have in mind. Among

them, we find Grabe and Stoller (2002, p. 155-157) who mentioned two dissimilar processes
for skilled readers: lower level processes, which they say are related to vocabulary and
grammar recognition at the moment of reading and higher level processes, which are
comprehension, schemata and interpretation of a text. Moreover, there exists various ways
of extracting information from a text which among them we have implicit and explicit
information. Therefore, the learner may perform a literal extraction of information out of the
text which according to Gordillo and Florez (2009, p. 95-107), is the capacity of the reader
to extract key words to establish some main ideas without using cognitive structures,
instead of inferring meaning that taking into account the previous authors is related to
deduce information implicit in the text, which requires a harder effort. These authors argue
that if a reader wants to be fluent, he/she may need to combine lower and higher level
processes, if not his/her reading skills may not be as efficient and reliable as they should
expect.

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 However, there exists a students’ problematic when interacting with short texts. This
attitude against reading exercises has been described by different authors who point out
that there are various causes. Beginning with the lack of traditional reading habits in their
family surroundings, the dedication of free time to other activities such as agriculture, as
well as the lack of motivation strategies to stimulate students to read with pleasure. (García,
Klinger, Olaya, and Avila, 2008). In Oporapa, this is a worrying case because students do
not like to read neither in Spanish nor in English, which makes reading a difficult skill to
exploit.

For the purposes of this work, a focus on individual work is proposed rather than
group work. Moore (n.d) states that research indicates gains on reading comprehension
when students are instructed one-on-one. She highlights the importance of one-on-one
instruction supported on Cain and Oakhill (2006) (cited in Moore, n.d) who suggest that
group measurements obscure individual weaknesses and prevent tailored interventions for
individual student needs.

4.2.3. Assessment techniques for reading comprehension

For the purpose of evaluating the performance of students before and after the
application of dictionary skills the following activities were proposed. Before the
implementation of this research project through the strategies for reading, a test was applied
having in mind the same questions present in the students’ book (Way to go 6 th grade). It
worked as a measurement tool in order to have a reference at the end of the process and
make a comparison between students’ performance initially and at the end. The initial test
was about answering open questions proposed by the textbook. This is clearly more difficult
than just choosing an answer from a multiple choice test.

Moreover, some of the abilities assessed before and after the application of the
training sessions are the following. They are highlighted by Grabe (2008) who states a list
of fourteen mayor component abilities for reading comprehension, as follows:

 Fluency and reading speed.

 Automaticity and rapid word recognition.
 Search process.
 Vocabulary knowledge.
 Morphological knowledge.

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  Syntactic knowledge.
 Text-structure awareness and discourse organization.
 Main-ideas comprehension.
 Recall of relevant details.
 Inferences about text information.
 Strategic-processing abilities.
 Summarization abilities.
 Synthesis skills.
 Evaluation and critical reading.

(Grabe, 2008 p. 357)

Despite the previous components are at some point difficult to be evaluated, it is of

utmost importance to train students in the acquisition of those abilities. That is why this
research aims at training students to improve in the searching process of words, acquiring
vocabulary knowledge, being aware of morphological knowledge of words, on the
comprehension of main ideas, and making inferences or performing contextual guessing.

In this way, at the end of this research project, as an assessment tool the same kind
of initial short texts are used, but with a different way of assessment. This means that the
final evaluation will be based on the application of text-gap formats, multiple choice
questions, sentences completion, and also scanning for specific information. (Grabe, 2008).
These types of formats pointed out by this author helps us have a reference of the ways in
which reading comprehension can be assessed. Grabe also mentions that these kind of
“formats can be tricky when multiple gaps are created and a list of sentences or paragraphs
is provided to insert in the correct spaces”. That is why, the activities proposed in this project
should be simple, but significant.

4.3. Contextual Guessing

A big problem when facing a text in English is that learners tend to translate every
word they see in a given text. This may lead to understand isolated meanings which cannot
be accurate in getting the meaning of sentences. One important strategy in reading is called
contextual guessing, which according to Huang and Eslami (2013), is about the “knowledge
of the words surrounding an unknown word that helps language learners infer the meaning
of the words in context.”

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 Moreover, “learners can guess the meaning of the unknown words based on the
schema created by the words”. Gray and Holmes (1938) stated the effectiveness of learning
from context as empirical evidence has shown “we know from experience that practically all
pupils acquire many meanings from the context with little or no help from teachers” (p. 28).

A clear example of guessing the meaning of a word in context is given by Tugrul

(2012), who states the following:

“Emilio got a cold”.

“Emilio got rich”.
“Emilio got a note from Dashiell”.
“Dashiell got in trouble”.

Having in mind only one definition of the word got can work to infer the meaning of
the other ones. Despite the word is the same in every sentence, “the meaning is slightly
different in each one. Students need to see words in different contexts in order to learn them
thoroughly”. (Tugrul, 2012)

Additionally, learners would be able to reach autonomy if teachers facilitate the right
strategies to develop the guessing of meaning from context. Research indicates that
contextual guessing strategy “is a key vocabulary learning skill for dealing with low-
frequency vocabulary, particularly in reading authentic texts (Celce-Murcia, 2001, p. 290).
This is the case of San José school students who lack of language exposure in their town.

Moreover, this author exposes a variety of implications around this strategy which
is shown in the following cited extract:

Factors that affect the likelihood of success in inference include a context rich enough to
provide adequate clues to guess a word’s meaning. Because many contexts are not rich
enough, a single context is often not sufficient to allow students to guess the full word
meaning. This fact underscores the need for repeated encounters with a word in diverse
contexts. It is clear, of course, that background knowledge about the topic and the culture
greatly aid inference and retention by providing a framework ("schema") for incorporating
the new word with information already known, but even without such a background learners
can become skilled in guessing. The key is to learn what clues to look for and where to find
them. Celce-Murcia, 2001, (cited in Bakhtiarvand, 2006).

In order to bring into this research some clues to guessing meaning from context
Nation and Coady (1988), (cited in Tugrul, 2012) established how guessing the meanings

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of words from context is done effectively. They suggested a-five-step strategy for guessing
meaning from context:

1. Finding the part of speech of the unknown word. (grammatical category)

2. Looking at the immediate context of the unknown word and simplifying this
context if necessary.
3. Looking at the wider context of the unknown word. This means looking at the
relationship between the clause containing the unknown word and
surrounding clauses and sentences.
4. Guessing the meaning of the unknown word.
5. Checking that the guess is correct.

(Nation and Coady, 1988)

Going beyond the strategies of teaching and promoting guessing from context, there
is a wider explanation from Thornbury (2002). This is more of an expansion of the previous
steps proposed by Nation and Coady and he states the following steps:

1. Decide the part of speech of the unknown word-whether, for example, it is a

noun, verb, adjective, etc. Its position in the sentence may be a guide, as
might its ending (e.g. an –ed or –ing ending might indicate it is a verb).
2. Look for further clues in the word’s immediate collocates-if it is a noun, does
it have an article (which might suggest whether it is countable or not)? If it is
a verb, does it have an object?
3. Look at the wider context, including the surrounding clauses and sentences,
especially if there are ‘signposting’ words, such as but, and, however, so,
that might give a clue as to how the word is connected to its context. For
example: We got home, tired but elated: the presence of but suggests that
elated is not similar in meaning to tired.
4. Look at the form of the word for any clues as to meaning. For example:
downhearted is made up of down + heart + a participle affix (-ed).
5. Make a guess as to the meaning of the word, on the basis of the above
strategies.
6. Read on and see if the guess is confirmed; if not and if the word seems critical
to the understanding of the text go and repeat the above steps.

(Thornbury, 2002) an expansion on Nation and Coady’s strategies.

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4.4. Short Texts

The present research project is based on students’ preparation to understand short

texts in English through a series of sessions developing strategies for dictionary use and
contextual guessing. Thornbury (2002) asserted that short texts are used nowadays as the
most frequent tendency to present vocabulary. Short texts provide enormous advantages
for students because words have a context which increases the chances of learners getting
not only the meaning but also their surroundings such as related collocations or grammatical
structures.

Short texts were chosen to be a vehicle for students to improve their reading
comprehension skills. Due to short texts are ideal for classroom use, they can offer intensive
grammatical and lexical study, without requiring students to make hard efforts on attention
or memory, as it is the case of long lists of words or long texts. (Thornbury, 2002)

Other reasons why short texts are used in this research project are supported on
Kembo’s paper (2016) where she pointed out short texts “provide opportunity to focus on
detail in aspects of reading (nominal and pronominal, direct references and, allusion,
imagery, inference making, use of schemata), listening, vocabulary, aspects of grammar
(tenses, reported speech, intonation) and even writing skills”. She supports this idea by
arguing long texts would not allow students to do so, because of time constraints.

4.5. Vocabulary Knowledge

According to Nagy (1988, p. 1-2), vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to reading

comprehension and one cannot understand a text without knowing what most of the words
mean. Knowing a word implies taking into account a lot of elements which are of extremely
importance as Nagy and Scott stated:

[…] knowledge of a word is multidimensional (giving a definition, knowing the part of the
speech, being able to use the word correctly), incremental (not all-or-nothing), polysemous
(many words have more than one meaning), interrelated (understanding the definition
requires understanding other words in the definition), and heterogeneous (knowledge one
can have about function words, technical terms, and concrete nouns varies). (In Cromley,
2005, p. 29)

In addition, Cromley establishes that vocabulary knowledge includes knowing the

meaning of affixes (prefixes and suffixes), and all the elements related to morphological

14
knowledge. Other authors who argue the ways of learning vocabulary stated that vocabulary
is improved by learning common prefixes (Graves, 2006) and root words (Henry, 2003).

Wilkins, cited in Thornbury (n.d) pointed out the importance of vocabulary learning
as he stated a comparison against grammatical knowledge. The famous quotation is
supported on the following words: “without grammar very little can be conveyed, without
vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. These thoughts are sustained in a piece of advice
given by (Dellar and Hocking in their coursebook Innovations, LTP). They established the
following:

If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very much.
You will see most improvement if you learn more words and expressions. You can say very
little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with words. (In Thornbury, 2002, p. 13)

In addition, Moore (n.d) established that in order to extract meaning from a text, a
strong sense of semantics is required. This is to say, that before students can construct
understanding of text passages they need to understand the meaning of words. Moore also
points out the importance of the relationship between word knowledge and reading
comprehension. Roth, Speece, and Cooper (2002, p. 259-272) discovered that vocabulary
skills, such as oral definitions and word retrieval, were the best predictors of reading
comprehension development.

Other vital features that students find as beneficial for reading comprehension is
previous knowledge and their IQ. The higher intelligence and general knowledge the
student possesses, the more meaningful reading comprehension will be. This means having
a rich background knowledge helps students understand better short texts.

Moreover, the National Reading Panel (2000, p. 170 - 171) determined that
vocabulary instruction helps the development of reading comprehension, mainly when
students are constantly exposed to vocabulary words. Additionally, the Panel suggested
explicit instruction in vocabulary through a variety of active learning and contexts (presented
in Way to go for 6th grade, M.E.N., 2016). As a matter of fact, most of the research studies
indicate that vocabulary is a key contributor to reading comprehension development,
(Moore, n.d). Moore also established that visualization is a key component when reading.
She pointed out that being able to carry out the construction of a mental image of the text
works as a great advantage for readers. These mental images are fluid and change as the
reader constantly assimilates new text (Woolley, 2010). In this special feature the visual
representation of verbal information and objects to create meaning is developed by Sadoski

15
& Paivio, (2004, p. 1329-1362) and it is called the dual-coding theory of reading. Having in
mind the previous ideas, the use of the dictionary help acquire words meaningfully because
it provides learners visual aids (pictures) of most of nouns in its index.

Taking into account the previous ideas, this is why the present project is focused on
working with words which include their various forms as well as their meaning. Additionally,
it is necessary to present a clear explanation of some grammatical categories.

4.6. ICT: Information and Communication Technologies

There exists a variety of different conceptions about Information and

Communication Technologies (ICT’s). Here, a general overview of ICT’s is presented as
well as its evolution along time. There are various authors beginning with the ideas from
technological advances during the World War II, until the Colombian Ministry of Education
laws in recent years. The following ideas are some of them which help construct a definition
about what ICT’s involve.

According to Belloch (n.d) “Information and Communication Technologies are

developed beginning from the scientific advances and are the set of technologies which
allow the access, production, treatment and communication of information presented
through different codes (text, picture, sound)”. Another contribution to the description of the
benefits of ICT’s is given by UNESCO (2003), which establishes ICT’s have contributed
among other aspects, to the motivation, to improve teaching practices, and to generate an
growth in the academic performance of students, especially to the ones who present more
difficulties. Moreover, according to what Calderón (2013, p, 2) states, the use of ICT’s helps
the creation of reading habits, and to motivate and improve the process of learning how to
read.

Besides Article 6 of the National Law 1341 from 2009 cited by the ICT’s Ministry of
Colombia (2017) suggests that ICT’s represent the set of “resources, tools, devices, digital
software, applications, networks and media, that allow the compilation, processing, storage,
and transmission of information like: voice, data, text, video, and pictures”. Thus, for the
sake of this project the dictionary as a digital software will work for students as it allows
them to get information containing text, audio, pictures and other features which are of great
necessity in second language learning. Moreover, it is important to highlight Ovelar, Gómez,
and Romo (2009, p. 31-53), who stated that students are capable of assuming in an easy

16
way the practical functionality offered by digital contents, although they prefer the face to
face contact with their classmates compared to virtual environments.

In this way, we have the role of computers and technology in education which have
taken a growing importance due to its constant evolution. This project is not the exception
as students will be working with computers and software that allows them to acquire
information and reinforce knowledge meaningfully. It is necessary to make a comparison
between three different stages in history to understand how technology has immersed in
education and has helped processes be developed in much better ways.

According to Torres (n.d.), the first stage is related to analogical technology which
was first introduced in the forties in the World War II. The main resources cited by this author
are the use of videos, recorders, and projectors. The second stage takes into account the
digital technologies which was introduced in the nineties with the appearance of the Internet,
as Torres says. The kind of resources used in this stage of technology are apart from CDs,
the inclusion of CD-ROMs accompanied by materials, and also textbooks. In this kind of
technologies is included the digital resource used in this project, the digital dictionary.

Finally, Torres also stated the last stage and most recent one which includes the
appearance of the Web 2.0. During this stage, communication has gained a vital role due
to the variety of channels that currently exist. Apart from the Web 2.0 as such, resources
like applications for chatting, blogs, and more influential ones like the social networks (video,
images, learning applications), have been of great support for teachers and students.

4.7. Learning Features

4.7.1 Learning to learn

Learning to learn is one of the “Key Competencies for lifelong learning” adopted by
the Council and the European Parliament in December 2006. The following is the definition
of the competence of learning to learn:

Learning to learn is defined as the ability to pursue and persist in learning, to organize one’s
own learning, including through effective management of time and information, both
individually and in groups. This competence includes awareness of one’s learning process
and needs, identifying available opportunities, and the ability to overcome obstacles in order
to learn successfully. This competence means gaining, processing and assimilating new
knowledge and skills as well as seeking and making use of guidance. Learning to learn

17
 engages learners to build on prior learning and life experiences in order to use and apply
knowledge and skills in a variety of contexts: at home, at work, in education and training.
Motivation and confidence are crucial to an individual’s competence. (European
Communities, 2008, p. 17).

Learning to Learn is a unique lifelong competence that requires students’

metalinguistic efforts to understand in a meaningful way how learning occurs. The British
Campaign for learning (In Jaime, 2013, p. 13) pointed out that ‘learning to learn’ is a
“process of discovery about learning. It involves a set of principles and skills which, if
understood and used, help learners learn more effectively and so become learners for life.
At its heart is the belief that learning is learnable”.

The British Campaign for Learning also provided some features about learning to
learn which aim at creating students’ awareness on:

 “How they prefer to learn and their learning strengths,

 How they can motivate themselves and have the self-confidence to succeed,
 Things they should consider such as the importance of water, nutrition, sleep,
and a positive environment for learning,
 Some of the specific strategies they can use, for example to improve their
memory or make sense of complex information and,
 Some of the habits they should develop, such as reflecting on their learning
so as to improve next time”

(Fredriksson, 2013).

In this way, learning to learn refers to the capability of students’ to realize which
processes they need to perform in order to learn something. In this work, students will also
find out which strategies they will need to approach a short text and understand it better.
Students will also be motivated to exploit their abilities to work by themselves. One of the
extra benefits from this work will be becoming autonomous learners, at lower levels a
dictionary would help them to work independently.

4.7.2. Autonomous learning

As this research project is intended to help learners improve their reading

comprehension of short texts in English, there is also a need to learn how to use the
dictionary as a resource to look up for unknown words. Thus, students need to learn how

18
to work independently and in which ways they learn better and acquire vocabulary
meaningfully. Ariza (2004, p. 43) cited in Aguirre & Ramos, 2009 states that “autonomy
refers to the exercise of learner’s responsibility for their own learning as well as the right of
students to determine the directions and means of their own learning”. This project intends
to promote learners’ autonomy by providing simple tasks that require from learners simple
efforts always looking for positive and significant rewards. These exercises may be
accompanied by short texts in order to answer different kinds of questions. Other crucial
approaches proposed to encourage autonomy in this project are not to give students
numerous tasks, but rather give them some freedom to study and complete tasks at their
own pace. This was shown at the very beginning through a survey, when students had the
opportunity to propose the kind of activities or tasks they wanted to work on in future
classroom practices. Additionally, the teacher should promote a class discussion at the end
of each activity in order to clarify doubts they found during the development of exercises.
The teacher needs to understand that he/she is just an instructor who offers guidance and
support, he/she is not the main character in the classroom.

Moreover, there seems to be a variety of definitions which support many theorists’

points of view on this term. Dam et al (1990) defined learner autonomy as “the capacity and
willingness to act independently and in cooperation with others, as a social, responsible
person”. Another insight about this term is given by Dickinson (1995) who takes a similar
positon to Ariza’s, establishing that learner autonomy is “an attitude towards learning in
which the learner is prepared to take, or does take, responsibility for his own learning”.

Luu (In Tan, Pandian & Jaganathan, 2017, p. 41-42) proposed three arguments
supporting dictionary use in the classroom. The author explains that it is more meaningful
to look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary than just asking the teacher for an explanation.
In this order of ideas, a student may feel great relief in vocabulary learning and therefore is
given:

 Enhancement of motivation which leads to more effective learning.

 Provision of more opportunities in terms of language communication.
 Mastery of the basic skills necessary for long-term learning.

As autonomy refers to the rights that learners have to choose how they want to
learn, this project provide students with one strategy to decode and comprehend short
pieces of writing. In this way, activities are designed to help students use dictionaries by
displaying its main features.

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4.8. Dictionary Features

4.8.1 The use of the dictionary

The dictionary is used when the reader does not know the meaning of a word even
if it has a context. However, sometimes learners tend to exceed the use of dictionaries
which limits their capacities to guess the meaning from a given context. When this happens
the dictionary would not work to help inference of meaning, in contrast would slow this
process along with reading comprehension, Knight (1994). Accordingly, Yorkey (1982, p.
7), states that “for foreign students of English, a good dictionary is a necessary reference
book. Like all tools, however, it is valuable only if it is used correctly and efficiently”.

Another definition on the benefits of the dictionary is provided by Callisaya (2000, p.

24-38), who states that dictionaries “help students enrich vocabulary, master the capacity
of oral and written expression, and deepen the study and the use of language grammar”.
Additionally, this author points out that “people’s mental development is strongly linked to
the acquisition of lexical items of the language”.

In aspects related to the data provided by the dictionary Fernández de Bobadilla (as
cited in Becerra, 2013), states that:

[…] students must know how to use it, especially in relation to two main aspects
which tend to cause major difficulties in reading comprehension: the division of
entries for meaning and grammatical category. In the case of entries for meaning,
learners need to be careful when looking up for a word because as there could be
one lexical unit, there also could be more than one lexical unit of meaning. (p. 14)

On the contrary, for grammar categories it is important for the students to identify
the abbreviations of the grammatical category and to differentiate clearly each other. For
instance, learners should be capable of differentiate nouns or verbs, from adjectives or
adverbs, etc. Other crucial implications are some techniques when looking up for words.
Fernandez de Bobadilla (1999), states that skimming and scanning techniques are to be
applied when looking for the meaning of a word claiming that it allows the process to be
faster. Finally, some dictionaries use examples which may be understood as a help and a
given context for the use of words.

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 4.8.2. Types of dictionaries: monolingual and bilingual

There exists a wide variety of dictionaries ranging from monolingual, bilingual,

specific, alphabetic, lexical fields, synonyms, etc. Each dictionary is dedicated to show
specific definitions according to the users’ necessities. Basically, in our context the most
used are the monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. Thus, it is important to review some of
the advantages and disadvantages that each type has and the reasons why the bilingual is
more suitable for this project’s participants than the monolingual dictionary.

4.8.2.1. Monolingual dictionaries

4.8.2.1.1. Advantages

 “The learner acquires much more agility when reading and a rich knowledge about
the second language written features. This is because the learner reads the whole
information in the second language and gets used not to translate into his/her mother
tongue”.
 “The learner is not limited to find possible equivalents, but rather he/she obtains
more information about the searched term, for instance (complete definition,
examples, additional information, etc.)

4.8.2.1.2. Disadvantages

 “At first, learners do not feel attracted by them because it appears to slow down the
searches”.

4.8.2.2. Bilingual dictionaries

4.8.2.2.1. Advantages

 “The learner is used to this type of dictionaries and searches result being faster and
more comfortable, because they offer the equivalent in their mother tongue right
away”.

4.8.2.2.2. Disadvantages

 This type of dictionaries need to be used with care because if they do not present a
wide range of words, learners may find as (Yorkey, 1982) pointed out “false
equivalents” leading learners to misunderstandings.

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 (Fernández de Bobadilla, 1999)

4.8.3. Using the dictionary

In the present project, there is a main tool to help learners improve their reading
comprehension skills meaningfully. For this purpose, the Oxford Pocket Genie Dictionary
works as the software resource students have at their hand. This software is already
installed on the computers, so students can access easily to this resource.

In the following passages, there is a general overview and a guide about the main
features regarding the dictionary. The possibilities that a dictionary offers are also explained
here in order to develop searches of words with the definition, pronunciation (including
audios and phonetic symbols), and grammatical categories. Most of the terms also have a
picture working as a visual aid to assimilate words with the graphics. In the following pages,
some pictures will be presented in order to explain in depth the aforementioned issues.

4.8.3.1. Understanding definitions of terms

As this is a bilingual dictionary, learners find the equivalents of English words in

Spanish. Although they can also find examples in English, including the unknown word in a
context. There are multiple ways to show a definition because sometimes words appear
isolated and in other entries they are accompanied by an example. In figures 4.1 and 4.2 it
is clearly observed that there exist a variety of definitions for just one searched word. This
increases the possibilities of diverse meanings, which does not enclose learners in one
equivalent word.

4.8.3.2. Looking up for a word

In this section, students are able to develop searches just by typing in the index the
word from which they require information. As they type, some possible choices are
displayed until they are able to find what they were looking for in figure 4.1.

22
 Figure 4.1. Looking up for words in the index chart. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011)

4.8.3.3. Pronunciation: audio and phonetic symbols

According to Kelly (2000, p. 11) it is important to make learners aware of the

advantages of mastering second language pronunciation patterns. Due to making errors at
pronouncing a word may lead to misunderstandings. This author explains that
“pronunciation errors can inhibit successful communication and this is the main reason to
assess why it is important to deal with pronunciation in the classroom”.

This project takes also as vital to teach in general aspects, features of pronunciation
regarding English as a second language in our context. It is known that pronunciation
involves a wide range of characteristics which cannot be studied during, for example, a two
hours class. However, the goal of this session will be to make students reflect on the issues
pronunciation has to help them understand these special features (phonetic symbols)
present in dictionaries as shown in figure 4.2.

23
 Figure 4.2. Pronunciation: audio and phonetic symbols. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011)

Moreover, for any language learner pronunciation is one of the most important and
difficult features of a second language. It requires a high effort on their behalf to acquire or
learn a wide range of sounds which can be highly dissimilar from the sounds of their mother
tongue. That is why, using this dictionary software is of significant help because it presents
the possibility to listen to the pronunciation or sound of the word.

Finally, the ultimate goal of learners is to find an adequate pronunciation to any word
they need. Either printed or digital dictionaries, they possess the phonetic symbols which
help in a great way the interaction of learners with sounds represented in symbols. The
previous information is linked to one of the aims of the activities proposed in this project. It
is crucial to make students aware of the importance of symbols that appear in any dictionary
and make them know phonetic symbols are there to be used.

In future practices, once learners know general features about those symbols, they
would not feel the necessity to listen to the pronunciation of a word on a digital resource,
but they would make it by themselves, fostering autonomous learning.

4.8.3.4. Visual aids: pictures

Experience has established that associating pictures and the linguistic

representation (word or name) of an object or action is more meaningful than just looking
up the definition of a word in its written form. Again, it is necessary to recall Van den Broek
& Espin’s work (2012, p. 315-325) who expressed that readers through the interaction of
automatic and strategic cognitive processes are able to create a mental representation of

24
the text. In this case, dictionaries can play an interesting role as they provide the picture of
the searched object.

In addition, on Landmark School’s website Colleen (n.d) published an article

explaining the benefits of word-picture associations for the development of vocabulary. This
article is based on a study developed with language-learning based disabilities, however it
can work to any language learner.

According to this article, the association between words and pictures help “build
relationships between preexisting knowledge and new information in an attempt to develop
learners’ vocabulary base. This can be done through the use of pictorial images and printed
words”.

Figure 4.3. Visual aids: pictures. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011).

Finally, Christen and Murphy (1991, p. 1-6), established that “the visual image
provides the learner with a frame of reference from which to recall the definition under critical
circumstances”. For instance, in Figure 4.3 a reader who may be looking for the word
“bicycle” believe it is more meaningful to find the picture of a bicycle rather than reading the
definition of bicycle in Spanish which is “bicicleta”. This reader may not even feel the
necessity to read the translation of the word in his/her mother tongue.

4.8.3.5. Showing irregular forms and examples

The present dictionary also shows the irregular forms of verbs and includes them in
sentences. It also shows through examples, how words are used in those sentences.

25
 Figure 4.4. Showing irregular forms and examples. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011).

4.8.3.6. Grammatical categories

Dictionaries also have a special characteristic that allow users to identify if the
searched word belongs to a determined grammatical category.

In this way, as shown in the picture above, the dictionary used in this project shows
in green color all the grammatical categories next to each word. These grammatical
categories sometimes appear abbreviated and in other occasions they are in Spanish. The
abbreviation for the different grammatical categories are the following.

 N: noun.
 Adj: adjective.
 V: verb.
 Adv: adverb.
 Prep: preposition.
 Pron: pronoun.
 Conj: conjunction.

26
 Figure 4.5. Grammatical categories. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011).

4.8.3.7. Basic terminology

In the following section, the most important terms and concepts are defined and
presented in alphabetical order. These terms helps us understand as a summary, some of
the key words of this research project. Most of the definitions were provided by the
monolingual Cambridge Dictionary; others from different sources on the internet.

Adjectives: these are words to describe a noun or a pronoun. They give us more
information. The abbreviation for this grammatical category or part of speech is adj.

Adverbs: there are words to describe or give more information about a verb,
adjective, adverb, or phrase. They have many different meanings and functions. They are
especially important for indicating the time, the manner, place, degree and frequency of
something.

Assessment: it is the process of testing, and making judgement about, someone’s

knowledge, ability, skills, etc.

Contextual guessing: Huang and Eslami’s definition (2013), is the “knowledge of

the words surrounding an unknown word that helps language learners infer the meaning of
the words in context.”

27
 Didactics: it is in charge of the educational process, and a set of norms which are
capable of giving an explanation to the phenomenon of education. Also, it is a part of
pedagogy that studies the techniques and methods of teaching.

Education: it is the process of teaching or learning, especially in a school or college,

or the knowledge that you get from this.

Information and Communication Technology ICT: these are tools developed

beginning from the scientific advances and are the set of technologies which allow the
access, production, treatment and communication of information presented through
different codes. (Belloch, n.d.)

Nouns: these are words that refer to a person, place, thing, event, substance, or
quality.

Learning: it is the production and reproduction of knowledge in which society is

extremely linked to the individual’s growth.

Pedagogy: it is the study of the methods and activities of teaching.

Phonetic description: it is a set of phonetic symbols which represent the sounds

of a determined word.

Phonetic alphabet: it is a set of symbols or codes used to show what a speech

sound or letter sounds like. An example of the phonetic alphabet is the word “special” shown
as [spe∫∂l].

Reading comprehension: it is the construction of new knowledge having as a

starting point the reader’s interaction between his/her expectations and previously acquired
knowledge, and the text he/she reads.

Teaching: it is the process through which a series of knowledge is transmitted,

using a variety of means.

Verbs: these are words or phrases that describe an action, condition, or experience.

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 5. METHODOLOGY

The present study is developed based on the parameters of Action Research.

Through this model it was possible to identify the main problem, and therefore to propose
an improvement plan regarding students’ needs. This process is carried out following the
four stages adopted by Funiber which are exploration, planning, evaluation, and
improvement plan.

During the first step, there was a diagnostic stage with two weeks of observation
and an application of a survey to students. This survey allowed the researcher to gather
important data about students’ perceptions on the second language. The objective of this
survey was to gather information about the teaching-learning process of English at the
institution.

During the two observation weeks, it was possible to identify the students’
performance related to the reading skill in English. Despite the 70% of the students declared
in the survey that they liked learning the language, during the observations it was not
feasible to evidence students’ likes as they mentioned, but rather they showed enormous
difficulties and rejection to the activities, especially when they required proper abilities for
reading because they just did not know anything about most of the words presented in short
texts. This was shown in the survey results as the 88% of the students stated they got
frustrated when they were given a short text in English in order to answer some questions.
The reasons were mainly because they did not feel capable of developing such task.

The survey also allowed us to find out that students estimate the process of reading
as a difficult task because it was always developed as a group activity. For instance we
have 60% of students who asserted they liked to work independently, mostly when there
were exercises requiring the use of computers by using any kind of software. However, they
declared to feel alone arguing that the teacher’s help was crucial in those kinds of tasks.

In this order of ideas, students were asked to suggest the type of activities they
developed as hobbies and which ones they would like to carry out in class. Some of the
activities were: reading, listening to music, using a computer, or others. The results were
inclined to the use of computers in which students suggested that they liked to play video
games or during laboratory classes, to explore the interactive activities that the dictionary
(Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011) offered.

29
 An important step taken in this section is to cite some definitions regarding the term
methodology as such. Thus, the first author who expresses her thoughts about the
methodology is Arias (2006, p. 16), who defines this methodological framework as “the set
of steps, techniques, and procedures involved in the formulation and solution of problems”.
The main purpose to use these techniques is to confirm or discard different hypothesis
previously proposed by the author of the research project.

Moreover, Tamayo (2009) expresses as a definition of theoretical framework that

this process based on the scientific method intends to look for relevant information that
promotes the accomplishment of the purpose to comprehend, verify, apply and correct
knowledge. The acquisition of this knowledge allows researchers to relate it with the
previously proposed hypothesis.

Taking into account the previous ideas, and according to the wide search of
theoretical references it is time to gather methodological strategies. This is to lead this
project to the solution of the problematic proposed in itself. Also, it is necessary to establish
the techniques and procedures to be applied in order to achieve not only the purposes of
this project from the beginning, but also of utmost importance, to look for the solution of the
research question proposed for it.

5.1. Description of the Research Approach

This research project intends to implement contextual guessing and a digital

dictionary as tools to improve reading comprehension with students belonging to the area
of foreign languages. The objective of using these tools is to promote the motivation degree
to face Way to go textbook’s short texts from a different perspective. In order to achieve this
purpose a mixed approach is proposed taking into account Hernández Sampieri (2014, p.
534-535). This author works as a theoretical principle for the elaboration of the instruments
for data gathering to carry out this research.

5.2. Description of the Research Type

For Hernández Sampieri (2014, p. 534-535), the mixed research is not a substitute
neither of the qualitative nor the quantitative research, but rather it combines both of them
to support its effectiveness. According to Hernández Sampieri and Mendonza (2008, p.

30
546), cited in Hernández Sampieri et al (2014, p. 534-535), this type of research is “a set of
systematic, empirical, and critical research processes which imply gathering and analysis
of qualitative and quantitative data.

Also, these processes imply their integration and discussion together to make
inferences as a result of all the collected information. The approach of the present
investigation from the qualitative mixed approach allowed the study of the problematic
making use of the qualitative and quantitative research. As a core, it is found the different
ordinary situations that students and teachers face every day.

According to the previous statements, it is crucial to make emphasis on the research

with qualitative mixed approach CUAL-cuan, described by Hernández Sampieri (2014, p.
534-535). This approach is inclined towards qualitative factors, therefore the research tools
for data gathering are mainly qualitative.

As quantitative method, only one tool was employed in order to give more validity to
this research. In this way, it is intended to develop a contribution through the gathering of
some information regarding the educational endeavor. Finally, it is proposed an evaluation
about students’ achievement on their reading comprehension processes.

5.3. Description of the Research Tools

The tools applied in this research project are a structured interview for students, a
pre-test aimed at evaluating students’ previous performance on reading comprehension
activities, and also a format for the direct observation of classes. The main tool used in the
development of the classes were the application of six sessions as workshops. These
sessions included a workshop for each one regarding the following aspects of dictionary
training skills and contextual guessing. There are also two tools for quantitative gathering
of data which are the application of a survey and a questionnaire for each session.

In order to comprehend better what these data gathering tools involve, in the
following section some definitions are proposed.

31
5.4. Qualitative Research Tools

5.4.1. Workshops

Despite time constraints, six training sessions were designed in this project in order
to teach students basic dictionary skills and the implementation of contextual guessing
when reading. These activities are proposed to be held during class time in ordinary classes
of English. They include a worksheet about the topic mentioned below in the list. These
worksheets were adapted from Lynette’s dictionary skills printable book (2012, p.4-22). The
following are the training sessions (workshops):

1. General characteristics of dictionaries, especially the digital dictionary to be

implemented in this research.
2. Main entry and part of speech or grammatical category (noun, verb,
adjective, adverb, conjunction, and preposition).
3. Affixes (prefix, root, suffix).
4. Pronunciation through the awareness of the phonetic alphabet and its
phonetic symbols.
5. Definitions and examples.
6. Contextual guessing.

These workshops included a short text taken from the Way to go! Textbook for 6th
grade (M.E.N., 2016). It will present a posterior activity in order to work on the search of
some words from the previous text and identify each feature treated session by session.

5.4.2. Direct observation

In this type of observation, the researcher is involved in a personal and direct contact
with the phenomenon in question. Direct observation allows the gathering of data as its
name says, in a direct form. This means, the researcher finds information directly from the
subjects who are object of the research. These techniques are used making observation
and interviews to the sample, in this case our sixth grade students. (Puebla, Alarcón,
Valdés, Pastillides, and Gómez, 2010).

The aforementioned technique constitutes one of the main ways of data collection
for the present research. This is vital because the researcher will observe in detail how the

32
studied individuals will behave in their ordinary school practices. The task of the researcher
will be to register on a journal all the pertinent data considered as important for the research.

This process is supposed to be carried out with the same students to whom the
teacher has at some point enough confidence. This is a positive side because being the
teacher the one who observes, it excludes different factors such as the distraction that being
observed can cause.

5.4.3. Journal

A journal is a kind of personal diary in which the researcher registers descriptions

about the setting (initial and posterior) such as people, places, events, maps, schemes,
objects from the context, and information related to the development of the research
(advances and tasks to carry out). (Hernández Sampieri, 2014). In this case, the use of the
journal is done aimed at keeping a detailed record of daily activities while the research goes
on. The design of the journal was developed taking into account relevant aspects for the
present research and due to the necessity of gathering vital data which will be provided to
this study.

The tool designed for the previous purpose, is presented through a chart where
some specific information about the development of the classes is to be collected. This
process should be done meticulously, without omitting relevant details, and it should be
done throughout the research project.

5.4.4. Diagnostic test

This test has the characteristics proper of a questionnaire described by Hernández

Sampieri, (2014). Having in mind this, this test is made up of open questions, also described
by the aforementioned author. The purpose of its design and application was to evaluate
the level of reading comprehension shown by students before the implementation of the
tools proposed for this research. This is to carry out a comparison between the before and
after of the application of the strategies proposed for the development of the research
objectives.

33
 5.4.5. Quantitative research tools.

5.4.5.1. Survey

As a definition of survey, we have the description made by Ferrando (1993), cited

in Chiner, (2018) who points out that this tool is a type of research that is carried out to a
sample of individuals who represent a population. It is applied directly in the context, in the
ordinary life. In addition, in a survey some interrogative procedures are used which are
previously standardized. All this process is achieved to obtain measurements of quantitative
values about the population.

In this research, the use of the survey is aimed at collecting personal opinions
directly from the students. These opinions are related to processes allowing the design of
interesting activities through the use of a digital dictionary already installed on the schools’
computers. It is done in the English class specifically when there are exercises about
reading comprehension.

5.4.5.2. Questionnaires

As reported by Hernández Sampieri (2014) this tool is one of the most used
elements to collect data in social phenomena. In its simplest form, a questionnaire consists
in a set of questions regarding one or two variables, as Chasteauneuf (2009) stated.

There are two types of questions that a questionnaire should contain and they work
to collect in different ways the population’s perceptions on a given problem. Questions can
be either open or close, and they have different characteristics, as well as advantages and
disadvantages. (Hernández Sampieri, 2014). According to the previous author, these are
the main characteristics of open and close questions.

5.4.5.3. Close questions

They can be presented in a limited form, which the participants need to choose one
answer already existent. These type of questions can present a dichotomy (two answers)
or they can include various answers.

34
 This type of questions is easier to make statistical analysis as well as to answer on
behalf of the participants because they do not have to write any extra information.
Answering close questions takes less time than answering an open questions
questionnaire. One of the disadvantages of close questions is that they limit the answers,
or in the worst case the participants do not find the appropriate answer they are looking for.
It is necessary to plan beforehand the possible options which the participants may have in
mind in order to offer them a wide range of options. (Hernández Sampieri, 2014)

5.4.5.4. Open questions

Open questions “provide a wider opportunity to collect data and are particularly
useful when the researcher do not know anything about the possible type of answers the
participants would yield”. (Phillips, Phillips, and Aaron, 2013) in Hernández Sampieri, 2014.
As reported by the latter, these type of questions are more difficult to classify and prepare
for analysis. This is due to the implications on behalf of the participants because they can
present confusing thoughts or expressions in their written contributions.

At the end of each session, questionnaires were applied in order to gather students’
perceptions on the activity and opinions they may have. They also aimed at gathering
students’ points of view and feelings concerning the activities, possible problems in working
out the unknown vocabulary using different resources like the context, previous knowledge
and dictionary.

35
 6. STUDY

6.1. Context of the Research

6.1.1. Type of institution

This research project is carried out at San José school which is a public institution
guided by the requirements of the Colombian government. This institution is located in
Oporapa, a small town in the south part of the department of Huila. San José school is the
only institution present in the town. This is why it gathers a wide variety of students
belonging to many villages near Oporapa.

6.1.2. Participants’ profile

According to (Lepkowski, 2008), cited in (Hernández Sampieri, 2014, p. 174), the

participants or population in a research project relates to a set of people who gathers entirely
the cases suitable to a series of specifications previously defined. Taking into account the
previous idea, it is feasible to express that to establish the population in previous stages it
is necessary to settle some common characteristics which the members should fulfil
altogether as for being considered as part of it.

For this research, the population is made up by 35 sixth grade students from
secondary school who define San José School, located in the municipality of Oporapa in
the department of Huila. As stated in previous ideas, students belong to different villages
from which they have to travel in various means of transportation. The following chart
presents a summary of the zones in which these students are from.

Table 6.1.
Sixth grade students’ summary
Village Number of students Age Level of schooling Stratum
Centre of Oporapa 15
San Ciro 3
Alto Caparosa 2
11-13 Secondary 1-2
La Cabaña 1
El Roble 2
La Unión 3

36
 Total 26
Source: (SIMAT from San José School, 2019)

6.1.3. Sample population

For Hernández Sampieri, (2014), “The sample is (…) a subgroup of the population
(…) is a subset of elements that belong to that defined set in its characteristics called
population”. (p. 175). This sample was obtained according to an intentional probabilistic
calculation which yield the following results. For a total of 35 students, and with the object
of obtaining a 10% of error range and a 90% of confidence level the sample should be of
26 students. This students were chosen according to the low performance in the diagnostic
test, and personal opinions developed in the initial survey for perceptions on reading
comprehension and the use of the dictionary. The previous results are shown in Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1. Sample population. (Adimen investigación, 2018)

37
 6.1.4. Resources and facilities

In previous stages, resources and facilities were discussed in a general manner.

The school belongs to the public area of education and therefore resources are not provided
as enough as the institution requires. Two years ago, the government signed a contract to
expand the school and build new classrooms, but it was not possible due to corruption
problems. Anyway, with some reduced classrooms students are able to develop ordinary
practices. One advantage that the English subject has is a complete room dedicated to the
learning of this second language. In the institution it is called the “laboratory” in which
students have 40 computers, although they do not have internet access. However, these
computers have a dictionary already installed which is the one used for the present research
project. In general, the classroom has just a whiteboard, chairs, markers, and an eraser.

Fortunately, the Ministry of Education launched a textbook program in 2016. These

were books specially designed to cover all the necessities that students had. These books
are called Way to go from sixth to eighth grade and English Please which is from ninth to
eleventh grade. One advantage of having this book as a reference in students’ learning
process is that it is completely contextualized. This is to say that topics are the same as in
any other part of the world, but the difference falls on the places, characters, customs, and
beliefs proper of our country and its people which are presented in these books. This aspect
is an advantage because learners’ attention is caught by watching for example famous
people like Nairo Quintana or Shakira in some articles of the book. A possible downside is
that students only have the printed workbook not in full color, but they made some
photocopies.

6.2. Corpus and Data Collection

6.2.1. Journal previous application of training sessions

Before the application of the training activities students were taken to the English
laboratory to know in depth the software used in this research. This first exploration was
carried out before the first training session, where students had to follow the researcher’s
instructions. This process was vital to explain students the characteristics of the dictionary
and how the investigation process would be developed.

38
 Students showed a quick familiarization using the software (Figure 6.2) and got
interested by the activity. Fortunately, each student had one computer allowing the process
to be more fruitful. As the sessions were on computers, students got motivated to be
involved in the project.

Figure 6.2. Journal of exploration of digital tools.

To analyze the previous data, it is feasible to cite Ovelar, Gómez, and Romo (2009,
p. 31-53), who stated that students are capable of assuming in an easy way the practical

39
functionality offered by digital contents, although they prefer the face to face contact with
their classmates compared to virtual environments. This also explains that around the use
of the digital tools, some discussions were held though questions.

The next activity was about the application of the diagnostic test as one of the first
steps in data collection for the present study to evaluate students’ abilities to understand
short texts in English. This test was crucial to identify students’ shortcomings. Before the
application of this test, students were trained on the kind of questions they were about to
answer. Despite students already knew the textbook and how it presented the questions,
there were slight modifications and adaptations made for the purpose of getting students
involved in assessment techniques exposed in the theoretical framework. These
assessment techniques were a guide to design the kind of questions for the test.

However, students showed a low interest to do the activity reading without

motivation and answering as fast as they could. This students’ marked attitude against
reading exercises has been described by different authors who point out that there are
various causes. Beginning with the lack of traditional reading habits in their family
surroundings, the dedication of free time to other activities such as agriculture, as well as
the lack of motivation strategies to stimulate students to read with pleasure. (García,
Klinger, Olaya, and Avila, 2008).

40
 Figure 6.3. Journal of the application of diagnostic test.

6.2.2. Journal during training sessions

During this stage, six training sessions were applied concerning topics about the
dictionary and its uses. In this process, the researcher registered some commentaries on
students’ behavior and attitude against the development of the activities regarding

41
dictionary use. Students’ attitude during this stage described in figure 6.4, was remarkable
because they showed a great motivation. Their attitude when working on the computers
was positive, they tried to carry out the exercises as expected. Despite a few students in
some exercises felt lost, it was possible to guide them in the look of the right answers. In
general, students showed a great motivation before, during, and after the activities.

Figure 6.4. Journal of session 1: General characteristics of dictionaries.

42
 The researchers’ commentaries clearly evidenced students’ interests in the
proposed activities. Students participated actively during their development and were
anxious to know how they did at the end of each session. Moreover, students also appeared
to be motivated, studious and hardworking, which is related to what Calderón, (2013) states,
who highlights the use of ICT’s to motivate and improve the reading learning process, which
clearly improves their results.

6.2.3. Survey and questionnaires

After the application of the six training sessions, a survey was applied in order to
collect students’ insights about the activity. Surveys were designed to gather the necessary
information to be analyzed later. In those surveys, students could choose multiple option
questions as well as open questions to express their opinion freely. As a questionnaire, the
Likert scale worked positively to gather information related to the activities which helped the
research a support because students’ answers against the development of the sessions
and the project in general was helpful and meaningful.

6.3. Research Tools Used for the Analysis

6.3.1. Statistical software

In order to know the sample population for this study, it was necessary to use an
online website. The analysis was carried out before the application of the diagnostic test to
know the quantity of students for the sample and to prepare the materials for each session.
In the group of participants, there was a total of 35 students, and with the object of obtaining
a 10% of error range and a 90% of confidence level the sample should be of 26 students.
This students were chosen according to the low performance in the diagnostic test, and
personal opinions developed in the initial survey for perceptions on reading comprehension
and the use of the dictionary.

6.3.2. Photographs and video recording

Photographs were taken during the development of the sessions in this research.
Students appeared working in the activities and answering the surveys in which they kindly
provided enough data to be analyzed. This digital material was a significant instrument to

43
understand students’ behavior during the activities. Video recordings were used in order to
analyze students’ attitude and behavior after the application of the sessions. However, this
digital material was used as a support, not as the main source of information.

6.4. Description of the Research Plan

6.4.1. Exploration

During this first stage an exhausting search of theory was carried out by using
different media. Digital and printed materials were necessary to gather the required data for
the theoretical framework. This theory was related to the main conceptions supporting this
research project. There were previous investigations developed by some researchers,
which in great part contributed to the realization of this study. From these studies, it was
possible to extract key data to apply it in the present project. Apart from reviewing
remarkable information from the aforementioned studies, crucial data was also found in
books written by various linguists and theorists. This time, readings were more extensive
therefore it was necessary to design a personal guide that allowed to summarize and
synthetize the outstanding information suitable for the purposes of this research.

Apart from the literature revision, it was done a constant observation of students’
processes in ordinary classes. There was a special moment in which the researcher could
use questions in order to get information from students about how they would like to improve
English classes. They mentioned technology was a key point nowadays because they are
more attracted to technological and digital resources rather than printed and physical
materials.

6.4.2. Planning

This stage allowed the research to design the activities in order to tackle the
problematic presented in students. The main topic to be researched was how to take
students to a comprehension of short texts in English through the use of digital dictionaries.
Apart from this, students also worked on the contextual guessing strategy mentioned by
Thornbury (2002). It was clear that the project had some limitations in terms of resources
due to the nature of the institution. However, it was necessary to plan carefully the activities
taking into account that the school only provided us with a computer per student, a video
beam and a digital dictionary software. These tools were considered as enough by the

44
researcher getting the most out of them. In general, this stage was really important because
students received the training on dictionary characteristics and the reading strategy
regarding contextual guessing.

6.4.3. Evaluation

For the evaluation stage, it is essential to highlight three moments. The evaluation
was carried out at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the project. The first
evaluation process was done after the application of the diagnostic test which gave the
project green light to confront the problem by the identification of students’ flaws. The
second moment of evaluation was done during the six training sessions when the
researcher was able to evaluate students’ performance and attitude during the development
of the workshop. After the workshops were carried out, students answered surveys which
in part is another way of evaluating the sessions through their opinions. Finally, the final test
as last evaluation process allowed the research project to establish a comparison between
the results from the diagnostic test and after the application of the training sessions.

6.4.4. Improvement plan

Every training session allowed the researcher to look for alternatives to improve the
future sessions. The surveys answered at the end of each workshop allowed the research
to propose actions towards the improvement of the activities.

45
 7. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

7.1. Analysis on Survey of Students’ Perceptions on the Use of Dictionaries

and Reading in English

The present analysis focuses on the first survey applied to students as a tool to
gather their perceptions on the use of the dictionary in English class. The results were used
to design the activities for this research suitable for students to improve their abilities to look
up words in the dictionary and as a consequence to help them improve reading
comprehension skills.

Question 1. Do you like learning English?

The first question of the survey asks whether the students like or do not like learning
English. The possible answers could be negative or positive, but it was added a space for
them to add other options or opinions. Unfortunately, 60% of students answered they did
not like English, while the other 40% said they like it. Some students commented in the
extra space that the main reason why they did not like English was because they did not
understand anything either written, read, spoken or listened.

Question 2. What do you think of the process of learning English?

The second question gathered opinions about the process of learning English for
students. This time participants were again inclined to answer that this process was difficult
with 75% of the total number of students. The remaining students said it was easy with the
remaining 25% out of the 26 students. There were 10 students who added extra comments
arguing that they preferred other subjects which seemed to be easier that learning English.

Question 3. When you are given a reading exercise in English with the aim of
answering some questions about it. How do you feel about it?

This question gave us important opinions on the percentage of students who present
negative feelings at the moment of starting a reading activity according to figure 7.1. They
had three options to choose, 23% of students chose they first checked the length of the text
before starting to read, 19% of students argued that as soon as they received the text they

46
got interested in it and started to read. However, most of the students 58% expressed they
got frustrated because they did not feel capable to read or understand the text.

Question 3. What do you do when you are given a

reading activity?

You check the length of the text.

23%
You get interested and start
58% reading carefully.
19%
You get frustrated because you
do not feel capable to read.

Figure 7.1. Results question 3. Students’ actions when facing a reading activity.

Question 4. For you, to participate in activities that teach you how to use the
dictionary in English is:

Question 4 summarized in figure 7.2, gave this research insights on students’

interest to be involved in activities regarding the use of the dictionary as well as a training
process on how to use it. Through this question, this study gathered important data which
claim students are in favor to develop the training sessions as a way to enrich their
knowledge on this resource. The tendency to know more about these activities was
represented in the first option with a total of 54% of students, expressing they got interested
because they still did not know how to use a dictionary. However, 27% of students said they
felt apathetic about the activities because they claimed they already knew how to use a
dictionary, while the other 19% said they felt bored because dictionaries were difficult to
use.

47
 Question 4. Participating in activities that teach you how to
use a dictionary in English.

Interesting because I still do not know

19% how to use a dictionary.
The same because I already know
54%
27% how to use a dictionary.
Boring because dictionaries are
difficult to use.

Figure 7.2. Results question 4. Students’ interest in activities that teach how to use a
dictionary in English.

Question 5. You spend your free time in:

Students were asked which activities they tended to do in their free time. This
question allowed us to know a critical point in Oporapa and Colombian culture. When asked
if they spent their free time reading, we just got 9% of students. The other option was using
or playing on a computer which was marked as 14%, while listening to music got a 32% of
a total of 26 students. With this, it is important to mention that students do not like to develop
activities that involve reading in any context. This is really common in Colombia and in a
wider way in Oporapa, where 45% of students said they preferred walking around their
neighborhood, working at the farms, helping with the house chores, or playing with friends
in the streets. Figure 7.3, exposes the data previously discussed:

Question 5. You spend your free time in:

Reading.
9%
14%
45%
Using or playing on a
computer.
32% Listening to music.

Other.

Figure 7.3. Results question 5. Students’ free time activities.

48
 Question 6. What is your opinion on using a computers for the development of
classes?

This question gave this study a clear insight on students’ opinion related to the use
of computers in class, figure 7.4 clearly shows the opinion on this issue. There was a
tendency as expected, to provide positive opinions from students towards computers use
in class. Then, we have 35% of students who expressed that “this tool produces too much
curiosity”, while “none of them answered computers were boring”. As computers in San
José school are located in a special place which is called English laboratory, 65% of
students asserted “they were more interested by using the computers rather than going to
have classes in an ordinary classroom”. It is evident that recently students are more inclined
to use any kind of technology for their learning processes (digital dictionary), instead of
using traditional resources such as printed dictionaries.

Question 6. What is your opinion on using

computers for the development of classes?

They produce too much curiosity.

35% They are boring.

65% 0% They are more interesting than in

the classroom.

Figure 7.4. Results question 6. Students’ opinion on classes using computers.

Question 7. What is your opinion if you realize that a digital dictionary will be used
to understand short texts in English?

In this question we have two important issues to highlight. The first one has to do
with question 6, which students said they were highly interested in activities using
computers. The other aspect is that question 7 apart from using the computers, asks
students for an opinion on developing activities using a digital dictionary, which implies
using a computer, what students claimed was interesting for them. That is why, 73% of
students said using digital dictionaries “would motivate them to develop class activities”,
while 15% said “they were apathetic”, and 12% that they were “absolutely demotivated”,
this information is shown below in figure 7.5.

49
 Question 7. What is your opinion if you realize that a digital
dictionary will be used to understand short texts in
English?

It would motivate me to develop

the activities.
12%
15% It is the same.

73% It absolutely demotivates me.

Figure 7.5. Results question 7. Students’ opinion on using digital dictionaries in English
classes.

7.2. Analysis of Diagnostic Test

This test was designed with the aim of evaluating students’ performance on reading
comprehension before the implementation of the dictionary training activities. The test
contained texts taken out of Way to go textbook in order to present proper texts studied in
English classes. The diagnostic test worked as a reference in order to make a comparison
between the students’ capabilities before and after the application of the training activities
(Appendix II). The test contains three short texts which were adapted in order to prove
students’ skills through different kinds of questions such as contextual guessing, multiple
choice, sentence completion and the look for specific information. The texts presented in
the exam are aimed at evaluating the following Basic Learning Rights (DBA): answer
questions related to “what, who and when” after reading or listening to a short simple text.
The texts presented images which were not of great help for students’ comprehension of
information, but offer a different view of the activity.

The first text was based on a sentence completion exercise. Students had the
possibility to choose a variety of the words to fill the blanks. One difficulty students faced
was the lack of vocabulary, they did not know most of the words and therefore they did not
understand the whole text. Most of the students seemed to become peevish when facing
this kind of texts because they got lost. The answers in the first reading activity were
incorrect with an 85% of students who failed at completing the sentences. This happened
due to students’ lack of knowledge on adverbs of frequency, which were the words they had

50
to write in the spaces. This activity needed apart from knowing these adverbs of frequency,
the understanding of words related to daily routines including verbs and time expressions.

The second text presented three questions based on a multiple choice activity.
Besides, it included the DBA described at the beginning of this analysis which asks about
“what, who and when” of the actions described in the text. These questions have explicit
information shown in the text, which make the process of looking for an answer much easier
for students. This time students got 45% of correct answers due to the way the text was
designed and also the way the questions were written, which eased students’ work.
Therefore, students perform a literal extraction out of the text which according to Gordillo
and Florez (2009, p. 95-107), the student is capable of extracting key words, to establish
some main ideas without using cognitive structures, instead of inferring meaning that taking
into account the previous authors is related to deduce information implicit in the text. For
instance, students limit themselves to look at explicit words in the text rather than to
understand the whole meaning of the sentences.

The third text presented information which students needed to process in order to
extract specific information. The information was partially explicit, with the only difference
that there were key words in the questions. Students who knew the key words were able to
identify the right answer which were yes or no options. However, as most of them did not
know the meaning of those key words, they were not capable of choosing the right answer
despite of having just two options which make a fifty-fifty chance of choosing the right
answer. In this case, just 42% of students were able to get most of the answers correctly.

Taking into consideration the aforementioned ideas, it is possible to conclude that

students involved in this research show clear deficiencies when extracting information from
texts taking into account the material provided by the Ministry of Education (M.E.N).
Students were neither capable of guessing the meaning of words according to the context,
nor inferring the meaning of implicit ideas. Students were at a literal level which claims
students are capable of extracting information that is explicit and clearly shown in the text,
rather than interpreting implicit data. In contrast, students show a low performance when
inferring meaning, this is to say that the 26 students are placed in the literal level, in which
they associate the words of the question with the text, but there is no presence of meaning.
One of the objectives of this investigation is apart from teaching dictionary searching skills,
to guide students towards the discovery of meaning by following some steps provided by
Thornbury (2002) mainly to apply a strategy for contextual guessing.

51
7.3. Results after the Application of the Dictionary Training Sessions

Before discussing the results obtained from the sessions it is important to highlight
that the researcher carried out extra activities in order to prepare students’ unknown
vocabulary to ease the development of the activities. Before the application of the
workshops as such, students were shown through different ways like videos, power point
presentations and the use of the board to explain the main topic of the upcoming training
session. Other aspects involved were basic grammatical structures which students needed
to reinforce and understand better the activities.

7.3.1. Session 1: general characteristics of dictionaries

The following analysis is based on the results obtained from the application of the
first training session regarding general characteristics of dictionaries with sixth grade
students from San José Secondary School. Therefore, important aspects will be taken into
account such as students’ opinion about the activity through a survey, the direct observation
from the researcher, and the recompilation of data gathered through the journal. The main
category to have in mind is to describe students’ performance and attitude during and after
the application of the dictionary training session as it is one of the specific aims proposed
for this study.

7.3.1.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about general characteristics of dictionaries?

The application of this session was meaningful due to students’ behavior and
positive attitude during the session. As this was the first training session students felt a little
nervous and anxious. They were waiting for the researchers’ instructions and ready to
perform any action they were required. Many factors influenced the development of the
session such as the lack of current energy to start up the computers on which students were
supposed to watch the presentation and therefore to look up for unknown words. The first
step in the session was to identify the main parts of the dictionary through the power point
presentation to learn how the main entries were presented and the characteristics of
dictionaries. Each characteristic was pointed through an arrow containing its description.
For instance, students were shown the main entry, the pronunciation symbols, the plural
form, the part of speech or grammatical category, the definition, the example, and other

52
possible forms of the word. Students showed great interest in the activity and they appeared
to be attentive to the instructions from the teacher.

After students accomplished that previous stage, they were ready to develop the
workshop which included the identification of the main parts of how the main entries are
presented. The first exercise asked students to label each part of the dictionary entry and
61,5% of students were able to perform the task correctly, other 30,8% of students were
capable of choosing at least three answers correctly, while the remaining 7,7% of students
did it wrong. This is to say that most of students were able to identify the parts in which a
dictionary entry is divided while some of them need to work on this issue. Some students
expressed that the session was fruitful because it allowed them to identify special aspects
of dictionaries that they did not know before such as the symbols for pronunciation which
was the main focus of surprise for them.

Others mentioned that they hoped this project to support their searches to become
experts in dictionaries or carry out more intelligent searches when looking for a word in the
dictionary. With this, it is possible to say that students showed interest in the activity and
that they were anxious to continue with future sessions.

7.3.2. Session 2: grammatical categories (parts of speech)

The following analysis is based on the results obtained from the application of the
second training session regarding grammatical categories or parts of speech present in
dictionaries with sixth grade students from San José Secondary School. Therefore,
important aspects will be taken into account such as students’ opinion about the activity
through a survey, the direct observation from the researcher, and the recompilation of data
gathered through the journal. The main category to have in mind is to describe students’
performance and attitude during and after the application of the dictionary training session
as it is one of the specific aims proposed for this study.

7.3.2.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about grammatical categories or parts of speech?

This session was about the identification of the grammatical abbreviations in

dictionaries. At first, students were trained on the grammatical categories in English, as well
as the function they had in sentences. One advantage of this session was that students

53
already knew some of the categories which are similar in Spanish. This is why they
apparently found this activity not as challenging as the researcher expected to be. The first
step in the session was to explain students the grammatical categories by activating their
previous knowledge in this matter. The construction of the definitions on behalf of the
learners was really important because they showed outstanding background information on
these elements of the language.

Once students knew what the lesson was about, the next step was to give students
the correct instructions of the activity. Students quickly understood what they had to do and
started developing the activity. Some of them were confused with the activity but the teacher
was there to help clarify everything. Most of the students were engaged in the activity
because they could identify quickly the grammatical category of each word faster than the
other classmates. It was observed that they were making some deductions or inferences
when the word they were looking for appeared to have a pattern which was repeated in
similar words. For instance, when students looked up for the word “wonderful” they realized
that it belonged to the grammatical category of adjectives.

Then, when they were about to look up the word “beautiful” students guessed its
grammatical category because it also ended in “ful” which supposed to give students a clue,
telling them it was an adjective. Another pattern students were able to find was the ending
of the “-ing” form, as soon as they started looking at these words they immediately realized
it was a verb. Nevertheless, it was necessary for the teacher to explain that this suppositions
are not generalizable because there exist other words such as “everything” or “nothing”
which are not verbs. As a consequence, they would confuse verbs with pronouns and so
on.

Students’ performance in the activity was also significant. They tended to answer
the workshop questions in the best way they could. In exercises A and B, 75% of students
were able to place words in the correct place. Another 13% percent of students made at
least one mistake, while the remaining 12% of students made from 2 mistakes on. These
are positive results because students showed an understanding of the topic and most of
them were capable of identifying the grammatical categories of words. Some students were
also able to establish patterns according to the form of the words such as the ending of
adjectives or verbs. Finally, in exercise C students were supposed to write some sentences
by using as many words as they could from the chart of classified words. Students created
various sentences which were a sample of the accomplishment students got from the
session.

54
 In general terms, students’ attitude was optimistic due to the competition they
created in the process of looking up for words. They started to look up words in the
dictionary and it woke up their competitive spirit. Some of them finished quickly the process
of finding the words; others had some problems which were solved by the researcher’s
support. Another important issue to highlight was the support offered by the teacher. In the
theoretical framework, it was established that “the teacher needed to understand that
he/she was just an instructor who offered guidance and support, he/she was not the main
character in the classroom”.

This session allowed students to work independently by using the dictionary as a

great resource. Therefore it is possible to recall Dickinson’s words (1995) who established
these kinds of attitudes occur when “the learner is prepared to take, or does take,
responsibility for his own learning”. However, students showed that they did not work alone
at all, but the lower achievers took advantage of the high achievers in order to ask for some
help. Another important statement to describe students’ attitude in this session was defined
by Dam et al (1990) who stated that leaner autonomy is “the capacity and willingness to act
independently and in cooperation with others, as a social, responsible person”. This attitude
was clearly observed in this session because there was also a spirit of students’ cooperation
when developing the activity.

7.3.3. Session 3: syllables (prefixes, roots, and suffixes)

The following analysis is based on the results obtained from the application of the
third training session regarding syllables. This session also works on different exercises
containing the identification of prefixes, roots and suffixes explained by the researcher
during the session. These are word structures taught at a previous stage before sixth
students developed the workshop proposed for the training session. Therefore, important
aspects will be taken into account such as students’ opinion about the activity through a
survey, the direct observation from the researcher, and the recompilation of data gathered
through the journal. The main category to have in mind is to describe students’ performance
and attitude during and after the application of the dictionary training session as it is one of
the specific aims proposed for this study.

55
 7.3.3.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about syllables (prefixes, roots, and suffixes)?

During this session students showed a great impression about the topic.
Fortunately, students already knew that words are divided into syllables. This was an
indicator that for this research students had some background knowledge which in some
way would help the development of the activity. At first they did not know that words were
constructed by adding extra parts of speech like prefixes and suffixes to the main part of
the word, which is the root. In this way, they realized this process would create new
meanings to the main sense of the word. This produced an impact on students because
meaning changed with just the addition of some letters.

Once the students were introduced the topic of the session they started making
questions. Some of them asked about the difference in the division of syllables in Spanish
and in English. The researcher established that division of syllables in English was different
and students shed light on this issue. Teacher explained students that they were going to
look up some words on Oxford Pocket Genie on their computers. They had to look up the
words and establish the quantity of syllables per each word. One problem that emerged
when students were about to carry out the searching process was that the dictionary does
not show the division of syllables. Thus, it was necessary to look for a printed dictionary to
help students identify the syllables. This situation occurred during the first stage of the
session with the teacher as the leader of the process. After that, students needed to classify
the words taking into account the number of syllables. The last part of the workshop was
related to the parts of speech, having in mind the use of prefixes, roots, and suffixes.
Students were explained about these elements using the board and the worksheet provided
for this session. It was a fruitful session because students could develop the activity using
the dictionary and understanding the meaning that each prefix or suffix created.

Students’ performance on the activity as such was meaningful due to the

understanding they could reach about the division of syllables and the formation of new
meanings beginning from the root word. In exercise A, B and C, most students did not have
any problems in the identification of the syllables because it was clear the dictionary allowed
us to gather this information easily. Moreover, 88.4% of students were capable of creating
sentences using at least one word belonging to the four categories as follows: one, two,
three, or four or more syllables. The exercises students showed a great interest in, were E,
F, and G, which included the explanation of prefixes and suffixes and how these letters

56
affected the root, and therefore its meaning. In exercise G, there was an exercise in which
students had to identify the word, divide it into the three parts of speech and classify it in a
chart. In this activity the 96.1% of students were able to do it perfectly, while the other 3.9%
made from two mistakes on. These exercises were easily understood by students and
everyone enjoyed the activity.

After the application of the survey, the results allowed the research to gather
important students’ data. This time, 80.7% of students affirmed this activity was highly
interesting because it allowed them to identify the number of syllables and how words can
change their meaning just by adding or removing a prefix or suffix. Meanwhile, the 15.3%
of students said it was partly interesting and the remaining 5% of students stated they
already knew the division of words. Most of students stated the activity promoted the
motivation, because instructions were easy to follow and understand. Additionally, students
were inclined to choose that the most interesting part of the activity is about changing the
meaning of the words just by adding some pre-established words such as pre-, dis-, under,
in the case of prefixes and -less, -est, -able, -full, in the case of the suffixes.

7.3.4. Session 4: pronunciation

The following analysis is based on the results obtained from the application of the
fourth session regarding pronunciation. This session also works on different exercises
containing the identification of sounds, explained by the researcher during the session using
digital resources and speakers. Therefore, consonant and vowel sounds were taught at a
previous stage before sixth students developed the workshop proposed for the training
session. Thus, important aspects will be taken into account such as students’ opinion about
the activity through a survey, the direct observation from the researcher, and the
recompilation of data gathered through the journal. The main category to have in mind is to
describe students’ performance and attitude during and after the application of the
dictionary training session as it is one of the specific aims proposed for this study.

7.3.4.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about pronunciation?

Pronunciation involves a lot of features that students cannot process in one single
class. Therefore, the focus of the research allowed the recognition of sounds present in
words. In exercise 1, students were to learn just consonant and vowel sounds, leaving other

57
more advanced aspects such as rhythm and intonation aside. In this way, students reviewed
the twenty vowel sounds in English and developed an assimilation of the sound with the
written letters. Moreover, students also reviewed the twenty four consonant sounds. Both
vowels and consonants had a drawing that illustrated an object or animal’s pronunciation
that contained that sound.

After that, in exercise 2, students were invited to develop an exercise regarding

diverse words containing the previous studied sounds. Thus, students were able to
pronounce and recall the pronunciation of phonetic symbols by pronouncing the words. The
last exercise asked students to try to reproduce the sounds and find the right word for each
phonetic description. Once students were able to find the equivalents, they had to solve a
crossword as a last exercise.

The results of the application of the workshop in this session varied because of the
difficulties that phonetic symbols produced. There were many sounds to learn in one class,
that was the main drawback. Despite most of students appeared not to understand
thoroughly the symbols, they tried to develop the activity as usually. The quantitative results
were not what the researcher expected, but overall the main objective of the session was
accomplished. Thus, students from this session on are aware of the benefits of learning the
phonetic symbols because they help figure out the pronunciation of words in English or any
other language.

In this way, at the beginning of the lesson students felt motivated because of the
pictures and the sounds provided through the consonant and vowel charts. Students
repeated and seemed to be learning the sounds of English. Nevertheless, in exercise 2
when students were required to place words with their right sound 57.6% of students failed.
This situation was foreseeable because students could not figure out the spelling of words
in order to identify which sound fitted in them. The main problem occurred when students
had to differentiate vowel sounds, which are highly confusing and even more difficult than
consonants.

In exercise 3, students improved in a meaningful way compared to the previous

exercise. This time, students had a crossword with the clues in phonetic symbols and they
had to write the proper word for that phonetic description. It was easy for students because
the target words were in the same worksheet. The last exercise was fruitful with an 84.6%
of students answering correctly, while the other 15.4% of students answered wrongly from
one word on.

58
 Students’ opinion after the exercise was crucial in order to interpret what they
thought about the session. Students felt the activity was interesting because in this way they
could find out how each word was pronounced, this item got a 92.3% of the contestants.
The rest of the students answered that the explanation of pronunciation and phonetic
symbols was partly interesting with a 7.7%. The next question yielded positive results in
aspects related to ICT’s because students commented the activity motivated them to
participate in the class and one advantage was having the support on computers. This idea
can be contrasted with UNESCO (2003), which established ICT’s have contributed among
other aspects, to the motivation, to improve teaching practices, and to generate a growth in
the academic performance of students, especially to the ones who present more difficulties.

In question 4 of the survey, there was a tendency for students to give their opinion
on the benefits provided by the phonetic symbols. Students commented that “phonetic
symbols help them pronounce words in a better way”. Apart from stating that the activity
gave them the opportunity to use the digital dictionary, they also affirmed that knowing how
to pronounce a word “is important because in that way we can communicate better”.
Opinions given by students helped the research understand that there was a positive
attitude about the activity. Students saw the activity as a positive way of interpreting sounds
in English through phonetic symbols in order to pronounce words similar to how native
speakers would do.

7.3.5. Session 5: meaning

The following analysis is based on the results obtained from the application of the
fifth training session regarding meaning. Students were required to make predictions by
using their previous knowledge, look for the meaning of words, and use the new words by
the creation of sentences. Some of the words used for this workshop were taken from the
Way to Go book 6th grade (M.E.N., 2016), while others were supposed to be new for
students. In this way, important aspects will be taken into account such as students’ opinion
about the activity through a survey, the direct observation from the researcher, and the
recompilation of data gathered through the journal. The main category to have in mind is to
describe students’ performance and attitude during and after the application of the
dictionary training session as it is one of the specific aims proposed for this study.

59
 7.3.5.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about meaning?

As students had already worked with some of the words contained in this workshop,
they could use their previous knowledge to develop the activity more easily. The activity
asked about meaning of some words as far as students were capable to know and think,
words were placed in the middle of sentences giving them a context. Then, students were
required to look for the real meaning of the words by using the dictionary on their computers.
After that process was done, students made a sentence placing the words correctly.

During this workshop students found significant difficulties because they did not
know anything about the meaning of some words. Thus, they had to go to the dictionary to
look up the meaning of those problematic terms in order to understand the sentence and
the word in a context. On one hand the positive side of the activity was that 60% of the
target words were known for students because those words had been worked in previous
lessons. For instance, the words “punish” and “placate”, which were supposed to be
unknown for students any of them was able to guess their meaning. In this way, students
had to use their dictionaries to look up the meaning of those words.

On the other hand, there were four words “outside, kitchen, downtown, another”
which students claimed to know beforehand. However, the results showed that just 80.7%
of students were able to identify the word, give it a predictive meaning, and then corroborate
it with the dictionary. Meanwhile the remaining 19.3% of students failed at guessing the
meaning of those words. This is due to the various equivalents that a word may have in
another language.

The previous situation is explained by (Fernandez de Bobadilla, 1999) who stated

that “the learner is not limited to find possible equivalents, but rather he/she obtains more
information about the searched term, for instance (complete definition, examples, additional
information, etc”. This author supports the idea of looking for a word definition in a bilingual
dictionary and finding other possible equivalents in the target language. Moreover,
Fernandez de Bobadilla established that “the learner is used to this type of dictionaries and
searches result being faster and more comfortable, because they offer the equivalent in
their mother tongue right away”.

Nevertheless, students need to be careful about what equivalent to choose as the

suitable meaning for the unknown word. As (Yorkey, 1982) suggested when looking for a

60
word students need to use the dictionary with care because if they do not present a wide
range of words, learners may find “false equivalents” leading learners to misunderstandings
as it happened in the present session. In general, the activity allowed students to find out
that meaning of a word in English, can be presented in many other meanings in Spanish.

Students’ attitude during this session was not the expected because they appeared
to be frustrated. Students did not know some words and misunderstanding gets students
desperate because they wanted to solve the exercises as quickly as they could. However,
unknown words impeded that process because there existed a great gap of knowledge.
Their attitude began to change from negative to positive when students started looking at
the words they already knew. They became more participative in the class and developed
the exercise better than at the beginning. When students were asked about the session
through the survey, at first 65% of students argued that the activity was not interesting for
them because they already knew how to look for the right meaning in a dictionary. This
position clearly changed when they were warned about the various equivalents a word could
present in another language.

Students’ opinion was really meaningful for the sake of this analysis. The positive
point of this session was that students at the end establish they learned to be aware when
looking up for meaning of a word in the dictionary. Students expressed “it is of extremely
importance to check well the meaning of the words in Spanish before using the unknown
word in English”. This idea, let the researcher think that the objective of the session was
accomplished, which was meant to make students aware of how words can have more than
one meaning or equivalent in another language and vice versa.

7.3.6. Session 6: contextual guessing

The following analysis is based on the results obtained from the application of the
sixth training session regarding contextual guessing. Contextual guessing was one of the
most important issues in this research project because it is a significant strategy that
gradually reduces the use of the dictionary and obliges students to guess meaning from
context. Students were required to guess meaning by means of using the steps proposed
in Thornbury’s book (2002). These steps allowed students to guess meaning through the
identification of the structure of words. Thus, important aspects will be taken into account
such as students’ opinion about the activity through a survey, the direct observation from
the researcher, and the recompilation of data gathered through the journal. The main

61
category to have in mind is to describe students’ performance and attitude during and after
the application of the dictionary training session as it is one of the specific aims proposed
for this study.

7.3.6.1. How students’ performance and attitude was during and after the application of
the training session about contextual guessing?

During this session students were required to analyze two short texts taken from
Way to Go 6th grade textbook. These short texts contained words which presented the right
characteristics to follow Thornbury’s steps. First, students were trained in how to guess the
meaning of words by explaining each one of the steps. Later in this analysis, there is an
explanation of what the impact of the instructions and the presentation of the activity was.
Second, students started to develop the activity with the short text number 1. This was done
with the companion of the researcher, which gave students tips to guess meaning correctly.
Finally, students were asked to develop the next activity about the analysis of short text
number 2. Students accomplished significant results working individually.

The results provided by the workshop let this project to find out that in the first activity
students reached a positive performance. This could be possible due to the accompaniment
from the researcher. As for the second activity, students’ performance changed because
they were working alone. Despite short text number 2 had more words to guess the
meaning, their form was completely different from words in short text number 1. The
structure allowed most of the students identify the grammatical category of the word. The
results from this activity showed that students understood the exercise despite working
alone. In word numbers 1, students guessed the meaning easily because the word was
similar to its equivalent in students’ mother tongue. In step number 5, students were asked
whether the word is similar or not in both languages, easing students’ process of guessing
meaning.

Another important issue was that in word number 2, students identified the
grammatical category of the word, but they were not capable to guess the literal meaning
from its structure. One strategy that most students expressed they developed to guess the
meaning of the word was that the picture in the text and the words surrounding the target
word were crucial to that process. For instance, the sentence “My mother’s a cook” appears
in the text and is illustrated with a picture. Consequently, students used step number 3 to
guess the meaning of the word “cook”. The fourth word was “preparing” this time students
were supposed to follow the steps to understand the meaning of the word. The main step

62
was number 5, which told students to figure out the similarity of the word in Spanish. Most
of students quickly understood the equivalent in Spanish for the word “prepare” was
“preparar”.

During this session students seemed to be anxious because they had not heard
about contextual guessing before. This time students had the researcher as a crucial
support, helping them when necessary. The researcher tried to offer an example on how to
follow Thornbury’s steps, which was of great help for students creating confidence to
develop activity number 2. The positive attitude of students towards the activity allowed
them to perform guessing meaning from context meaningfully.

The results of the survey applied after the session indicated students were not as
interested as the researcher had thought. There was an inclination for students to say that
the session was partly interesting with a 53.8% of contestants. Others said the activity was
highly interesting because they could learn what contextual guessing was with 42.3%.
Meanwhile, the remaining 3.9% of students said the session was not interesting because
they already knew about the topic.

Moreover, in question number 3, students said the activity was easy because paying
attention to the teacher’s explanation was vital to develop the exercises. The drawbacks of
this activity appeared in question number 5, when 75% of students expressed the activity
was not suitable for their English proficiency. Students had the opportunity to express their
opinion about the topic and the activity making answers a worrying matter. Some students
said the activity was difficult when they tried to guess meaning individually. They mentioned
that if they did it with their teacher the exercise was going to be a little better.

The following chart summarizes the six stages applied during these training
sessions on the use of the dictionary. Table 7.1 presents the number of sessions applied,
the objectives of each session, the main topic developed through it and the materials used
for the development of the session.

Table 7.1.
Summary of the application of the training sessions about dictionary skills.
Training Objectives Topic Materials
Session (Appendix IV)

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 1 To identify the main characteristics of General Board, computers with
dictionaries and their entries. Characteristics of software, power point
Dictionaries presentation,
2 To differentiate the grammatical Grammatical Board, computers with
categories of words in the dictionary. Categories (Parts of software,
Speech)
3 To use the dictionary to know the Syllables (Prefixes, Board, computers with
division of syllables in some words. Roots, and Suffixes) software.

4 To relate the phonetic symbols with the Pronunciation Board, computers with
pronunciation spelling forms and software, speakers.
words.
5 To find out how meaning is presented Meaning Board, computers with
and looked up in dictionaries. software.
To guess meaning of words and Contextual Guessing Board, computers with
6 sentences according to a series of software.
steps and the context.

7.4. Analysis on Questionnaire Likert

The applied questionnaire (Appendix I) to the 26 selected students according to the

aforementioned criteria in the sample population, yielded the necessary results that allowed
to accomplish one of the already established objectives in this study. This objective is
related to the design of activities using the dictionary (Oxford Pocket Genie): These results
are provided as in the following description:

Question 1: Attitude against the strengthening of the competencies.

Table 7.2.
Results about attitude against the strengthening of the competence.
Number Question Answer Results %
To apply activities of
1 Strongly agree. 14 53,84
reading comprehension
2 Agree. 10 38,46
1 using the dictionary
3 Neither agree nor disagree. 2 7,7
strengthen the learning
4 Disagree. 0 0
process in this
5 Strongly disagree. 0 0
competence.

64
 To start with, question 1 allows this research project to support itself on a basis
which establishes that “implementing activities of reading comprehension by using the
dictionary strengthens the learning of that competence”. Table 7.2, shows that the students
who took the survey established a clear tendency towards answers being strongly in
agreement with a 53.84%, some others mentioned they are in agreement with a total of
38.46%, while just 7.7% of the 26 students argue that they are neither in agreement nor in
disagreement with the aforementioned statement, and none of the students asserted to be
in disagreement with the question.

Taking into consideration the previous information, it is important for this research
project to highlight that the activities applied as strategies to improve the acquisition of
vocabulary and therefore the reading comprehension skill seem to be meaningful. The kind
of activities give students a significant perception about the improvement of their skills when
they tackle a short text as the results indicated. This can be clearly compared to the
description of the benefits of ICT’s given by UNESCO (2003), which established ICT’s have
contributed among other aspects, to the motivation, to improve teaching practices, and to
generate an growth in the academic performance of students, especially to the ones who
present more difficulties.

Question 2: Students’ insights against the use of a digital dictionary.

Results question 2

25
20
15
10
5
0
Insights against the use of a digital dictionary

Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree

Figure 7.6. Results question 2. Students’ insights against the use of a digital rather than
printed dictionary.

Previously the first question of this survey yielded significant results on the use of
dictionaries to develop reading comprehension exercises. Now, the second question of this
survey, which establishes that “developing reading exercises using a digital dictionary

65
increases the motivation for reading rather than using a printed dictionary”, as it is shown in
Figure 7.6, the tendency is more evident. This time 84.6% of students asserted being
strongly in agreement while the remaining 15.4% of students are just in agreement with the
question statement. However, none of the implied students answered not being in
disagreement with the statement. This clearly suggests as a fact that students prefer looking
up words on a digital dictionary rather than looking them up in printed ones.

The purpose of this question is supposed to provide us some knowledge about the
students’ inclination towards the development of activities by looking up unknown words on
digital resources. There are various reasons why students prefer this tool rather than
traditional or printed ones. Digital dictionaries such as the one used for this research (Oxford
Pocket Genie, 2011) gives students the opportunity to carry out searches in a more practical
and quicker way compared to searching a word in a printed dictionary. This is because OPG
(2011) allows students to type the word inside the index box. Another advantage is that it
offers the possibility to listen to the pronunciation of the word, which makes oral features be
acquired in a more meaningful way.

Question 3. Reading with pictures in the text and illustrated words in the dictionary.

Table 7.3.
Results students’ opinion on reading with pictures in the text and illustrated words in the
dictionary.
Number Question Answer Results %
Reading short texts with
pictures or looking up 1 Strongly agree. 13 50
unknown illustrated words 2 Agree. 11 42,3
3
in the dictionary allow you 3 Neither agree nor disagree. 2 7,7
to read with more 4 Disagree. 0 0
dedication and eases 5 Strongly disagree. 0 0
comprehension.

The previous question interrogates students about the impact of short texts and
reading in general with pictures. Once more, in table 7.3 it is evident that students have a
tendency to be in agreement with this kind of texts as well as the benefits of looking up for
unknown words in a dictionary with the aid of illustrated terms. In other words, for students
this kind of activities give them a better and easy way to comprehend meaningfully what

66
they are reading. Reading by using pictures in different manners, helps student to develop
exercises with more dedication as the statement suggests.

The results obtained in question 3 give this research a positive outcome based on
students’ interests. More than 60% of students asserted that reading texts with the aid of
pictures helps them develop a more meaningful exercise while reading. This question is
related to visualization and the dual-code theory of reading. The first issue was stated by
Moore (n.d) who indicates that knowing a word by images is a key component when reading.
It is also clear that students have a great advantage in reading when they are able to carry
out a construction of a mental image. This is of extremely importance because students
promote significant practices and therefore they are comprehending short texts
meaningfully. The support that a dictionary provides in looking for mental images and
meaning in first contact with new words is crucial. Little by little students continue creating
those mental images which according to Wooley (2010) are fluid and change as the reader
constantly assimilates new text.

The assimilation of the word and the picture is vital for reading comprehension. This
is why it is important to recall Sadoski & Paivio’s work, (2004, p. 1329-1362) which claim
the dual-coding theory is a special feature of visual representation of verbal information and
objects to create meaning. Once students create meaning and assimilate written or verbal
information with a mental image, then they are reading comprehensively.

Question 4. Reading comprehension using digital resources in English classes.

Table 7.4.
Results students’ opinion on using digital resources in English classes.
Number Question Answer Results %
Using digital resources in 1 Strongly agree. 18 69,2
English classes helps the 2 Agree. 7 26,9
4
development of reading 3 Neither agree nor disagree. 1 3,9
comprehension. 4 Disagree. 0 0
5 Strongly disagree. 0 0

In question 4, shown through table 7.4, students were asked about their
perspectives against the use of digital resources such as the dictionary to develop reading
comprehension activities. The aim was to know if this kind of tools allowed students to
improve their abilities of reading comprehension. Almost the total number of possible

67
answers were positive stating they are either strongly in agreement or in agreement with
that declaration. Only 3.9 percent of students asserted they are neither in agreement nor in
disagreement with the current question. The most important issue in this question is that
none of the students were in disagreement. It is possible to say that there exists a students’
clear acceptation against the use of technological resources in English classes and that
they affect in a very positive way the improvement of their abilities.

This perception provided by students helps this research to support itself on the use
of ICT’s. In this way, it has a relationship with the ideas exposed by Calderón (2013, p, 2),
who highlights the use of ICT’s helps the creation of reading habits, and to motivate and
improve the process of learning how to read. This is to say that students’ perceptions are in
agreement with what the authors stated in their theories exposed in the theoretical
background.

Question 5. Developing the sessions about dictionary features helped you

understand, improve, and carry out better searches and therefore improve reading
comprehension.

Table 7.5.
Results on students’ opinion on the development of the sessions about dictionary features.
Number Question Answer Results %
Developing the sessions
about dictionary features 1 Strongly agree. 24 92,3
helped you understand, 2 Agree. 2 7,7
5
improve, and carry out 3 Neither agree nor disagree. 0 0
better searches and 4 Disagree. 0 0
therefore improve reading 5 Strongly disagree. 0 0
comprehension.

The results shown through table 7.5 allow this research to understand students’
inclination in a positive way to the development of the training sessions about dictionary
features. The question asked students if the 6 sessions worked as strategies to understand,
improve and carry out better searches when using dictionaries. The results show a 92,7 %
of students who chose they were strongly in agreement, while the remaining 7,7 % chose
they were just in agreement with the statement.

68
 It is important to highlight that students in the first survey expressed they already
knew how to look up for a word in a dictionary. However, the reality was totally different
from what they thought using a dictionary implied. This is to say that most of students claim
to know this ability, but they just focus on the meaning or equivalent of the word in their
mother tongue, which is a small aspect to have in mind when searching a new word. After
the six sessions, students acquired enough training on what makes a dictionary and how to
use it. Up to now, they were able to experience through the different workshops aspects
regarding general characteristics of dictionaries, grammatical categories (parts of speech),
syllables/parts (prefixes, roots, and suffixes), pronunciation (along with phonetic symbols),
meaning (definition and examples), and contextual guessing.

All the previous features are necessary for students to develop meaningful searches
from now on this can be contrasted with the following definition on the benefits of the correct
use of the dictionary provided by Callisaya (2000, p. 24-38), who states that dictionaries
“help students enrich vocabulary, master the capacity of oral and written expression, and
deepen the study and the use of language grammar”. Additionally, this author points out
that “people’s mental development is strongly linked to the acquisition of lexical items of the
language”.

7.5. Analysis of Final Test

In the initial analysis regarding the diagnostic test it was possible to establish that
students were placed in a literal level of comprehension when reading a short text. This
means students were capable of extracting information which is explicit, related to the form
of the words or specific data. However, when they were asked to infer meaning of words or
phrases they were unable. This idea claims that students did not reach the inferential level
of comprehension. After that, students have experienced a six-session training process in
which they were supposed to acquire the enough strategies as for developing a better
understanding of short texts. This time is possible to evaluate students’ performance after
the application of a final test with the aim of finding possible improvements in the way
students face a short text in English.

The first text in the final test was based on a sentence completion exercise. Students
had the possibility to choose a variety of the words to fill the blanks. This time, students had
the opportunity of using the computer with the digital dictionary. The advantage of having
this tool benefited students because they could look for meaning of some words they did

69
not know. Compared to the diagnostic test, students did not become peevish when they got
lost, they seemed to be a little more patient. In general students developed the activity with
less difficulty than the diagnostic test. In terms of quantitative results, in the first exercise
were positive with 61.5% of students with the total of correct answers. The rest 39.5% of
students failed at least in one answer.

The second text presented an exercise related to gap filling with prefixes and
suffixes. With this exercise it was possible to establish that most of the students understood
the function of affixes to change the meaning of words. As students already knew the
change in meaning of each affix, the activity was simpler for them. They just needed to look
for unknown words to add the correct prefix or suffix. The results in this exercise was
remarkable with a total of 92.3% of students with correct answers.

The third text was arising in importance because it referred to the literal level of
comprehension in the reading process. According to the diagnostic test, students were
placed in this level of comprehension because they were able to extract information
regarding the form or explicit data from the text. In this way, students were expected to
answer these four questions without any problems. Therefore, students faced the text and
the results are not far from what the research estimated. As questions contained key words
to look for in the text, students found a great advantage. Thus, 84.6% of students answered
the questions correctly, despite not writing the full sentences. At least, students were able
to write two or more words to show the understanding of the sentences and the text.

With the previous information, it is possible to point out that most of students
developed the activity correctly which improved in quantity compared to the diagnostic test.
Possible reasons are due to the help the digital dictionary offered. This time the results are
in accordance with what Gordillo and Florez suggested (2009, p. 95-107), students are
capable of extracting key words, to establish some main ideas without using cognitive
structures.

The fourth text was the most meaningful because it contained various aspects
surrounding the reading process. This time, the text was planned to evaluate if students
had improved in the literal level or comprehension as in the third exercise, and also if they
had acquired the strategies of contextual guessing and inferring meaning. The text was
taken out of the Way to go textbook, but questions were modified on purpose. The first two
questions evaluated the literal level of comprehension, while the third and fifth questions
were about the inferential level. The fourth question asked students for information

70
regarding meaning of the word “sewing” mentioned explicitly in the text. However, the
meaning of that word was not exposed literally, but through a picture. Students were trained
on the contextual guessing strategy which they may have used to know the meaning of the
word in question.

71
 8. CONCLUSIONS

After the application of the six cycles, the gathering and discussion of results, it is
possible to establish some conclusions. This research study has intended to promote the
use of dictionaries to understand short texts in English through a series of training sessions
on this tool and how to use it. This project also highlights the strategy of contextual guessing,
which offers a great support for students to approach texts. It is important to have in mind
that this project is just another of the many guides for students in the path of acquiring
abilities to use a meaningful tool such as the dictionary to struggle in the understanding of
texts in a second language. It is also remarkable that this project does not intend to present
the dictionary as a unique resource to understand short texts, but it may work to warn
students about the many possibilities of meaning that words present and how to figure it
out. With the previous idea in mind, it is possible to present the conclusions derived from
this project and the application of the training sessions.

Students’ performance and attitude in the development of the project varied session
by session. As sessions were developed, students reduced their negative feelings such as
rejection to the activities showed during the observation stage and the diagnostic test when
they were required to approach different texts trying to answer some questions. This
happened mainly because students did not have enough capabilities nor resources to
support their reading process. The difficulties students presented during the observation
stage, the survey and the diagnostic test gave the research the impression that reading was
one task traditionally forgotten by students and their families’ culture. Students’ attitude was
evidenced by their low interest in reading, mainly because they are used to other habits out
of the academic surroundings, with tasks related to agriculture and house chores.

During the application of the training sessions, student’s attitude and performance
in reading was affected by the researcher’s activities. During the first training session
students felt a little nervous and anxious, but in general their attitude was positive. The first
step in the session was to identify the main parts of the dictionary through the power point
presentation to learn how the main entries were presented and the characteristics of
dictionaries. Students showed great interest in the activity and they appeared to be attentive
to the instructions from the teacher. During the workshop students were supposed to identify
the main parts of the main entries. The results in this activity showed that most of the
students were able to identify the main parts of entries while some of them needed to work
on this issue. Some students expressed that the session was fruitful because it allowed

72
them to identify special aspects of dictionaries that they did not know before such as the
symbols for pronunciation which were the main focus of surprise for them.

The second session was about the identification of the grammatical abbreviations
in dictionaries. One advantage of this session was that students already knew some of the
categories which are similar in Spanish. This is why they apparently found this activity not
as challenging as the researcher expected to be. The construction of the definitions on
behalf of the learners was really important because they showed outstanding background
information on these elements of the language. Some students were also able to establish
patterns according to the form of the words such as the ending of adjectives or verbs. It was
possible to perceive students worked looking for word structures and generalizing their
meanings according to their endings such as –ful for adjectives or –ing for verbs. As soon
as they started looking at other words they immediately realized they were adjectives or
verbs which guided them to look for a description or an action. This process is regarded as
meaningful for students compared to what they knew during the diagnostic stage, showing
improvement.

Students’ performance in the activity was also significant. They tended to answer
the workshop questions in the best way. Students showed positive results with an
understanding of the topic and most of them were able to identify the grammatical
categories of words. In general terms, students’ attitude was optimistic due to the
competition they created in the process of looking up for words. They started to look up
words in the dictionary and it woke up their competitive spirit. Some of them finished quickly
the process of finding the words; others had some problems which were solved by the
researcher’s support, which was crucial in these activities. Students worked independently;
others, required to work in cooperation with the high achievers.

In the third session students showed a great impression about the topic. At first they
did not know that words were constructed by adding extra parts of speech like prefixes and
suffixes to the main part of the word, which is the root. In this way, they realized this process
would create new meanings to the main sense of the word. This produced an impact on
students because meaning changed with just the addition of some letters. During the
workshop, the teacher explained students that they were going to look up some words on
Oxford Pocket Genie on their computers. They had to look up the words and establish the
quantity of syllables per each word. One problem that emerged when students were about
to carry out the searching process was that the dictionary does not show the division of
syllables, this was supposed to be checked beforehand but this was the main deficiency of

73
the session. Thus, it was necessary to look for a printed dictionary to help students identify
the syllables. After that, students needed to classify the words taking into account the
number of syllables. It was a fruitful session because students could develop the activity
using the dictionary and understanding the meaning that each prefix or suffix created.
Students’ performance on the activity was meaningful due to the understanding they could
reach about the division of syllables and the formation of new meanings beginning from the
root word.

The survey for this training session assured most of students said this activity was
highly interesting because it allowed them to identify the number of syllables and how words
could change their meanings just by adding or removing a prefix or suffix. Also, students
stated the activity promoted motivation because instructions were easy to follow and
understand. Additionally, students were inclined to choose that the most exciting part of the
activity was about changing the meaning of the words just by adding some pre-established
words such as pre-, dis-, under, in the case of prefixes and -less, -est, -able, -full, in the
case of the suffixes.

As pronunciation involves features that students cannot process in one single class,
the focus of the research allowed the recognition of sounds present in words such as
consonant and vowel sounds, leaving other more advanced aspects such as rhythm and
intonation aside. In this way, students reviewed the twenty vowel sounds in English and
developed an assimilation of the sound with the written letters. Moreover, students also
reviewed the twenty four consonant sounds. Both vowels and consonants had a drawing
that illustrated an object or animal’s pronunciation that contained that sound.

The results of the application of the workshop in this session varied because of the
difficulties that phonetic symbols produced. There were many sounds to learn in one class,
that was the main drawback. Despite most of students appeared not to understand
thoroughly the symbols, they tried to develop the activity as usually. The quantitative results
were not what the researcher expected, but overall the main objective of the session was
accomplished. Consequently, students from this session on are aware of the benefits of
learning the phonetic symbols because they help figure out the pronunciation of words in
English or any other language.

In general, at the beginning of the pronunciation session students felt motivated

because of the pictures and the sounds provided through the consonant and vowel charts.
Students repeated and seemed to be learning the sounds of English. Nevertheless,

74
students were not able to place words with their right sound. This situation was foreseeable
because students could not figure out the spelling of words in order to identify which sound
fitted in them. The main problem occurred when students had to differentiate vowel sounds,
which are highly confusing and even more difficult than consonants.

However, most of students felt the activity was interesting because in this way they
could find out how each word was pronounced. In addition, students gave a positive opinion
about ICT’s because students commented the activity motivated them to participate in the
class and one advantage was having the support of computers. This idea can be contrasted
with UNESCO (2003), which established ICT’s have contributed among other aspects, to
the motivation, to improve teaching practices, and to generate a growth in the academic
performance of students, especially to the ones who present more difficulties.

Students gave their opinion on the benefits provided by the phonetic symbols. They
pointed out that “phonetic symbols help them pronounce words in a better way”. Apart from
stating that the activity gave them the opportunity to use the digital dictionary, they also
affirmed that knowing how to pronounce a word “is important because in that way we can
communicate better”. Opinions given by students helped the research understand that there
was a positive attitude about the activity. Students saw the activity as a positive manner of
interpreting sounds in English through phonetic symbols in order to pronounce words similar
to how native speakers would do.

From the fifth workshop students found significant difficulties because they did not
know anything about the meaning of some words. Thus, they had to go to the dictionary to
look up the meaning of those problematic terms in order to understand sentences and words
in a context. On one hand the positive side of the activity was that 60% of the target words
were known for students because those words had been worked in previous lessons. While
80.7% of students were able to guess the meaning of those words, the rest of students
failed. This is due to the various equivalents that a word may have in another language.
One problem that emerged with bilingual dictionaries was that it offered a series of
equivalents in students’ mother tongue. Students’ felt confused because they did not know
what equivalent meaning to choose.

Fernandez de Bobadilla, 1999 established that “the learner is used to this type of
dictionaries and searches result being faster and more comfortable because they offer the
equivalent in their mother tongue right away”. This research has found this situation as a
worrying problem, therefore learners need to use the dictionary with care as (Yorkey, 1982)

75
suggested “learners may find ‘false equivalents’ leading to misunderstandings”. In general,
the activity allowed students to find out that meaning of a word in English, can be presented
in many other meanings in Spanish, which obliges them to be aware of what equivalent to
choose.

Students’ attitude during this session was not the expected because they appeared
to be frustrated. Students did not know some words and misunderstanding gets students
desperate because they wanted to solve the exercises quickly. However, unknown words
impeded that process because there existed a great gap of knowledge. Their attitude began
to change from negative to positive when students started looking at the words they already
knew. They became more participative in the class and developed the exercise better than
at the beginning. When students were asked about the session through the survey, at first
65% of students argued that the activity was not interesting for them because they already
knew how to look for the right meaning in a dictionary. This position clearly changed when
they were warned about the various equivalents a word could present in another language.

Students’ opinion was really meaningful for the sake of this analysis. The positive
point of this session was that students at the end established they learned to be aware when
looking up for meaning of a word in the dictionary. Students expressed “it is of extremely
importance to check well the meaning of the words in Spanish before using the unknown
word in English”. This idea, allowed the research to assume that the objective of the session
was accomplished, which was meant to make students aware of how words can have more
than one meaning or equivalent in another language and vice versa.

During the last session students were also trained in how to guess the meaning of
words by explaining each one of Thornbury’s steps. In the first activity students reached a
positive performance due to the accompaniment from the researcher. As for the second
activity, students’ performance reduced because they were working alone. One strategy
that most students expressed they used to guess the meaning of the word was that the
picture in the text and the words surrounding the target word were crucial to that process.
Another advantage students found through this strategy was the similarity in form of the
words in both languages.

In this session students seemed to be anxious because they had not heard about
contextual guessing before. The researcher tried to offer an example on how to follow
Thornbury’s steps, which was of great help for students creating confidence to develop
activity number 2. The positive attitude of students towards the activity allowed them to

76
perform guessing meaning from context meaningfully. The results of the survey applied
after the session indicated students were not as interested as the researcher had thought.
The drawbacks of this activity appeared in question number 5, when 75% of students
expressed the activity was not suitable for their English proficiency. Students had the
opportunity to express their opinion about the topic and the activity making answers a
worrying matter. Some students said the activity was difficult when they tried to guess
meaning individually. They mentioned that if they did it with their teacher the exercise was
going to be a little better.

In the initial analysis regarding the diagnostic test students were placed at a literal
level of comprehension when reading a short text in English. In contrast, students in the
final test did not become peevish when they got lost, but rather seemed to be a little more
patient. In general students developed the activity with less difficulty than in the diagnostic
test. Quantitative results were positive in comparison to the results in the diagnostic test.
The final test also evaluated the use of prefixes and suffixes. It was possible to establish
that most of the students understood the function of affixes to change the meaning of words.
As students already knew the change in meaning of each affix, the activity was simpler for
them.

Even though students were placed at a literal level in the diagnostic test, in the final
test students presented a significant improvement. Thus, most students showed
understanding and it was possible to point out that most of students developed the activity
correctly improving meaningfully compared to the diagnostic test. Possible reasons are due
to the help the digital dictionary offered. This time results were as expected with students
capable of extracting key words to establish some main ideas to infer meaning from context.
The test also asked students for information regarding meaning of the word “sewing”
mentioned explicitly in the text. However, the meaning of that word was not exposed literally,
but through a picture. Students were trained on the contextual guessing strategy which they
may have used to know the meaning of the word in question correctly.

Students’ opinion in the final survey of this research project highlights that the
activities applied as strategies to improve the acquisition of vocabulary and therefore the
reading comprehension skill were meaningful. The kind of activities gave students a
significant perception about the improvement of their skills when they tackled a short text
as the results indicated. The previous idea supports the statement that the training sessions
about dictionary use as well as contextual guessing strategy are meaningful and help
students promote better reading comprehension of short texts in English, strengthening the

77
learning process in this competence. Moreover, most of students asserted that developing
reading exercises using a digital dictionary increases the motivation for reading rather than
using a printed dictionary. This clearly suggests as a fact that students prefer looking up
words on a digital dictionary rather than looking them up in printed ones. Advantages of
digital dictionaries could be faster searches as well as the opportunity to listen to the
pronunciation of the words (which makes oral features be acquired in a more significant
way), while in printed dictionaries are not possible.

It is evident that students are in agreement with texts with illustrations and the
benefits of looking up for unknown words in a dictionary with the aid of illustrated terms and
that helps them develop a more meaningful exercise while reading. Reading by using
pictures in different manners, helps students develop exercises with more dedication. In
other words, for students this kind of activities gives them a better and easy way to
comprehend meaningfully what they are reading. It is also clear that students have a great
advantage in reading when they are able to carry out a construction of a mental image. The
assimilation of the word and the picture is vital for reading comprehension. This is why it is
important to recall Sadoski & Paivio’s work, (2004, p. 1329-1362) which claim the dual-
coding theory is a special feature of visual representation of verbal information and objects
to create meaning. Once students create meaning and assimilate written or verbal
information with a mental image, then they are reading comprehensively.

It is possible to say that there exists a students’ clear acceptation towards the use
of technological resources in English classes and that they affect in a very positive way the
improvement of their abilities. This perception provided by students helps this research to
support itself on the use of ICT’s. In this way, it has a relationship with the ideas exposed
by Calderón (2013, p, 2), who highlights the use of ICT’s helps the creation of reading
habits, and to motivate and improve the process of learning how to read.

Before the implementation of the training sessions, students possessed a

misconception about how to develop searches in dictionaries, but after the six sessions,
students acquired enough training on what makes a dictionary and how to use it. Up to now,
they were able to experience through the different workshops various aspects regarding
general characteristics of dictionaries, grammatical categories, syllables/parts of speech,
pronunciation, meaning, and contextual guessing. All the previous features are necessary
for students to develop meaningful searches from now on, this can be contrasted with the
following definition about the benefits of the correct use of the dictionary provided by
Callisaya (2000, p. 24-38), who states that dictionaries “help students enrich vocabulary,

78
master the capacity of oral and written expression, and deepen the study and the use of
language grammar”. Additionally, this author points out that “people’s mental development
is strongly linked to the acquisition of lexical items of the language”.

Apart from the difficulties already pointed in the previous conclusions it is important
make emphasis on the following. The most relevant drawbacks of this research were related
to logistics and students’ proficiency in English. In session one, while students were waiting
for the researchers’ instructions an unexpected problem influenced the development of the
session. There was a lack of current energy to start up the computers on which students
were supposed to watch the presentation and therefore to look up for unknown words. This
is possibly a great disadvantage of using digital tools because they are useless if there is
no current energy while printed materials are ready to use. Another problem was related to
the quantity of vowel and consonant sounds in English. Despite students developed the
activity, that amount of items did not allow the activity to yield the expected results because
phonetic symbols were too many for students. That is why this research has concluded the
session in pronunciation was meant to a higher grade, not sixth graders.

For future research projects it is advisable to warn the possible downsides in terms
of logistic issues such as the lack of current energy for digital resources. Undoubtedly, digital
tools have become a great help in education these days, but they depend on uncontrollable
variables. Therefore, teachers and researchers should opt to design back up plans that
meet the needs of the research. Another piece of advice found from this research is to
choose the right topics for the participants. Challenging topics or the level of difficulty make
research projects not to yield expected results as happened in the present study with
pronunciation symbols.

This research could be improved for future replication by considering the previous
ideas. Another issue to improve is about the workshops design, which can be adapted in
terms of illustrations to make them more pleasant for learners. In the case of reading
comprehension, it is advisable to tackle a specific problem with a specific strategy, such as
contextual guessing developed in this research. Last but not least, it is the issue of time
which at public institutions is scarce. If learners had the possibility to develop these activities
every day, the results would be different.

Finally, it is important to suggest related topics for further research. Regarding the
present study, it would be interesting to find out the number of institutions using digital
dictionaries and how they use them as well as the impact they have had in students’ reading

79
processes. Other topics is how pronunciation is taught in other schools accompanied by
rhythm and intonation. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to research on how institutions
are aware of reading strategies and which of them are they currently developing. Lastly, the
topic related to this research which is remarkable is contextual guessing, which is a difficult
strategy but one that students should develop as second language learners.

80
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 10. APPENDICES

Appendix I: Surveys

INSTITUCIÓN EDUCATIVA SAN JOSÉ

OPORAPA – HUILA
ENCUESTA A ESTUDIANTES
Nombre: __________________________________________________ Fecha: _____________

Objetivo principal de la investigación: Analizar el uso del diccionario como herramienta para
mejorar la comprensión lectora de textos cortos en estudiantes de grado sexto de la Institución
Educativa San José de Oporapa – Huila.

Objetivo de la encuesta: Identificar las habilidades, actitudes e intereses que presentan los
estudiantes frente al uso del diccionario en clase para la comprensión de textos cortos en inglés, de
tal manera que contribuyan al diseño de las actividades propuestas en esta investigación.

Indicaciones: las siguientes preguntas se realizan con el fin de conocer tus expectativas acerca de
implementar actividades usando el diccionario en clase, por lo tanto no tiene ninguna calificación.

Elija la opción de su preferencia y marque la respuesta con una “X”.

1. ¿Te gusta el inglés?
Si: ______ No: _____ ¿Por qué? _____________________________________________

2. ¿Qué te parece aprender inglés?

Fácil: _____ Difícil:_____ Otro: _____________________________________________

3. Cuando en clase te presentan un lectura en inglés con el objetivo de responder unas

preguntas sobre ella, tu sentimiento hacia ella es:
a. Revisas el texto para saber qué tan largo está
b. Te interesa e inicias a leer detenidamente
c. Te frustras porque no te sientes capacitado para leer

4. Para ti, participar en actividades que te enseñen cómo usar en el diccionario de inglés
te resulta:
a. Interesante porque todavía no sé cómo usar un diccionario
b. Igual porque ya sé usar un diccionario
c. Aburrido porque los diccionarios son difíciles de usar

5. Tus ratos libres los dedicas a:

a. Leer
b. Jugar en computador
c. Escuchar música
d. Otra. ¿Cuál? __________________________________________

6. ¿Cuál es tu opinión frente a las clases que usan el computador para su desarrollo?
a. Me producen mucha curiosidad
b. Me aburren absolutamente
c. Me interesan más que las clases en el salón

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 7. ¿Cuál es tu opinión si te enteras que en las clases de inglés se usará el diccionario
digital para entender los textos cortos?
a. Me motivaría a desarrollar las actividades
b. Me resulta igual
c. Me desmotiva completamente

Survey session 2: características generales de los diccionarios.

ENCUESTA 1 DIRIGIDA A ESTUDIANTES
TALLER: “CARACTERÍSTICAS GENERALES DE LOS DICCIONARIOS”

Objetivo: Obtener información desde la percepción de los estudiantes con respecto al uso
del diccionario en las clases de inglés.

Instrucciones: marque con una “X” su respuesta.

1. ¿Qué tan interesante resultó para usted la explicación del diccionario y sus partes
en la clase de inglés?
a) Muy interesante porque hay cosas que no conocía.
b) Algo interesante.
c) Poco interesante, porque ya sabía qué era cada aspecto.

2. ¿La actividad lo motivó para participar en la clase de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No

3. ¿Las instrucciones de la sesión fueron claras y fáciles de entender?

a) Sí
b) No

4. ¿Realizar el ejercicio te pareció fácil?

a) Sí
b) No
¿Por qué?___________________________________________________

5. ¿Cree que esta actividad le ayudó a comprender la estructura y búsqueda de

palabras?
a) Sí
b) No

6. ¿La actividad lo motivó a utilizar el diccionario para buscar palabras desconocidas?

a) Sí
b) No

7. ¿Le pareció apropiada la actividad para su nivel de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No

8. Escriba algunas sugerencias para mejorar el desarrollo de las actividades.

_________________________________________________________________

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 _________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Gracias por su colaboración! 

Survey session 2: grammatical categories (parts of speech).

ENCUESTA 2 DIRIGIDA A ESTUDIANTES
TALLER: “CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES”

Objetivo: Obtener información desde la percepción de los estudiantes con respecto al uso
del diccionario en las clases de inglés.

Instrucciones: marque con una “X” su respuesta.

1. ¿Qué tan interesante resultó para usted la explicación de las categorías
gramaticales?
a) Muy interesante porque no las conocía.
b) Algo interesante.
c) Poco interesante, porque ya sabía qué era cada una.

2. ¿La actividad lo motivó para participar en la clase de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No

3. ¿Las instrucciones de la sesión fueron claras y fáciles de entender?

a) Sí
b) No

4. ¿Realizar el ejercicio te pareció fácil?

a) Sí
b) No
¿Por qué?___________________________________________________

5. ¿Cree que esta actividad le ayudó a comprender que las palabras pertenecen a
diferentes categorías gramaticales y que cada una tiene funciones diferentes?
a) Sí
b) No

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 6. ¿La actividad lo motivó a utilizar el diccionario para buscar palabras desconocidas?
a) Sí
b) No

7. ¿Le pareció apropiada la actividad para su nivel de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No
Gracias por su colaboración! 

Survey session 3: syllables/parts (prefixes, roots, and suffixes).

ENCUESTA 3 DIRIGIDA A ESTUDIANTES
TALLER: “SILABAS/PARTES (PREFIJOS, RAÍZ, Y SUFIJOS)”

Objetivo: Obtener información desde la percepción de los estudiantes con respecto al uso
del diccionario en las clases de inglés.

Instrucciones: marque con una “X” su respuesta.

1. ¿Qué tan interesante resultó para usted la explicación de la división de sílabas y de
las partes de las palabras?
a) Muy interesante porque así identificamos cuántas sílabas tienen las palabras.
b) Algo interesante.
c) Poco interesante, porque ya sabía cómo se dividían y qué partes tenían las
palabras.

2. ¿La actividad lo motivó para participar en la clase de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No

3. ¿Las instrucciones de la sesión fueron claras y fáciles de entender?

a) Sí
b) No

4. ¿Realizar el ejercicio te pareció fácil?

a) Sí
b) No
¿Por qué?___________________________________________________

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 5. ¿Cree que esta actividad le ayudó a conocer cómo podemos cambiar el significado
de las palabras agregando unas letras?
a) Sí
b) No

6. ¿La actividad lo motivó a utilizar el diccionario para buscar palabras desconocidas?

a) Sí
b) No

7. ¿Le pareció apropiada la actividad para su nivel de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No
Gracias por su colaboración! 

Survey session 4: pronunciation (along with phonetic symbols).

ENCUESTA 4 DIRIGIDA A ESTUDIANTES
TALLER: “PRONUNCIACIÓN USANDO SÍMBOLOS FONÉTICOS”

Objetivo: Obtener información desde la percepción de los estudiantes con respecto al uso
del diccionario en las clases de inglés.

Instrucciones: marque con una “X” su respuesta.

1. ¿Qué tan interesante resultó para usted la explicación sobre la pronunciación y los
símbolos fonéticos?
a) Muy interesante porque así identificamos cómo suena cada palabra.
b) Algo interesante.
c) Poco interesante, porque ya sé cómo suena cada símbolo.

2. ¿La actividad lo motivó para participar en la clase de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No

3. ¿Realizar el ejercicio te pareció fácil?

a) Sí
b) No
¿Por qué?________________________________________________________

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 4. ¿Cree que esta actividad le ayudó a comprender que la pronunciación de las
palabras se representan mediante símbolos?
a) Sí
b) No
¿Por qué?________________________________________________________

5. ¿La actividad le permitió usar el diccionario para practicar la pronunciación de las

palabras con los sonidos?
a) Sí
b) No

6. ¿Le pareció apropiada la actividad para su nivel de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No

Haga un comentario sobre la importancia de saber pronunciar las palabras en inglés.

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

Gracias por su colaboración! 

Survey session 5: meaning (definition and examples).

ENCUESTA 5 DIRIGIDA A ESTUDIANTES
TALLER: “SIGNIFICADO (DEFINICIÓN Y EJEMPLOS)”

Objetivo: Obtener información desde la percepción de los estudiantes con respecto al uso
del diccionario en las clases de inglés.
Instrucciones: marque con una “X” su respuesta.
1. ¿Qué tan interesante resultó para usted la explicación sobre definiciones y
ejemplos?
a) Muy interesante porque aprendimos a buscar significados.
b) Algo interesante.
c) Poco interesante porque ya sé cómo buscar significados.

2. ¿La actividad lo motivó para participar en la clase de inglés?

a) Sí

92
 b) No

3. ¿Realizar el ejercicio te pareció fácil?

a) Sí
b) No
¿Por qué?______________________________________________________

4. ¿Cree que esta actividad le ayudó a comprender la búsqueda de significados?

a) Sí
b) No
¿Por qué?______________________________________________________

5. ¿Le pareció apropiada la actividad para su nivel de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No

Escriba algunas sugerencias sobre la búsqueda de significados en el diccionario.

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Gracias por su colaboración! 

Survey session 6: contextual guessing.

ENCUESTA 6 DIRIGIDA A ESTUDIANTES
TALLER: “CONTEXTUAL GUESSING”

Objetivo: Obtener información desde la percepción de los estudiantes con respecto al uso
del diccionario en las clases de inglés.
Instrucciones: marque con una “X” su respuesta.
1. ¿Qué tan interesante resultó para usted la explicación sobre contextual guessing?
a) Muy interesante porque conocimos qué era.
b) Algo interesante.
c) Poco interesante porque ya sabía que era.

2. ¿La actividad lo motivó para participar en la clase de inglés?

a) Sí

93
 b) No

3. ¿Realizar el ejercicio te pareció fácil?

a) Sí
b) No
¿Por qué?______________________________________________________

4. ¿Cree que esta actividad le ayudó a comprender cómo podemos adivinar el

significado de una palabra a través de su contexto?
a) Sí
b) No
¿Por qué?______________________________________________________

5. ¿Le pareció apropiada la actividad para su nivel de inglés?

a) Sí
b) No

Escriba una opinión sobre la actividad de contextual guessing. ¿Qué tan importante es
saber adivinar el significado de una palabra a través del contexto?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Gracias por su colaboración! 

Survey Likert on general aspects of reading comprehension and dictionary sessions.

INSTITUCIÓN EDUCATIVA SAN JOSÉ
OPORAPA – HUILA
Nombre completo: _____________________________________________________

Tema: uso del diccionario como un recurso para mejorar la comprensión de lectura de
textos cortos en estudiantes del grado sexto de la Institución Educativa San José del
municipio de Oporapa, Huila.

Objetivo: recolectar información proveniente de los estudiantes acerca del uso del
diccionario y cómo éste ayuda al mejoramiento de las habilidades de comprensión de
textos cortos en inglés.

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La calificación para cada uno de los ítems propuestos, se hace teniendo como referencia
la siguiente escala:
Grado de satisfacción Valoración
Totalmente de acuerdo 5
De acuerdo 4
Ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo 3
En desacuerdo 2
Totalmente en desacuerdo 1

A continuación, se presentan una serie de preguntas, por favor leer detenidamente y

contestar con objetividad con una X en la casilla correspondiente:

Preguntas sobre forma del instrumento 5 4 3 2 1

1. ¿Aplicar actividades de comprensión de lectura usando el
diccionario fortalece el proceso de aprendizaje en esta
competencia?
2. ¿Desarrollar ejercicios de lectura usando el diccionario
digital incrementa la motivación por la lectura en lugar de
usar un diccionario impreso?
3. ¿Leer textos cortos con imágenes o buscar palabras en el
diccionario que están ilustradas te permite leer con mayor
dedicación y facilita la comprensión?
4. ¿Usar herramientas digitales en las clases de inglés ayuda
al desarrollo de las habilidades de comprensión de lectura?
5. ¿Desarrollar las sesiones acerca de las características del
diccionario ayuda a entender, mejorar, y llevar a cabo
mejores búsquedas y por lo tanto mejorar la comprensión
de lectura?

Appendix II: Diagnostic Test

FORMATO TEST DIAGNÓSTICO INSTITUCIÓN EDUCATIVA SAN JOSÉ

OPORAPA – HUILA

Objetivo: evaluar las capacidades de comprensión lectora de textos cortos a través de

preguntas de selección múltiple, completar oraciones, e información específica.

95
 1. Read the text and rewrite the idea using adverbs of frequency.

2. Complete Marta’s daily routine with the verbs from the box. Remember to use the
verbs in the correct form. Then, choose the correct answer.

2.1. What does Marta do at 5:00?

a. She has breakfast.
b. She takes a shower.
c. She wakes up.

2.2. Who takes a shower at 5:15?

a. The sister
b. Marta
c. Marta and her sister.

2.3. What time does the school starts?

a. 6:20 am.
b. 7:00 am.

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 c. 5:50 am.

3. Look at Cecilia’s notes about her classmates’ homes and answer the questions.

Source of exercises: Source: Way to Go 6th: workbook, M.E.N. (2016, p. 8, 9, 96.)

Appendix III: Journal

FORMATO DIARIO DE CAMPO

INSITUCIÓN EDUCATIVA SAN JOSÉ
OPORAPA – HUILA

Objetivo: colectar información proveniente de los estudiantes y su desempeño en el área

de inglés teniendo en cuenta la observación de situaciones cotidianas que se llevan a
cabo en el aula de clase.

Lugar Hora Fecha

Descripciónlzkdz
del ambiente y
condiciones
iniciales
Momentos de la Descripción general
clase Ítem Observaciones

97
 Inicio Descripción
general de la
actividad:

Indicaciones
para su
desarrollo:

Objetivos de la
clase:

Desarrollo 1. Materiales
usados:

2. Herramientas
tecnológicas
usadas:

3. Rol del
docente:

4. Rol de los
estudiantes:

5. Descripción
detallada de la
interacción de
los
estudiantes
con las
herramientas:

Conclusión Conclusiones
de la clase:

Appendix IV: Workshops

Session 1: workshop on general characteristics of dictionaries.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DICTIONARIES

Name of student: __________________________________

98
 Adapted from: The Pocket Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, (Jewell, 2006, p. 214)

A. Use the letters to label each part of the dictionary entry.

a. Definition d. Main entry

b. Part of speech e. Example
c. Other forms of the word f. Pronunciation

B. Match each dictionary term with its definition using the dictionary.

1. _____ main entry A. how to say the word.

2. _____ definition B. words at the top of each page

3. _____ other word forms C. the meaning of the word

4. _____ pronunciation D. word that has a similar meaning

5. _____ part of speech E. the word that is being defined

6. _____ abbreviation F. part of a word

7. _____ synonym G. other words derived from the main word

8. _____ alphabetically H. the way a dictionary is organized

9. _____ guide words I. way to shorten a word

10. _____ syllable J. function of the word in speech

Session 2: workshop on grammatical categories (parts of speech).

Dictionary Grammatical Categories (Parts of speech)
A. Look for the following words in the dictionary. Pay special attention to the grammatical
category (noun, verb, adjective, or adverb).

99
B. Go to Oxford Pocket Genie Dictionary in your computer. Classify the words in the chart.
Nouns (n) Verbs (v) Adjectives (Adj) Adverbs (Adv)

C. Write sentences using as many words as you can from the chart.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

Session 3: workshop on syllables/parts (prefixes, roots, and suffixes).

Syllables/parts (prefixes, roots, and suffixes)

A. Go to Oxford Pocket Genie on your computer.

100
B. Classify the words in the following chart.
One syllable Two syllables Three syllables Four or more
syllables

C. Write sentences using as many words as you can from the chart.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________

D. Look up each word in the dictionary. Complete the chart by dividing each word into
syllables. Write how many syllables in each word.

Word Divided into syllables Number of syllables

1. Cemetery
2. Bedroom
3. Occasionally
4. Wonderful

101
 5. Alternative
6. Questionnaire

E. Determine the meaning of the new word writing a prefix.

Prefixes
Prefixes are added to the beginning of root. When you add a prefix to root, you change
the meaning of the word. Common prefixes and their meanings:
Re: again, back, dis: not, pre: before, un: not, opposite, mis: wrong, under: below.

1. Write the correct prefix next to each root.

____play To play again ____wind To wind back or again
____age Below age ____honest Not honest
____print To print incorrectly ____happy Not happy
____able Not able ____view To view before
____heat To heat before ____water Below the water

F. Determine the meaning of the new word writing a suffix.

Suffixes
Suffixes are added to the end of root. When you add a suffix to a root, you change the
meaning of the word. Common suffixes and their meanings:
Able: can be done, est: most, er: more, full: full of, less: without, er: one who.

1. Write the correct suffix next to each root.

fear____ Without fear worth____ Without worth
tall____ The most tall young____ Most young
care____ With care, full of care joy____ Full of joy, with joy
do____ Able to be done care____ Without care
sing____ One who sings teach____ One who teaches

G. Write the prefix, root word, and suffix of each word in the correct box.
WORD PREFIX ROOT SUFFIX

tallest

unhappy

preschool

disappear

younger

ungrateful

Accessed on December 27th, 2018.

http://www.theteachersguide.com/grammarworksheets.htm

102
 Session 4: workshop on pronunciation (along with phonetic symbols).
Pronunciation (along with phonetic symbols)

1. Review the phonetic symbols with your teacher.

VOWELS

CONSONANTS

103
2. Look in your dictionary the following words. Pronounce the word correctly.

104
3. Write the word next to the phonetic symbols. Then, write the word in the crossword.

Esltower, (2007). Vowel sounds crossword.

105
 Session 5: workshop on meaning (definition and examples).
Meaning (definition and examples)

 Instruction: Fill in the blanks for each of the bolded words. You need your
dictionary on the PC.

1. “Teachers punish students who talk during class”.

What I think it means: _________________________________________
Dictionary definition: __________________________________________
My sentence using the word: ____________________________________
__________________________________________________________

2. “Sometimes music helps placate dogs who are barking”.

What I think it means: _________________________________________
Dictionary definition: __________________________________________
My sentence using the word: ____________________________________
__________________________________________________________

3. “My father is near the window, looking outside”.

What I think it means: _________________________________________
Dictionary definition: __________________________________________
My sentence using the word: ____________________________________
__________________________________________________________

4. “My mother is in the kitchen, she is preparing dinner”.

What I think it means: _________________________________________
Dictionary definition: __________________________________________
My sentence using the word: ____________________________________
__________________________________________________________

5. “I need to go downtown to buy some clothes”.

What I think it means: _________________________________________
Dictionary definition: __________________________________________
My sentence using the word: ____________________________________
_________________________________________________________

6. “I like to go to the gym, another place I like is the church”

What I think it means: ________________________________________
Dictionary definition: _________________________________________
My sentence using the word: ___________________________________
_________________________________________________________

106
 Session 6: workshop on contextual guessing.
Contextual guessing.
A. Follow the instructions step by step to guess the meaning of the words the texts.

GUESSING CHART BY STEPS

1. Is it a: noun, verb, adjective? –ed or –ing ending are verbs.
________________
2. If it is a noun, does it have a previous article? Is it countable or not? If it is
a verb, does it have an object?
________________________________________
3. Is it illustrated with a picture in the text?
________________________________
4. Look at the surrounding words: “but, however, so”.
_______________________
5. Look at the word form for meaning. Is it similar to a word in Spanish? Is it
a composed word? Does it have a prefix or suffix?
_________________________
________________________________________________________________
6. What is the meaning of the word?
____________________________________
7. Go and repeat the steps.

Short text 1.

Word Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6

107
Woods

Pond

Flute

Short text 2.

Word Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6

Restaurant

Cook

Prepare

108
 Everybody

Appendix V: Final Test on Reading Comprehension Using the Dictionary

FORMATO FINAL TEST INSTITUCIÓN EDUCATIVA SAN JOSÉ

OPORAPA – HUILA

Objetivo: evaluar las capacidades de comprensión lectora de textos cortos a través de

preguntas de selección múltiple, escaneo de información, completar oraciones, y análisis
del contexto.
1. Complete the text with the correct phrase.

2. Read the text and write the prefix or suffix to the correct Word.
able dis re pre un (x2)

A playful boy!
Sam is a beautiful boy. He likes to play with soccer balls. His father, Charles, sometimes plays with
Sam. Charles gets tired after an hour of playing, but Sam always wants to (1) __________ (play).
Sam is an amazing boy, he is (2) ____________ (adore). The only problem is that Sam is (3)
__________ (tidy) because he spreads everything in the house! However, Charles and Sam’s
mother (4) __________ (teach) him before they play to organize the room after they finish.
Sometimes Sam is alone at home, but he (5) ____________ (likes) it.

3. Read the following text and answer the questions.

Robert is twelve years old. He wakes up at 5:30 am. He takes a shower and has breakfast. He
eats eggs, cheese, and chocolate milk. He never brushes his teeth because he doesn’t have
time. He goes to school at 6:30 am. He doesn’t have lunch at school. For lunch he has some
snacks, such as chips and sweets. Robert comes home at 3:30 pm. Then, he usually makes a

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sandwich for lunch. He never does exercise in the week. Sometimes he plays football on
Saturday. At the weekend, he always eats fast food for dinner.

a. What time does Roberto wake up?

b. Robert eats for breakfast…
c. Robert has for lunch…
d. What time does Robert come home?
_________________________________________________________
4. Read the text and choose the correct answer, a, b, or c.

1. Ukranian students are good at…

a. swimming and cooking.
b. athletics and swimming.
d. football and watching T.V.
2. In Ukraine, students do sports because they help people to be…
a. strong and fast.
b. disciplined and healthy.
c. interesting and fascinating.
3. For Dimitri’s sister, salsa is…
a. not easy.
b. boring.
c. really easy.
4. Sewing is…
a. the action in the picture.
b. a sport.
c. a type of dance.
5. For Dimitri, sewing is…
a. not an exciting activity.
b. a hard activity for him.
c. an easy activity.

Adapted from Way to Go! Sixth grade. (M.E.N., 2016).

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 List of figures

Figure 4.1. Looking up for words in the index chart. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011)………..21
Figure 4.2. Pronunciation: audio and phonetic symbols. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011)…..22
Figure 4.3. Visual aids: pictures. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011)…………………………......23
Figure 4.4. Showing irregular forms and examples. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011)………..24
Figure 4.5. Grammatical categories. (Oxford Pocket Genie, 2011)…………………………25
Figure 6.1. Sample population. (Adimen investigación, 2018)………………………………35
Figure 6.2. Journal of exploration of digital tools. …………………………………………….37
Figure 6.3. Journal of the application of diagnostic test. …………………………………….39
Figure 6.4. Journal of session 1: General characteristics of dictionaries. …………………40
Figure 7.1. Results question 3. Students’ actions when facing a reading activity. ……….45
Figure 7.2. Results question 4. Students’ interest in activities that teach how to use a
dictionary in English. …………………………………………………………………………….45
Figure 7.3. Results question 5. Students’ free time activities. ……………………………...46
Figure 7.4. Results question 6. Students’ opinion on classes using computers…………..47
Figure 7.5. Results question 7. Students’ opinion on using digital dictionaries in English
classes…………………………………………………………………………………………….47
Figure 7.6. Results question 2. Students’ insights against the use of a digital rather than
printed dictionary…………………………………………………………………………………63

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 List of Tables

Table 6.1. Sixth grade students’ summary…………………………………………………….34

Table 7.1. Summary of the application of the training sessions about dictionary skills…..61
Table 7.3. Results students’ opinion on reading with pictures in the text and illustrated
words in the dictionary…………………………………………………………………………...62
Table 7.4. Results students’ opinion on using digital resources in English classes………64
Table 7.5. Results on students’ opinion on the development of the sessions about
dictionary features………………………………………………………………………………..65

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