Iva Dozet EFL Methodology 1

000003/2016

Mini-Lesson
-How to use online monolingual dictionaries to improve your L2 vocabulary-
Bridge-in
The teacher introduces the lesson and explains its importance and value to the class. (estimated
time: 1 minute)
- How many times have you been told that you wasted your time browsing the Internet when
you could have been doing something more productive? (Wait for students to answer.)
Today, we are going to focus on how using the Internet and online monolingual dictionaries
can enrich your vocabulary at any level.
Objective
Explanation of what the student will be able to do at the end of the lesson, under which
circumstances and what behavior will be considered successful. (estimated time: 1 minute)
- The students will learn how to find appropriate sources for new and unknown words by
themselves using the Internet. (This implies individual work with a time limit given. The
work will be checked by showing/reading their work to the teacher to check the
appropriateness of the source and the definition given.)
Pre-Test
The teacher checks his/her students’ prior knowledge about the use of dictionaries (both printed
and online ones) and asks further questions accordingly. (estimated time: 2 minutes)
- Have any of you been actively using dictionaries when studying vocabulary in your foreign
language classes? (Yes – Were they printed or electronic? Which did you like best? or No
– That’s okay, after the lesson you can decide for yourself which ones you like the best.)
Participatory Learning
The teacher demonstrates the activity that is to be mastered while asking the students questions.
Since the activity firstly needs to be demonstrated by the teacher, the students are actively involved
through answering questions during the demonstrations. (estimated time: 5 minutes)
- Firstly, I will give you a quick demonstration of how to find appropriate sources for
vocabulary online, so please turn your attention to the screen for a few moments. To start,
you type the unknown word + definition and wait for the results. Now that you can see all
the results that are available, which ones do you think are the most reliable ones? (Wait for
the students’ response.)

1
Iva Dozet EFL Methodology 1
000003/2016

Picture 1- Search Results

(According to the answers, the teacher opens the ones that the students and the teacher believe to
be the most adequate sources. For the purposes of the demonstration, the Oxford, Cambridge and
Merriam-Webster Dictionary have been taken as examples.)

Picture 2 - Cambridge Dictionary Picture 3 – Oxford Dictionary Picture 4 – Merriam-Webster Dictionary

- As you can see, the primary information offered is the definition(s) of the unknown word.
Moreover, the online dictionaries also offer the pronunciation (written as well as in audio
format), the origin of the word in question, as well as a direct link to a Thesaurus, where
you can find synonyms. Are there any questions before you attempt to do the activity
individually?
Post-Testing
The teacher asks the students to individually find the meaning of the unknown word they have
picked out of a box on the teacher’s desk. (estimated time: 3 minutes)
- Now that you have observed how to look up a new word I would ask you to come and pick
out a word from this box and try to find its meaning on your own using one of the online
dictionaries we have just seen.
(The teacher waits for approximately three minutes for the students to complete this task. While
they are looking up the meaning, the teacher walks around the classroom and checks on their
progress to see if anyone is having problems completing the task. After everyone has done it, the
teacher asks for volunteers to read their definitions out loud to the class.)
Today, I demonstrated how to use online editions of monolingual dictionaries to improve your L2
vocabulary skills. If there are any further questions, feel free to ask. Thank you so much for
participating and I hope you enjoyed this mini-lesson.

2
Iva Dozet EFL Methodology 1
000003/2016