Don’t throw your paper dictionary away! Using different types of dictionaries for improving EFL vocabulary learning

The digitalization has revolutionized L2 acquisition and fostered a great diffusion of online dictionaries (Müller-Spitzer 2014). But experiments comparing online to paper-based dictionaries provide mixed results (Lew&DeSchryver 2014): Chen (2010) did not find significant differences for vocabulary acquisition between the two kind of dictionaries, while Allharbi (2016) and Dziemianko (2010) found that students using online dictionaries could learn more words compared to paper-based dictionaries. In contrast Li-Ling&Liu (2013) and Ferrett&Dollinger (2021) brought data in favour of the printed dictionary. The present study was carried out in order to see if there were any significant differences between online and paper dictionaries in the context of EFL learning with regard to: a) vocabulary acquisition; b) memorization of (15) new words; c) reading comprehension d) long-term retention of new words. Fifty-four students carried out the experiment in 4 sessions at a language centre run by a German university; they were randomly assigned to the online, paper and a control group. Based on the results, in the short-term test users of paper dictionaries performed slightly better on an exercise on the correct spelling of words than the control group. Another statistically significant difference was that students rated the user-friendliness of the paper dictionary slightly better.