Teaching Dictionary Skills

Teachers play an important role in aiding students “to help themselves” – one way of achieving this is to teach students to be efficient users of dictionaries and other reference works. This workbook provides practice in finding and understanding information in such books effectively. It also provides teachers with a wide range of insights into how different types of dictionaries may usefully be incorporated into the learning process. The reproducible exercises provide progressive instruction on topics such as alphabetizing, phonetic symbols, guide words, meanings, grammar, idioms, etc. The exercises will help students learn to use different types of dictionaries successfully. The reference skills needed to use a dictionary are isolated and practiced in a systematic way to illustrate the method of teaching proposed. Teachers may use the exercises selectively and in a different sequence to integrate them with other activities. The workbook gives specific guidelines and suggestions for teachers to help them provide a successful training program in dictionary use.

As Anatole France said: “A dictionary is the universe in alphabetical order.”