Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of using a bilingual dictionary (English-Arabic) for reading and writing in a Saudi high school and also to explore the Saudi Arabian students’ attitudes and EFL teachers’ perceptions toward the use of bilingual dictionaries. This study involves 65 EFL students and 5 EFL teachers in one Saudi high school in the city of AL Khobar. Mixed methods research is used in which both qualitative and quantitative data are collected. For participating students, pre-test, post-test, and surveys are used to collect quantitative data. For participating EFL teachers, in-person interviews are used to collect qualitative data. The findings show that the use of a bilingual dictionary has a significant effect on the reading and writing scores for both high and low proficiency EFL students. Other findings include that most EFL students feel that using a bilingual dictionary in EFL classrooms is very important to help them translate and learn new vocabulary words, and that both invoice and experienced EFL teachers agree that the use of a bilingual dictionary is important for learning word meaning and vocabulary, but they do not all agree about which grades should use bilingual dictionaries. The results of this study have a potential to alert Saudi policy-makers to the benefits of using bilingual dictionaries in the English curriculum through all grade levels in Saudi schools.
Keywords: Bilingual Dictionary, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), L1, L2.
Title: The Impact of Using a Bilingual Dictionary (English-Arabic) for Reading and Writing in a Saudi High School
Author: Ali Almaliki
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
Research Publish Journals
