Dictionary Use in Listening: A Survey of Chinese EFL Learners’ Autonomous Listening Activities

Abstract: Listening is usually regarded as the most formidable task by Chinese EFL learners. The current research surveys the dictionary use in their listening activities: the motivations for using dictionaries, the frequency of their dictionary use, listeners’ needs, their choice of dictionaries, and their expectations of future electronic dictionaries. The result turns out that around one-third of the Chinese EFL learners in our survey refer to dictionaries in their autonomous listening activities. Most of all, they subconsciously establish the connection between the sound and meaning of auditory words when using dictionaries. The findings inevitably project implications into the construction of listening environment in electronic learners’ dictionaries which aims to facilitate EFL learners’ listening activities. For this, a serial of suggestions are proposed for developing listening-oriented learner’s dictionaries.