Wydział Anglistyki (WA)/ Faculty of English
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Browsing Wydział Anglistyki (WA)/ Faculty of English by Subject "access facilitators"
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Item Do menus provide added value to signposts in print monolingual dictionary entries? An application of Linear Mixed-Effects Modelling in dictionary user research(Oxford University Press, 2014) Ptasznik, Bartosz; Lew, RobertThere is some evidence that language learners as dictionary users benefit from access to sense-guiding devices. This study is a first attempt at comparing the efficiency (entry consultation time) and effectiveness (accuracy of sense selection) of sense signposts against a combination of signposts and menus in print monolingual dictionaries for learners of English. Experimental data from 118 intermediate Polish students of English were collected, testing sense-guiding devices in noun and verb entries of varying length. A Linear Mixed-effects Model analysis with planned comparisons was carried out on the data. Based on a sample of items larger than in previous studies, this study confirms the benefits of signposts in speeding up access to target senses. However, results indicate that adding menus to signposts does not improve search speed or sense selection accuracy any further.Item Users take shortcuts: Navigating dictionary entries(Afûk, 2010) Lew, RobertIn the present paper we compare the effectiveness of two alternative meaning access facilitators in a monolingual learner’s dictionary: a Menu system, placed at the top of a monolingual entry; and a Shortcuts system, where the cues are distributed throughout the entry. We test the two entry formats on 90 Polish learners of English at two CEFR levels, A2 and B1. The task which triggers dictionary consultation is guided translation from English to Polish. Three outcome measures are evaluated: access time to sense, accuracy of sense selection, and translation accuracy. While Menus and Shortcuts turned up no difference in terms of consultation speed, the task success was significantly better in the Shortcuts condition. Sense selection accuracy was also better, though not significanly so, for the Shortcuts. The overall conclusion of our study is that Shortcuts are more user-friendly than Menus, although this may also depend on the form of the cues and the medium of presentation.