LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Effects of Using Urdu Dictionary as a Teaching Tool for
Teaching Urdu in Urdu Language Classroom in Pakistan

Zafar Iqbal, Ph.D.
Ali Ahmad, M.A, M.Ed., Ph.D. Candidate
Rana Faqir Muhammad Aslam, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate

Abstract

Dictionary can be a great tool for teaching and learning language as it covers the language at stretch.

The present study aims at investigating the effects of using a dictionary during language teaching at secondary level. The hypothesis tested was that the use of dictionary brings no difference in language learning.

The study, quantitative in nature, followed a pre-test, post-test single group experimental design. A questionnaire was also administered among the teachers imparting language education. The population of the study consisted of the high school students learning Urdu as a subject as well as the teachers teaching Urdu at this level. Fifty secondary school teachers teaching Urdu at secondary level and 100 students learning Urdu at the said level were selected as the sample of the study. It was found that the use of dictionary during teaching enhanced the language learning. The students started taking more interest in language learning and the use of dictionary made language teaching very powerful and learners brought significantly different results from the group who were learning language without using a dictionary.

Key Words: language; teaching and learning; dictionary; students; Urdu.

1. Introduction

Teaching dictionary skills hold great importance in language teaching. Assam (2006:196) advises to avoid negligence about the teaching of dictionary skills and providing them with the education of dictionary culture. Hadebe (2004) suggests that the dictionary skills can be incorporated by including the said activity in "teacher training syllabi".

A dictionary is a "book about language" (Jackson, 2002:21) which can play a vital role in language teaching. As a reference book, dictionaries help to do away with confusions about a language. Dictionaries have developed not only as a theoretical instrument but as practical tools (Al-Kasimi, 1977) with the increased roles language has assumed. A dictionary, an encyclopaedia and a thesaurus are learner's great aids to learning. A dictionary is a part of language learners' essential equipment and may be regarded as the repository of final linguistic authority and a bank account of words. Reliable information about words as well as their usage is taken from it. The success of a dictionary largely depends on the way information is organized and patterned in it.

Dictionaries are a great source of information about words; their origin, their meaning and the context in which they are used. From primary to higher level, it is vocabulary that poses a great deal of problems since vocabulary is more than learning more words; rather it is concerned with knowing more about them.

Words have literal and contextual meanings. The meanings of a word is composed of a number of features: its relation with real world, the association that it carries with it, its relationship with other words in the vocabulary and the regular company that it keeps with other words in sentence and text structure. Many words have more than one meaning (Jackson, 2002).

Dictionaries can be used in class rooms to enhance the impact of language teaching and learning. In order to explain the exact meanings of a word and its use in a particular context, the dictionaries can be used as a part of the curriculum as well. Chi (2003) suggests that the dictionary teaching should be introduced in the curriculum of tertiary level; moreover, she maintains that the teacher of language should be trained about using dictionary.

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. It is used as a lingua franca in this society where a lot of linguistic diversity exists.

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