The use of lexicographic online resources by foreign language teachers and the effectiveness of teacher training

Foreign language teachers have received little or no attention in Research into dictionary use. Their knowledge of dictionaries, their dictionary use skills and how and which kind of dictionaries they use in classroom have been rarely studied, somewhat surprisingly if one considers that language teachers are the ones who can actively promote and adequate use of dictionaries among learners. To get a little closer to this question, in November 2017 the author held an 8-hour workshop on dictionary use for 50 Italian teachers of German as a foreign language and took the opportunity to ask them specific questions on dictionary use, issuing them with questionnaires both before and after the workshop. The questionnaire before the workshop dealt with the use of both printed and online dictionaries in class and at home (by students and themselves), the assessment of students, their own dictionary use behavior and self-assessment of their own competence. The workshop compared print and online dictionaries, experimented with different online resources, compared results of translations with the help of several dictionaries, parallel corpora and translation tools; it encouraged reflection on one's own dictionary use skills with the aim of enhancing dictionary use awareness. In the questionnaire after the workshop teachers were asked to reflect critically on the usefulness of didactics for dictionary use; to express their opinion on whether they believed they were now more familiar with online dictionaries and dictionary applications; which among the resources available was most useful for them and whether they would use online dictionaries in class from now on. This contribution shows the results of these questions and will illustrate how the workshop has changed teachers’ attitudes towards the use of online dictionaries in foreign language teaching, and how their own dictionary use competence has improved.