English Dictionary Ownership and Usage among the Acehnese Students in Malaysian University

Abstract

In academic, students, teacher and researcher may need English dictionary as an urge to comprehend English literature. This study is conducted mainly to find out what kind of the most used dictionary by student and what aspect do they learn about from an English dictionary. The result of this study verifies the conclusion of Jian, et al. (2009), Kobayashi (2008), Bower & Mcmillan (2006), Perry (2003) and Tang (1997) studies about the preference of electronic dictionary in student of Kanda University, Japan. On the other hand it is confirming the declaration of the studies of Al- Khub (2001) and Diab & Hamdan (1999) that students use the dictionary more to find the meaning of specific word. Besides, they prefer to use new technology where they not only can find the meaning, but also syntax, pronunciation etc on just finger tips (Vivian & Barnes, 2010) And Aceh students (the respondents) as the scholars in UPSI use dictionary regularly and every one of them have at least one kind of dictionary. It can be concluded that they are ready to adopt English as their secondary language and can progress towards excellence by understand English literature of respective subject.

Keywords: English Dictionary Ownership, English Dictionary Ownership, Aceh, Acehnese Students, Malaysian University