Abstract

With the rapid development of Intelligence Technology, Internet becomes a ubiquitous communication platform and greatly facilitates people’s work and study from many aspects of life. This platform encourages more and more people from various continents and countries to talk or “type” in English. Thus, the accuracy and proficiency of English command takes on greater and greater importance. It is the very reason why online dictionary appeared and thrived rapidly. Under this situation, I try to make an investigation into the frequency of use of the online dictionary among English major students in junior and senior. The subjects of my research are English major undergraduates in junior and senior who are skillful in English basic skill (listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating.)

   Although online dictionary has become an indispensable part of daily life, we have limited knowledge about them. A great amount of people cannot distinguish online dictionary, electronic dictionary and paper dictionary. Many scholars have done a lot of researches on the topic of online dictionary. However, previous researches of online dictionaries are normally from the aspects of advantages and disadvantages of online dictionaries and research subjects are often English major students or non-English major students. This thesis is from the aspects of positive and negative influences of online dictionary. I try to find the influences of online dictionary in advanced English learning.

Keywords: online dictionary; junior and senior undergraduates; positive and negative influences

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

1.1 Research Background-1

1.2 Significance of the Research-1

1.3 Organization of the Paper-2

Chapter 2 Literature Review-2

2.1 Basic knowledge of online dictionary-2

2.1.1 The definition of online dictionary-2

2.1.2 Differences among paper dictionary, electronic dictionary and online dictionary-3

2.1.3 A brief history of online dictionary-3

2.1.4 The working principle of online dictionary-3

2.1.5 The main developers of online dictionary-4

2.1.6 Compiling methods of online dictionary-4

2.2 Features of online dictionary-5

2.2.1 Strength-5

2.2.1.1 Free service or low cost-5

2.2.1.2 Convenience-5

2.2.1.3 Large and Up-to-date Corpus-6

2.2.2 Other small functions-6

2.2.2.1 Pronunciation-6

2.2.2.2 Translation-6

2.2.3 Weakness-6

2.2.3.1 Internet and Equipment Reliance-6

2.2.3.2 Lake of attraction-7

Chapter 3 Methodology and Survey Design-7

3.1 Survey Objective-7

3.2 Survey subject-7

3.3 Survey design-7

3.3.1 Survey tools-7

3.3.2 Data collection-8

3.3.3 Survey content(Refer to Appendix)-8

Chapter 4 Statistic Analysis and Discussion-10

4.1 General Analysis-10

4.2 Survey Result Analysis-11

4.2.1 Online dictionaries are popular among English major students in junior and senior.-11

4.2.2 Smart phone can be a popular appliance of online dictionaries.-12

4.2.3 Students show preferences to YOUDAO online dictionary.-13

4.2.4 The purpose of using online dictionaries.-13

4.2.5 Online dictionaries can meet the demand of translating professional terms.-14

4.2.6 Influences of Online dictionaries.-15

4.3 Summary-16

5 Conclusion-17

5.1 Major findings-17

5.1.1 The use of online dictionary-17

5.1.2 Influences of online dictionary-17

5.2 Suggestions for effectively using online dictionary-17

References-19

Appendix-20