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RESEARCH PRODUCT

ELECTRONIC DICTIONARIES AND ESP STUDENTS

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This article presents the results of an experiment conducted on two distinct groups of students attending our ESP classes in the academic year 2009-2010. The first group was formed of second year students majoring in business and the second group first year students majoring in computer science. The experiment involved presenting the students with a list of traditional dictionaries as compulsory course bibliography and a list of free electronic and internet dictionaries as additional resources in an attempt to prove that, irrespective of their major subject, most students prefer freeware dictionaries for their usefulness, currentness and user-friendliness; that is why they should be taught how to use such resources appropriately. The students were asked to build personal glossaries of technical terms (in business and computer science, respectively) and indicate two dictionaries they had used and found most useful. 85% of the Business students and 99% of the computer science students declared their preference for free electronic resources and dictionaries. Our conclusion was that students should be encouraged to use free electronic and internet dictionaries as well as participate in terminology-related discussions in forums and linguistic communities to improve their English.