Dictionaries play a key role in language acquisition and teaching as they improve student autonomy. In this regard, to avoid asking the teacher frequently, a meticulously chosen dictionary can be a wise choice to deal with lexical difficulties when learning a language. The ability to immediately address such problems is generally seen as an immense benefit of using dictionaries. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Surveys indicate that when choosing their dictionaries, students are likely to rely on recommendations provided by their teachers, who primarily offer monolingual dictionaries for English learners. However, English teachers are more often than not confused with the real advantages and disadvantages of the different types of dictionaries to use. They mostly pushed students to use monolingual dictionaries in the early days, and this was an attempt to completely omit their L1 from the learning process, a view that has been seriously questioned with good justifications. Furthermore, based on Huang et al. (2013), a single lexicon can have numerous meanings and the correct one can most often be established based on context. Laufer (1990, as cited in Huang et al., 2013) states that a word in a sentence may seem familiar to the language learner and they may become familiar with the word contained in a sentence. However; this meaning if inserted into another sentence might seem meaningless. Furthermore, making guesses about the meaning of an unknown word is not always reliable. Kaivanpanah and Alavi's (2008, cited in Huang et al., 2013) study shows that students' attempts to infer the meaning of unknown vocabulary are not always successful. Therefore, advocates of using a dictionary suggest that teachers should persuade students to choose a dictionary to look up the particular meaning of an unknown word in a text. In this sense, dictionaries are the essential requirement for accessing information about words in a language (Walz, 1990, cited in Huang et al., 2013). Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Hayati and Fattahzadh also make the point that students “consult a dictionary for the meaning of an unknown word to ensure their guesses are accurate based on contextual information.” A dictionary helps students become independent as they can find adequate understanding of unknown words in sentences without relying on teachers' clarifications.