A Modest Proposal for Preventing E-dictionaries From Being a Burden to Teachers and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public

Some simple suggestions, already tested in Italian secondary school classes, aimed at making edictionaries an everyday reference tool, as paper dictionaries were (and still are, in some part of the world). By e-dictionaries we mean fully fledged digital versions of paper dictionaries, structured databases which users can access via Internet by paying a subscription and which are still sold on a DVD or USB key support. We will briefly state why accessing free e-dictionaries is good for practice but not as rewarding as it might be to access paid website displaying all the range of possible query modes. We conducted a survey about what Italian secondary school students turn to when they do not understand a word and we maintain that e-dictionaries can enhance metalinguistic knowledge and enlarge students’ vocabulary, but such goals are better met by task-based activities which do not have a straightforward language lesson appearance. A task based language teaching approach mixed with CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is an ideal arena where edictionaries might win their battle in order to become truly accepted and widespread in the classroom.