摘要：Sense selection in learner dictionaries can pose a problem to second language learners of English, particularly looking up senses related to words that have multiple meanings. There is a tendency for learners to select senses that appear earlier in the dictionary entry regardless of whether it is correct in the context that the word is used. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the help device ‘menus’ in dictionaries can assist learners in looking up and directing them to the appropriate sense. This study compares the effect of meaning selection in two versions of entries; with menu and without menu. A general survey was distributed to students to gauge their perception of dictionary use and their awareness of help devices in dictionaries. This is followed by a sense identification task which was presented on-screen. The findings indicated that learners seem to be less aware of the existence and also the importance of help devices in dictionaries. Results also indicated that the menu system appeared to assist students in their sense selection indicated by higher efficacy rate in the look up task in contrast to the non-menu system.
