How Helpful Are Dictionaries For Students?

The purpose of this study is to understand the extent to which dictionaries, which are fundamental reference sources for primary school Turkish lessons, can guide students. The research adopts a case study design, which is one of the qualitative research designs. The research process includes document analysis and interviews to reveal the situation under investigation. Four dictionaries, prepared for the primary school level by different publishers, were used as data sources in the document analysis process, while interviews were conducted with 18 primary school students and 21 primary school teachers. In the document analysis stage, the study determined how unknown words mentioned in texts in primary school Turkish textbooks were explained in the dictionaries. As a result of the interviews, it was found that two of the dictionaries were not considered suitable for the students' level by the teachers, and the students preferred to work with illustrated and large-print dictionaries.