Curriculum Integration of Free Access Online Bilingual Dictionaries: Insights and Implications

Abstract

The curriculum integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been the object of extensive research (Çapuk, 2015; Ghavifekr et al. 2014; Lloyd, 2006; Maribe & Twum-Darko, 2015; UNESCO, 2005). Proof of this is the almost two-decade-long scholarly efforts to conceptualize this phenomenon and identify its models and components (Dockstader, 1998; Pelgrum, 2001;Saxena, 2017). With the increasing relevance ICT has in educational settings, such efforts are not unexpected. ICT curriculum integration is a process in which technological resources, completely assembled within the curriculum, are imbued with educational and didactic principles to generate learning (UNESCO, 2005).  In brief, a correct curriculum integration combines ICT use with traditional teaching methods within the teacher´s instructional plans. Unfortunately, this body of research has barely addressed the curriculum integration of a specific ICT in a given context. Such is the case of the free access online bilingual dictionaries (hereafter FAOBD), a lexical tool that is often adopted by foreign language educators but whose use among students is seldom explained and regulated. Despite extant research in  ICT curricular integration, lexicography, and M-learning, to our knowledge, there are no specific studies on FAOBD curriculum integration. This type of ICT has great potential as an innovative teaching resource in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) contexts (Jin, 2013; Kit & Berg, 2016; Tseng, 2009). This gap highlighted the need to examine and determine the current level of curricular integration of the FAOBD and to suggest administrative, pedagogical, and didactic strategies and resources tending to favor progress toward the next level of integration.