The article presents the results of a survey on dictionary use in Europe, focusing on general monolingual dictionaries. The survey is the broadest survey of dictionary use to date, covering close to 10,000 dictionary users (and non-users) in nearly thirty countries. Our survey covers varied user groups, going beyond the students and translators who have tended to dominate such studies thus far. The survey was delivered via an online survey platform, in language versions specific to each target country. It was completed by 9,562 respondents, over 300 respondents per country on average. The survey consisted of the general section, which was translated and presented to all participants, as well as country-specific sections for a subset of 11 countries, which were drafted by collaborators at the national level. The present report covers the general section. IntroductionResearch into dictionary use has become increasingly important in recent years. In contrast to 15 years ago, new findings in this area are presented every year, e.g. at every Euralex or eLex conference. These studies range from questionnaire or log file studies to smaller-scale studies focussing on eye tracking, usability, or other aspects of dictionary use measurable in a lab. For an overview of different studies,

In the past two decades, more and more dictionary usage studies have been published, but most of them deal with the question what users appreciate about dictionaries, which dictionaries they use and which information they need in specific situations. These studies presuppose that users indeed consult lexicographic resources. However, language teachers and lecturers of linguistics often have the impression that students use too few high-quality dictionaries in their every-day work. Against this background, we started an international cooperation project to collect empirical data evaluating that impression. Our aim was to evaluate what students (here from the Romance language area) actually do when they correct language problems. We used a new methodological setting to do this (screen recording with a thinking-aloud task). The empirical data we gained offers a broad insight into what language users really do when solving language-related tasks today.

In the past two decades, more and more dictionary usage studies have been published, but most of them deal with questions related to what users appreciate about dictionaries, which dictionaries they use and what type of information they need in specific situations-presupposing that users actually consult lexicographic resources. However, language teachers and lecturers in linguistics often have the impression that students do not use enough high-quality dictionaries in their everyday work. With this in mind, we launched an international cooperation project to collect empirical data to evaluate what it is that students actually do while attempting to solve language problems. To this end, we applied a new methodological setting: screen recording in conjunction with a thinking-aloud task. The collected empirical data offers a broad insight into what users really do while they attempt to solve language-related tasks online.

Zusammenfassung Fremdsprachenlernende recherchieren immer häufiger in elektronischen bzw. Online- Wörterbüchern oder holen ihre Smartphones hervor, um sprachliche Schwierigkeiten anhand von Online-Informationen oder mit Hilfe von (Wörterbuch-)Applikationen zu überwinden. Gleichzeitig scheint es, als würden sie den Wortschatzerwerb bzw. das Vokabellernen vernachlässigen. Wie werden Wörterbücher von DaF-Lernenden benutzt? Hat das Benutzungsverhalten Einfluss auf den Wortschatzerwerb? Werden überhaupt noch Vokabeln gelernt und kann das Wörterbuch dabei eine unterstützende Rolle spielen? Diese Fragen werden anhand von empirischen Ergebnissen aus der Wörterbuchbenutzungsforschung diskutiert, um schließlich für eine Wörterbuchdidaktik im Rahmen des DaF-Unterrichts zu plädieren.

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