This study explored the sub-strategies Saudi English majors use most when consulting the dictionary. In particular, it looked at the aspects of the dictionary use strategy relevant to the dictionary itself rather than the lookup words (mainly purposes for consulting the dictionary, means of dictionary ownership and type of dictionary consulted). The participants were 90 English major students enrolled in an English undergraduate program at the Department of European Languages at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. A survey questionnaire adapted from the literature was used to collect data for the study. The results showed that the learners’ strategic preferences were largely affected by the features they liked (e.g. free dictionaries, the ease of use and search as well as portability of tech-based digital dictionaries) or disliked (e.g. the difficulty of search and use in paper dictionaries as well as their heavy weight and high thickness) most about dictionaries. Thus, they preferred to either download dictionary apps to their phones from application stores or go online whenever they needed to consult a dictionary for a word. Moreover, in terms of dictionary types, learners favored the bilingual English-Arabic dictionary (language-wise), dictionary apps and online dictionaries (medium-wise) and the ordinary dictionary (content-wise). Also, they consulted the dictionary no more than five times a day and tended to look up more words when consulting tech-based (digital) dictionaries than when using paper dictionaries. Finally, they used their dictionaries mainly to understand new words while reading.

Word learning is a key component in second language learning and one that L2 learners often find laborious. With the advent of mobile technology in recent years, research on mobile-assisted vocabulary learning has uncovered the immense potential mobile devices (namely smartphones and tablets) have for providing L2 learners with opportunities for effortless learning of L2 lexis. To this end, we pinpoint ten reasons why L2 learners should abandon traditional pen-and-paper-based methods of word learning and shift instead to a digital mobile word learning environment that fully utilizes the virtues of mobile learning. The role of mobile applications (apps) dedicated to word learning is hence stressed as such apps represent the core basis of mobile-assisted vocabulary learning. For EFL learners to entertain a more manageable and less time-consuming word learning experience, we emphasize the role of EFL teachers in calling their learners’ attention to the ten reasons we underscore in this article to help encourage those who are still into conventional word learning and have not yet explored learning words via mobile gadgets to make the digital shift at once.

In EFL classes, teachers utilize a variety of word instruction techniques to help their students discover as well as retain new target words. A questionnaire on word instruction techniques was administered online to 87 Saudi EFL teachers representing the three school levels in Saudi Arabia (i.e., primary, intermediate, and high) with the purpose of probing into their use of the various techniques and how useful they viewed those techniques. The results indicate that whereas the techniques of providing an L1 Arabic translation of the word, repeating the word out loud and then having students repeat it afterward, and writing the word on the board were the three most favorable to our participant teachers, having students draw word maps related to the target word, using non-textbook supplemental materials, and explaining the origin of the word (i.e., etymology) were the least used ones. Moreover, teachers reported employing more discovery techniques than consolidation ones. In terms of school level, no significant differences existed in teachers’ use of the various word instruction techniques across the three different school levels. Finally, although the teachers’ reported use of the techniques generally matched the usefulness ratings they provided for those techniques, some exceptions emerged. Implications for the study findings on L2 pedagogy were ultimately provided.

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