A Modest Proposal for Preventing E-dictionaries from Being a Burden to Teachers and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public

Some simple suggestions, already tested in Italian secondary school classes, aimed at making e-dictionaries an everyday reference tool, as paper dictionaries were (and still are, in some part of the world). By e-dictionaries we mean fully fledged digital versions of paper dictionaries, structured databases which users can access via Internet by paying a subscription and which are still sold on a DVD or USB key support. We will briefly state why accessing free e-dictionaries is good for practice but not as rewarding as it might be to access paid website displaying all the range of possible query modes. We conducted a survey about what Italian secondary school students turn to when they do not understand a word and we maintain that e-dictionaries can enhance metalinguistic knowledge and enlarge students' vocabulary, but such goals are better met by task-based activities which do not have a straightforward language lesson appearance. A task based language teaching approach mixed with CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is an ideal arena where e-dictionaries might win their battle in order to become truly accepted and widespread in the classroom.