Studies on dictionary use have been gaining ground over the last three decades, but while dictionary use has moved dynamically into the digital medium, user research on digital dictionaries has been somewhat slow (Lew, 2015: 1). Promoting successful communication a multilingual teaching and learning environment in the higher education sector entails more than providing a digital glossary to users. Such a digital glossary, in this case a mobile glossary, is freely available to students, but does not necessarily provide satisfactory solutions for challenges in the multilingual and digital environment. A multilingual glossary could only be beneficial if it forms part of the academic repertoire, of students and lecturers. A programme was thus designed to integrate the language resource in the teaching and learning framework of a faculty of education in South Africa. The faculty needs to adhere to the language policy of the university, but also to the language requirements of the undergraduate teaching programme. According to The Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ 2015:24) all teachers who successfully complete an initial professional qualification should be proficient in the use of at least one official South African language as a language of learning and teaching (LoLT), and partially proficient (i.e. sufficient for purposes of basic conversation) in at least one other official African language, or in South African Sign Language, as language of conversational competence (LoCC). If the LoLT is English or Afrikaans, then the LoCC must be an African Language or South African Sign Language. Research questions to be answered in the paper are: How can a mobile glossary be integrated in teaching and learning in a faculty of education? What change occurred with the integrated teaching of the glossary? The process of integration is described regarding the methodology used in the process, the number of participants in the process, as well as the results of the process. Preliminary results show a significant increase in participants' content area vocabulary, as well as knowledge of terminology in the second language. Rapid technological and socio-cultural change is at odds with the more leisurely pace of evolving mobile lexicography. Integration of mobile glossaries can open new possibilities in language teaching and learning.
Bibliography
Lew,R. 2015. Research into the use of online dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography: 1-22.
Department of Higher Education and Training. 2011.The Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications.
