This study investigated the effectiveness of dictionary use in reading and writing Sesotho as a mother tongue. The study was prompted by the fact that some students believe that they do not need dictionaries in a mother tongue class and as a result, Sesotho dictionaries are not used in Lesotho schools. The aim of the study was to determine if there was any significant difference in the students’ performance when reading and writing with or without the assistance of a dictionary. The study employed a communicative-oriented approach. It compared the scores of dictionary users and non-dictionary users for reading comprehension and production of sentences. All 434 (Grade 11) of the participating high school students from the lowlands and the highlands areas of Lesotho were given the same test. The participants were tested on their capability to use the selected words in sentences and on their comprehension of the target words. One group in each of the locations used dictionaries, while the other group answered the questions without the use of dictionaries. Among the dictionary users, some made use of the Sesuto-English Dictionary, which is a bilingual dictionary, while others consulted Sethantšo sa Sesotho, a monolingual dictionary. The study reveals that dictionary usage in a mother tongue language class improved students’ performance significantly as compared to non-dictionary use.

这项研究调查了词典在将塞索托语作为母语阅读和写作中的有效性。这项研究是由于一些学生认为他们不需要母语上的词典而导致的，因此，莱索托学校不使用Sesotho词典。该研究的目的是确定在借助或不借助词典的情况下进行阅读和写作时，学生的表现是否存在显着差异。该研究采用了以交流为导向的方法。它比较了字典用户和非字典用户在阅读理解和句子生成方面的得分。来自莱索托低地和高地地区的所有434名高中学生（11年级）都接受了相同的测试。测试参与者的句子使用所选单词的能力以及对目标单词的理解能力。每个地点中的一组使用字典，而另一组不使用字典来回答问题。在词典用户中，有些人利用了Sesuto-英语词典，是双语词典，而其他人则参考了单语词典Sethantšosa Sesotho。该研究表明，与非字典用法相比，在母语课上使用字典可以显着提高学生的学习成绩。