The use of bilingual dictionaries in foreign language writing tests remains a debate. Some studies support the view that the use of a dictionary in a foreign language examination increases the mean score of the test, and hence is one of the factors that influenced the decision to ban the use of dictionaries in several foreign language tests in the UK. More recent studies, however, present that further research into the use of bilingual dictionaries during writing tests have shown that there is no significant differences in the test scores that can be attributed to the use of a dictionary. Nevertheless, from the perspective of foreign language learners, being able to use a bilingual dictionary during a test is reassuring and increases their confidence.