An Action Research On English Vocabul Learning Strategies Through Internet For Senior High School Students

Vocabulary learning plays a most important part in English learning. However, after many years of English language teaching, the present author found out that teachers worked hard to teach vocabulary but with little effect. The students complain that it is most difficult to remember English words, and it is time-consuming and ineffective. The reasons are various, one of which may be that they do not pay attention to the learning strategies. Overcoming the rote learning, activating the interest and training the learning strategies can help solve the problem. The theory of English learning indicates that particular care must be devoted to the learning strategies in order to increase the learning efficiency. A large number of vocabulary learning strategies have existed and have been discussed. However, there has been little discussion on the strategy of vocabulary learning via Internet. Internet technology not only provides a rich vocabulary learning and timeliness of the materials and vocabulary learning environment, which can make up for the old paper-based materials, but also provides students with a wide range of vocabulary input and output channels, to overcome the inefficiencies of learning the words by rote.In order to achieve the above goals, the present author reviewed three kinds of literatures. First, the author reviewed the vocabulary learning strategies abroad and in China. From the review we can know:â‘ vocabulary learning needs strategies;â‘¡the strategies are selective for different learners according to their different needs;â‘¢t he reason for those who are not successful in learning English vocabulary is that they lack of meta-cognitive strategies. Second, vocabulary learning strategies via Internet were reviewed, which told us that there are mainly four kinds of vocabulary learning strategies via Internet:â‘ A strategy with various kinds of senses;â‘¡A ffection-driven learning strategy;â‘¢A utonomous learning strategy;â‘£Cooperation learning strategy. Third, the action research which includes: the origins, the definition, the types, the procedures and data collections.After the review of the literatures, the author described the theoretical basement to show that the theories on vocabulary learning strategy are the important basis of selecting vocabulary learning strategies. Systematic Theory and Constructivism Learning Theory are the two main theories in addition to English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education and Senior High Schools, which guide the vocabulary learning strategies based on Internet technology. Vocabulary learning is a system, which certainly needs the guidance of Systematic Theory. The hyperlink, online dictionary, E-mail, online reading, online corpus etc. which are all the elements of the Internet and comprehensive use of them will bring about better effects. Constructivism Learning Theory mainly owns the following two characteristics, which are related to the strategy of learning vocabulary via Internet. 1) Learners are the center of learning that is an active process of meaning construction. 2) Learning should be in real situation. In the vocabulary learning activities, Internet technology provides the inter-active learning style, which can effectively activate the students'learning interest and motivation.Then the author presented the methodology which is a kind of action research method with the steps of making the plan, rationale, carrying it out and making reflections. 1) The action plan is introduced by a diagram that presented what we will do during the ten weeks of action research. 2) Described and discussed the plan in detail. 3) Introduced the procedures from the first to the tenth week of the experiment. 4) Through observations from the author and his colleagues and reflections from the data analysis, the author acquired the following conclusion: it can increase the students'interests and confidence by using Internet to help learn English vocabulary. Meanwhile, this strategy can not only help them form a good learning habit but also advance their autonomous learning and cooperation abilities, which will lay a good foundation for their life-long learning and development. The present author also concluded: Action research is a proper approach for English teachers to combine the theories with their teaching practice to solve the problems they encountered and to achieve their self-improvements as well.