Research And Application Of Multimedia In English Reading Instructions For Senior Middle School Students

The 21^st century is an Information Age as well as a Knowledge Economy Age. The rapid development and wide application of computers offer both great challenges and opportunities for education. As a communicational media, Internet is becoming more and more important in our life and study. Undoubtedly, the wide spread of multimedia technology and the advent of the Internet create new opportunities for language learning and expand possibilities for using it to support English reading instruction.Multimedia and Internet now are becoming a very important tools in English teaching, not only because, as new carriers of language, they have transformed communication mode around the world, but also because they make us share language material resources worldwide and conduct cultural communication on line. Their application in class also facilitates the teacher-as-mentor mode rather than reinforcing the teacher-as-dispenser of knowledge mode. They support this paradigm of the student-centered, communicative and collaborative classroom. Whether learning takes place completely online or in a multimedia classroom, students can extend their learning beyond what the traditional classroom offers for the improvement of their ability and confidence in reading and communicating in English.Though the use of Multimedia and Internet in English teaching isgaining popularity in senior middle school across China, there has been no unified method of instruction. It's natural to require constant investigation and experimentation. And in China, there exists such a contradictory situation in English teaching: people who are skilled in multimedia or computer have no idea about English teaching while English teachers know little about computer. The author has been teaching English in senior middle school for more than 10 years and has a great interest in computer and multimedia assisted teaching. She has been trying to integrate the new technology into English teaching for many years and did some researches based on the teaching practice.The dissertation consists of 6 chapters. The introduction introduces the current situation and the necessity of the innovation of English reading instruction in senior middle school. The first chapter sets forth the theoretical background of multimedia assisted teaching—constructivism theory. The most important advantage of multimedia assisted language learning is that it facilitates learner-centered model, which is at the core of constructivist learning. In the second chapter we expound the definition, the characteristics, the components and the applications of multimedia. Chapter Three reviews related studies on multimedia reading. The literature review indicates how little research has been done on the application of multimedia to reading. Chapter Four expatiates on courseware designing for multimedia reading teaching. A sample and ateaching plan for a text are presented in this chapter. The fifth chapter is about the roles of teachers and students in multimedia reading. In the multimedia classroom, the students, and not the teacher, are the subjects of the language lesson and the focus tends to shift from the teacher to the students. The teacher serves as an organizer, facilitator, monitor and courseware designer. Students are the real knowledge constructor. The last chapter is an evaluation of multimedia reading teaching. We probe into its advantages and the disadvantages of with the help of our teaching practice, a questionnaire investigation. Finally we come to a conclusion that the advantages by far outweigh the drawbacks. In the Appendix I, the author lists some useful web sites for multimedia reading and English teaching. The Appendix III is a CD-ROM of an English multimedia taught by the author. Hope they'll be helpful to the readers.