An Action Research On An Electronic Dictionary-aided English Extensive Reading In A High School

Dictionary is one of the indispensable tools for language learners. With thedevelopment of technology and science, portable electronic dictionary has come to thestage. Since we are now living in an information society, the irreversibility of scienceand technology make electronic dictionary more and more popular. Language learners,who are responsible for their learning, should learn to effectively use reference tools.And teachers should be the guidance and the prompters for the learners. As a guidance,teacher should help students learn to search and make use of learning recourses. Inother words, teacher should help students to become a qualified autonomous learningindividual.This paper, based on the theories of learning strategies and learner autonomy,attempts to answer four major questions: How do senior high school students thinkabout using electronic dictionary? What are students’ habits of using electronicdictionary in learning? How do they integrate dictionary-using and reading strategies?What teachers can do to help students to use electronic dictionary more autonomouslyand effectively?This thesis consists of five parts. Introduction is the first part which presentsdescription of the teaching situation, preliminary investigation results and problemsidentified. Based on the above several aspects, the hypothesis of this research is putforward. What follows the introduction is the literature review, the second part of thispaper certainly. The literature review is composed of three parts, which are aboutlearning strategies, reading models and reading strategies as well as review of abroadand at home. The main part of this paper owes to part three and part four. Part threedescribes the research design composed of planned action which is about objectives,subject, research instruments, research rationale and the whole research procedures.The subject comes from one of Changchun’s senior high school. The participantscome from several different classes. The experiment procedure lasts ten months.Interviews are used to collect qualitative data and questionnaires are employed tocollect quantitative data. Part four describes the data collection procedure anddiscusses data between pre and post test which are collected from questionnaire,interviews as well as tests. After the analysis, the research results are presented. Andthe last but not least part serves as the reflection part of the whole research. It reflects the research procedure, offers implications for teaching practice as well as itslimitations and future expectations.This research has found that half of the students have electronic dictionary andthey are incline to use it; but they rely on electronic dictionary in a blind andover-dependant way; they can’t effectively integrate electronic dictionary use intoreading process; teachers could advocate students to accumulate input and produceoutput with the aid of electronic dictionary. In addition, through the proper guidance,students’ awareness of autonomous learning is enhanced.