Application Of Mobile Learning Based On Smartphone In The Vocabulary Learning Of Senior High School Students

English is the most important second language in China. When it comes to the English teaching effect in primary and secondary school, some concerning problems are not avoidable topics. It is common that many students have little enthusiasm for English learning generally and even get tired of it and teachers can’t teach in more flexible and creative way because they have to deal with the increasing test pressure. Besides lacking a true English language environment, the class teaching has many restrictions. Firstly, the principle of language communication and the creation of language environment are ignored. Secondly, there is a tendency that the teaching of four skills is isolated in a way, which goes against the principle that they should be paid equal attention. Therefore many problems come into being. Take Vocabulary teaching for example, students learn vocabulary only in one way, mostly inflexible. They memorize words by mechanical repetition and don’t know when and how to use them properly in different contexts. And that’s why they often forget the words or phrases they have recited soon and feel bored and painful. As we know, many high school students who are poor in vocabulary cannot understand dialogues and articles well, let alone feel a sense of accomplishment in learning English, which leads to their losing learning interests and giving up eventually. With the information revolution deeply influencing all aspects in society, a wide learning revolution takes place as well. In terms of the classroom teaching, the multimedia technologies have been applied to improve teaching effects. And personally, anyone can accomplish the Mobile learning and lifelong learning with the assistance of such modern equipments as smart phones, PDA etc. and the network communication technology. In this way, learning will become more attractive, enjoyable and efficient. On one hand, learners can have access to rich learning resources presented in an interesting and creative way. On the other hand, learners can enjoy a scientific, reasonable and specialized design in learning path and evaluation. It can be safely concluded that the Mobile learning is a good solution to the problems of classroom teaching, which is well worth discussing and studying.This paper tends to perform an investigation of the application of the Mobile learning devices based on smartphones in English vocabulary learning of high school students. The investigation respondents are fixed on the students and teachers from the Xiangyang No.24 high school. First of all, by means of questionnaire and interview survey, the author aims to know the present situation of senior high school students applying mobile learning in vocabulary learning and how teachers react to it. And then, based on the above survey, the author choose some students in her classes as cases to get more concrete and practical information about how the students learn vocabulary with smartphones, what difficulties they will meet with, and to give some suggestions from the perspective of students, teachers, and the school as valuable references to other English teachers and researchers. And the results are listed as follow.1 in terms of language vocabulary learning, mobile learning can provide more abundant, real, interesting and timely context for learners with its unique advantages. And it helps to mobilizes a variety of sensory involvement, and sets up scientific learning and review plan intelligently. As a result, it can contributes a lot to learning vocabulary and improving learning interest, enthusiasm, etc.. What’s more, smart mobile phones are the most widely used mobile learning device.2 Growing number of senior high school students have applied smartphones to learning English, and good feedbacks. But they greatly need teachers’proper guidance and supervision. Some main aspects are listed here. Firstly, students should know how to choose a suitable APP for vocabulary learning. Secondly, students should clearly understand the design idea of the APP, know where it was linked to vocabulary learning strategies and find good ways to use it effectively. Thirdly, students should know how to make proper arrangements and adjustments to their own mobile learning process. Lastly, students should know the relationship between mobile learning and classroom learning.From the above results, some implications and suggestions for teachers and students are concluded. Firstly, English teachers should reflect on the value and innovation of mobile learning actively, and help students develop proper beliefs about English Learning and proper attitudes towards information technology. Besides, teachers should handle the relationship between mobile learning and classroom learning properly, know clearly their roles in these two forms of learning. Particularly, English teachers should play five roles i properly n instructing students to learn vocabulary with smartphones-guider, observer, supervisor, companion and researcher. Second, learners should learn how to use smartphones properly, improve the ability to learn independently and actively communicate with teachers and his companions in learning. Lastly, the society, parents and school administrators should recognize the great value of mobile learning and the related functions of smartphones. And they also should set good examples and help students learn to use smartphones properly.