A Case Study Of The Use Of Online Resources In Junior High School Students’ Extracurricular English Learning

The rapid growth of the information technology (IT), particularly web technology,allows students to contact with all kinds of information from various sources. Somestudents watch English movies online, listen to English songs and even take Englishclasses online. However, this kind of learning activities usually received very littlesupport from students’(especially students in the high school) parents and teachers. So,I am eager to know: Do junior high school students use online resources to learnEnglish after class? If allowed,1) what kinds of online resources would they use?2)How would they use in their extracurricular English study?3) What effectivenesswould it make with their use of online resources in their extracurricular English study?And what effects?This study is a case study on the use of online resources in two junior high schoolstudents’ extracurricular study. I selected2junior high school students as the studysubjects. They come from Wu Gang Number3Middle School, Hunan province. Byobserving their extracurricular English learning for one month, I tried to explore howjunior high school students use online resources to learn English after class, and whateffect it made on their English learning. In this study, instruments like observation,interview and student portfolio were used in order to get a more com prehensiveunderstanding of their extracurricular English learning. The results showed that1)students preferred integrated English learning websites in their extracurricular Englishstudy. And they used online dictionary a lot. Sometimes, they used online searching tofind online learning resources. Besides, once they got familiar with some Englishlearning websites, they kept using the learning resources in these English leaningwebsites and never tried something new.2) When using online resources, the studentsusually make a study plan first. After then, they make an in time reflection toward theirextracurricular English study for that day. And they would adjust their learningactivities in their future learning plans based on their reflections.3) After one-monthextracurricular English study, they became more autonomous on their English learning.Moreover, they became more motivated in learning English than before. Besides, theybecame better at managing their study, reflected on their English learning, and adjustedtheir learning plans accordingly based on their reflection.The results in my study indicate that using online resources in junior high schoolstudents’ extracurricular English study has a strong vitality to help them learn English. Some implications to our English teaching in Junior high school can be drawn fromthis study:1) the teaching materials that the teacher presented to students should berich and various in its content and form. Moreover, the topics of these materials shouldbe close to students’ daily life and they should be filled with certain interest.2) Theteacher should help students to form a learning habit for autonomous learning, so as topromote their autonomous learning ability.