An Empirical Study On The Effects Of Multimedia Technology On Autonomous Learning Of Junior High School Students' English Reading

Reading,as an important part of English learning,has been always paid attention to by educational authorities and English teachers.Nevertheless,the current Chinese junior high schools universally adopt the traditional teacher-centered method when teaching reading,which ignores the cultivation of learner autonomy and the training of using reading strategies.Aiming at these problems,MAI(multimedia-assisted instruction)walks into classroom with earnest expectation.And the combination of basic education with advanced technology has become the trend of teaching.This research project aims to explore the effects of MAI on junior high school students' English reading learning and to solve the existing reading teaching and learning problems in traditional teacher-centered method.The researcher attempts to address the following three research questions:1.What are the changes of junior high school students' using reading strategies after the multimedia technology assisted instruction?2.What effects does multimedia technology have on autonomous learning for junior high students' English reading?3.To what extent does multimedia technology assisted teaching improve students' achievement in English reading?This experimental research was conducted in Dayou Junior High School,Linghai City,Liaoning province,lasting 12 weeks from 5th September to 25 th November,2016.89 students from two parallel classes of second-year students were selected as the participants.Class One was set as the experimental class(EC)and Class Two was designed as the control class(CC).Research instruments included questionnaires,pre-and post-test and the follow-up interview.All the data collected from them were analyzed by qualitative and quantitative methods with the help of SPSS(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)19.0.The results show that MAI makes students adopt reading strategies more frequently and helps students enhance the level of autonomous learning from a low level to a medium level.Besides,it can improve students' reading achievements.Therefore,teaching English reading with technology approach is feasible.Finally,pedagogical implications and some suggestions are discussed,which are expected to be beneficial for students' learning,teachers' teaching and further research.