The primary function of language is communication,while oral language is an integral part of it,a method of connecting people.Excellent oral English proficiency is not only a requirement of the curriculum standards but also for students’ overall development.However,oral English is not sufficiently addressed in the current high school English curriculum.Due to the heavy teaching burden and lack of authentic language environments,teachers have no time to set up specialized oral English courses,and students have no enough opportunities to speak English in class.General Senior High School English Curriculum Standards(2020)requires that in teaching language skills,attention should be paid to the combination of in-class and after-class training.With the development of information technology,English teachers should attach great importance to the reform of teaching approaches and learning methods,and maximize the deep integration of information technology with classroom teaching.Therefore,the emergence of mobile learning apps can make up for the above problems and promote the modernization of education.Given this,this study attempts to explore the impact of Fun Dubbing app on high school students’ autonomous oral English learning,especially on their time investment,interest,and oral English proficiency.This study took 83 students from two classes in one senior high school in Chongqing as research participants,one class as experimental class and the other as control class to explore the following questions.The research questions are: 1)What impact does the application of Fun Dubbing app have on students’ time investment in autonomous oral English learning? 2)What impact does the application of Fun Dubbing app have on students’ interest in autonomous oral English learning? 3)What impact does the application of Fun Dubbing app have on students’ oral English proficiency? To answer the three questions,a four-month experiment was carried out.During the experiment,students in the experimental class practiced oral English on Fun Dubbing for half an hour on weekdays during the summer vacation and finished the dubbing tasks assigned by the teacher on weekends.After they went back to school,they submitted dubbing works at weekends in the first two months.Meanwhile,their weekly learning reports were collected.The teacher also provided appropriate guidance and supervision during the whole experiment.Meanwhile,the control class followed the tape and read for 30 minutes on weekdays,recording what they read and sending the recording to the teacher.In addition,the study adopted questionnaires and interview to explore whether students’ time investment and interest have changed in the experiment,and oral English tests to see students’ changes in oral English proficiency.The major findings of the study are as follows.First,students’ time investment has changed positively in the experiment,and their frequency and duration have increased obviously.Second,students are more interested in oral English learning after the experiment.Fun Dubbing can improve their interest directly and indirectly.Finally,students’ oral English proficiency improved greatly after the experiment.The comparison of the oral English tests scores showed that students in the experimental class had greater and lasting improvement than those in the control class.Besides,questionnaires and interview results showed that students have more obvious improvement in intonation,pronunciation,and fluency.Based on these research results,this study puts forward some suggestions for teachers and students and makes prospects for future research. |